Labor Must Lead Fight Against AI Bosses

Opposition to AI data centers has been spreading like wildfire across the country. Protesters have packed town hall meetings from coast to coast to vent their anger and demand their elected leaders do something. Facebook groups opposing data centers have sprung up and rapidly multiplied from April to July. Multiple polls show that over 70 percent of Americans oppose having a data center built near them, and that opposition crosses Republican and Democratic party lines. Nothing has united the nation quite like hatred of data centers since Luigi Mangione revealed that we all hate healthcare execs, whatever else divides us.

A lot of anger at data centers in local communities stems from the cowboy tactics being used—the tech bros’ “move fast and break things” mindset applied to physical infrastructure. Big, wealthy companies descend upon small towns and compel local governments to approve sweetheart deals, often involving major tax breaks and changes to local power systems, water supplies and landscapes. The deal is usually shrouded in secrecy through NDAs, while local opposition is steamrolled.

For many, opposition to data centers is intertwined with opposition to AI itself. Some white-collar workers and freelancers use AI to save time. But most people see little benefit from it. They fear AI could cost them their job or push them to work a lot faster. They also associate AI with declining services from companies and websites, insurance claims rejected by a faceless bot with no way to appeal and social media feeds filled with slop. Economists worry that the AI investment bubble is ready to pop and devastate the economy. Every few months, some whistleblower warns that AI might just kill us all, and sooner than expected. The whole situation screams to people that they are not in control and that those who are don’t give a shit about them. They see opposing AI data centers as one of the few ways they can express their opposition to AI and take tangible action to try to stop this crazy train.

The opposition has been so fierce and widespread that politicians from both sides of the aisle have stepped forward to say they are listening and will rein in tech companies. But everybody knows how much a politician’s promise is worth. Meanwhile, union leaders who represent the workers who build and operate the data centers defend the projects, arguing that the AI buildout creates good quality jobs. Yet countless workers face the threat of AI-driven speedup and job loss down the line, and other union leaders have called for a moratorium on data centers. How can the broad opposition to AI data centers be harnessed to force real change in how AI is developed and deployed? How can the labor movement bridge the gap between workers who see the AI industry as the ticket to a good union job, and the mass of workers and others who see AI as a threat to their jobs, their communities, and the very future of humanity? The anti-data center movement needs clear answers to these questions to move forward; to develop them, let’s first examine the forces behind the AI buildout.

The AI Buildout Frenzy Explained

To understand what’s driving the AI boom and why it’s so frenzied, we have to start with its potential to automate jobs across the economy. White-collar and creative jobs are under threat from bots that can read, write and create audiovisual media. Combined with advanced robotics, AI is also accelerating the automation of blue-collar jobs, from factory work to trucking. In a society run by the working class, AI would be used to ease the drudgery of everyday work, make workdays shorter and safer and give people more leisure time. Automation in scientific research could greatly speed up new discoveries and lead to all kinds of breakthroughs that benefit humanity.

But under capitalism, bosses seize on advances in automation to fire as many workers as possible and demand more output from those lucky enough to keep their jobs. Progressive applications (e.g., analysis of medical imagery) remain a sideshow, a source of feel-good fluff pieces that offer a silver lining amid all the AI doom and gloom. They do not drive the AI boom.

It’s no surprise that capitalists push forward AI as a tool to increase the rate of exploitation and profits. But that alone doesn’t explain the breakneck pace of development or the lack of regulation. To understand these, we need to consider the specific conditions of the declining U.S. empire.

The U.S. is locked in fierce competition with China to retain its global dominance. In pursuit of cheap labor and new markets, this country’s ruling class cut the legs from under its once-mighty manufacturing base through widespread offshoring. Today, China’s industrial output is significantly higher than the U.S.’s. The military and technological advantages that the U.S. still enjoys could be put at risk if it loses AI supremacy. Trump spoke for his fellow billionaires when he declared: “Whoever wins with AI wins.” The U.S. masters of the world have gone “all in” on AI. Within the U.S., a handful of monopolies are also locked in competition with one another to “win” the AI race. They aim to create a “superintelligence” that outperforms humans, believing that whoever gets there first will control the entire AI market.

The Trump administration plays down the need for regulation of AI, whether by federal agencies and courts or by individual states. This reluctance stems from several factors. One, the U.S. rulers don’t want to put obstacles in the way of AI development that could slow it down and give China a chance to pull ahead. Two, AI investment is the main driver of the U.S. stock market. Given this country’s weakened international position, the AI boom/bubble is the only thing keeping the economy afloat.

Three, the data center buildout has brought growth in manufacturing (e.g., HVAC equipment and semiconductors), which furthers the U.S. empire’s goals of reshoring and reindustrialization. Four, AI has vast military and surveillance applications, and the U.S. is testing them out on the battlefield in Iran and elsewhere as soon as they are developed. AI is also being used for domestic repression against immigrants and leftists. The Trump administration wants a free hand to kill, imprison, torment and spy on people.

A few weeks ago, some AI moguls publicly advocated a slowdown on frontier development alongside government regulation of the industry. This wasn’t an act of kindness to save the world from their worst impulses or any kind of self-sabotage in the AI race. They paired those proposals with calls to place greater export restrictions on Chinese companies. For these CEOs, government regulation is first and foremost a shield to protect Big Tech from AI upstarts and foreign rivals. The “AI may kill us” narrative promoted by Altman, Musk and Anthropic is designed to convince the public that their ventures are “too dangerous to fail.” It also aims to inspire awe and fear among workers and the lower petty bourgeoisie to reinforce the notion that control of the technology is best left to the “experts,” namely themselves.

Data Center Labor Could Make All the Difference

AI’s strategic importance to the U.S. empire gives the workers building and operating its infrastructure tremendous potential leverage to establish worker/community control of the technology. For decades, workers in the U.S. have been on the back foot as the bosses moved industry overseas and shifted much of what was left to the “open shop” South. Workers building and operating the data centers could help their unions make historic advances in their reach and strength. Beyond winning higher wages, unions could expand into the South and create a path to secure industrial jobs for a new generation. Union power could ensure that data centers are built safely and adequately staffed, so that workers aren’t driven into the ground by punishing schedules. This could mark the beginning of a fightback to reverse the fortunes of the U.S. labor movement and put it back in the saddle.

Turning the tide for the U.S. working class will be an uphill battle against a wealthy, powerful and experienced enemy. But widespread hatred of the AI overlords could be a big boost to the workers struggle if the labor movement linked its cause to community defense. Construction unions should lead by fighting for demands that benefit both workers and local communities. They should push for data center construction measures that protect the environment and keep the cost of living down, while insisting upon the right of the local communities to reject projects and oversee those that go forward.

Upgrading the power grid would serve local communities better than the patchwork of off-grid generation that the data centers are building. A centrally planned grid could be built more safely, with greater energy efficiency and stronger environmental standards. It could also create more stable, long-term jobs at larger sites that make union organizing easier. For now, union density in data center construction is significantly higher than in the industry as a whole, thanks both to the AI giants’ desire for good PR and to the union bureaucrats’ willingness to swear off the strike weapon. Even so, many non-union workers are on the job, and Meta’s training programs and others like them are churning out more non-union labor every day. Unions and data center communities could unite around the demand to overhaul the national electrical grid, at the expense of the AI companies and other major corporations.

To make this perspective a reality, militant electricians, pipefitters and other skilled trades workers must take jobs in data center construction. Dedicated class fighters are needed on site to forge the link between the unions and the local communities. At first, many union data center construction workers will undoubtedly bristle at the mere suggestion of rocking the boat. After all, they have decent-paying jobs amid economic uncertainty, and union officials have bombarded them with pro-company propaganda telling them that they should be grateful for what they have.

This narrow craft unionism is a concentrated expression of a broader retreat among workers into individual solutions to today’s chaos, rather than collective struggle. That individualism might seem to be working for data center workers now, but looking just a little further ahead tells a different story. The AI buildout will not last forever, whether it peters out or ends in a sudden crash, and construction workers will not be immune to what comes next. Collective struggle is crucial not only to improve workers’ immediate conditions, but also to protect their long-term interests. Breaking down the walls between the skilled trades and organizing industrially would give this effort a major boost. So, too, would the construction unions mobilizing in defense of immigrant workers and organizing those who are unorganized.

Union Leaders Go with the Data Flow

However, the strategy of the union leaders who represent data center workers points in the opposite direction. Rather than treating outraged communities as potential allies against the AI bosses, these leaders have made themselves cheerleaders for the AI boom. They see the backlash against AI and data centers and are trying to smooth things over.

They mobilize to block laws that would restrict data center development, while insisting that AI should be regulated. They offer sweet words about how data centers “should be built with local union labor, strong labor standards, and real commitments to the communities where they are located,” as Kristine Kavanagh, communications director for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, put it. Sure, they should be. But who will make developers honor those commitments?

Union leaders look to the politicians or public opinion to pressure the developers to behave responsibly. They do not promote the union itself as a force for defending the interests of the workers or the communities. Instead, they seek a partnership with the AI bosses, arguing that workers have a stake in their economic well-being. This is a losing strategy, and most people can see that, which is why so many oppose all data centers as the only way to “regulate” them. The union leaders’ class collaboration will further drive a wedge between the unions and the people who, very correctly, do not trust the AI bosses.

The other part of their argument is that if states enact moratoriums, data centers will simply go elsewhere. This logic pits workers in different states against one another in a race to attract data center investment. The Rhode Island AFL-CIO backed laws creating tax incentives for data centers, as well as laws requiring them to offset the costs of higher electricity bills. Its president, Patrick Crowley, also explicitly promotes “labor peace agreements” as part of his model for how data center construction should proceed nationwide. Such agreements come at the expense of the workers. They give the bosses full license to impose their diktats on the workforce at will.

On the other side of the AI divide in the labor movement are the leaders who represent workers threatened by AI-driven job loss. Some describe the threat of AI in dire terms, but they have not mobilized their members to fight against job losses when those losses are actually posed. Take the example of GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit. UAW president Shawn Fain talked a big game about using the strike weapon to fight layoffs, and part of the motivation behind the 2023 strike centered on the terms of automation. This year, 50 newly designed robots were introduced on the Factory Zero assembly line, while over 1,000 workers were laid off. The UAW simply caved. In a speech, Fain called confronting the threat of automation “a fight for humanity.” These fine words keep him in step with current liberal discourse, but do nothing to defend auto workers.

In contrast to the “build at all costs” mentality promoted by construction trade-union officials, Fain’s failure, and that of his counterparts in other industries, reinforces the belief that the only salvation for workers is to ban data centers. But this is a false choice. The AI genie is out of the bottle; it is not going back in. The question is, whose wishes will command the genie? The struggle must be for workers control of AI—the only path to improving working people’s position. Establishing that control will require transforming the labor movement across the board.

Militants with a broad view of how the unions can advance collectively must prepare them for that struggle in the face of the existing leadership’s sabotage. Defending jobs is a union’s most basic task. Nothing breeds demoralization and atomization among the ranks more than a union just taking layoffs lying down, especially when withholding labor can disrupt or even shut down operations. Fighting unions give workers their best chance not only to beat back job loss to AI, but also to put AI’s productivity gains at their service through a shorter workweek with no loss in pay. One way to strengthen the class in anticipation of these battles would be to turn vulnerable forms of employment, such as gig work, into permanent, full-time jobs with union protection.

The Anti-Data Center Movement’s Shortcomings

The anti-data center movement has drawn in a wide range of organizations: the Stop Data Centers Coalition; environmental, civil rights and other liberal advocacy groups (e.g., Greenpeace, the NAACP and CodePink); and the Marxist left. Right-wing activists with Humans First are separately organizing a nationwide “AI data center revolt.” Elected officials of all stripes are jumping on the anti-data center bandwagon, in some cases performing verbal gymnastics to explain their efforts to facilitate data center construction.

The more the movement relies on appealing to capitalist politicians, the more it becomes subject to the whims of the election cycle. In the run-up to the midterms, local and state governments have enacted temporary moratoriums on data center construction to show they “put the people first.” These cosmetic fixes do not change the underlying situation; they simply kick the can slightly down the road. Democrats, Republicans and the AI bosses are fully aligned on using AI to increase profits and bolster the U.S. empire, giving the working class and lower petty bourgeoisie the short end of the stick. Once the midterms are safely behind them, the politicians will drop their studied concern about AI and try to get data centers off the front page. Even if data centers clean up their act somewhat, that will not address the many other concerns and fears people have about AI. To actually change the trajectory of AI development and defeat Big Tech and its allies in Washington, the general public’s outrage must be fused with the power of the working class.

Rejecting data center development and AI outright leaves no room to reach out to data center workers. But this is precisely the liberal response. Instead of offering a shared path forward, liberals can only condemn these “greedy” workers for putting their own jobs and needs ahead of others. Appeals to Democrats, moralizing against “selfish” AI workers and nostalgia for the old status quo give the liberal-left component of the anti-data center movement a distinct “No Kings” vibe. The longer Democratic Party operatives and their NGO ecosystem run the show, the greater the risk of alienating blue-collar and rural elements and the harder it becomes to mobilize workers across partisan lines against the oligarchs. Unity is possible because it is in the interests of the working class as a whole, not because it is “the right thing to do.”

Much of the left has done little to distinguish itself on the ground from the liberal movement beyond presenting local government regulation as a form of community control. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is notable in this regard. It is reportedly leading dozens of campaigns nationwide, including the No Data Centers in Oakland. That campaign’s material declares: “This fight is about who decides the future of Oakland: the people, or the ultra wealthy.” That’s all fine and good, but why then celebrate the city council’s passage of a 45-day moratorium as a victory?

Municipal, state and federal governments already impose a mountain of business regulations; yet these have done nothing to give working-class, black or brown communities greater control over their futures. This brief pause, which expires right after the midterms, has done nothing to change the balance of forces between Oakland’s working people on the one side and the ultra-wealthy and their Democratic city council front men on the other. The whole point is to build up the community’s ability to enforce its will, including by cementing an alliance with data center workers.

A Rational Response to AI Takeover Hysteria

After former OpenAI and Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon posted a thread of cautionary tweets in early September in the wake of the Hugging Face hack, AI doomerism went fully mainstream. Coxon issued vague warnings about “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.” This has led many people to view AI as an extraordinary existential threat whose prevention supersedes all other concerns, priorities and political considerations. We cannot say with certainty how serious the threat is. But as Marxists, we do know that the greatest threat facing the world’s working and toiling masses is the barbaric U.S. ruling class, which has demonstrated its readiness to push the nuclear button, economically ravages the Global South and is the most likely actor to set AI on a nefarious mission with catastrophic consequences. The decisive danger is not a machine escaping human control. It is the humans who already control the machines, as well as the factories, banks, weapons and bodies of armed men.

We also know from all past experience that no level of threat, warning or appeal to humanity’s interests will qualitatively slow, much less stop, this country’s capitalists from pursuing profits and class domination. From nuclear annihilation to climate change and Covid, no threat or crisis has ever caused the elite to abandon their class interests—and none ever will. They would rather spend the rest of their days in a fallout bunker than willingly limit their own power. The best hope for putting effective “guardrails” on AI is to empower the programmers and researchers building these models to oversee AI safety. At an anti-AI rally in San Francisco, protesters called on AI coders to quit their jobs. But this will only make them martyrs for the cause.

It would be much more effective to organize these workers into a union with the power to shut down unsafe research and give the workers themselves the final say in what “unsafe” means. Musk has proposed an adversarial peer-review system to test AI safety; the unions should bang down the door of his AI venture (and all others) to provide that review! Many coders are traditionally suspicious of unions, believing they have more leverage as individuals by threatening to jump to a rival company. But if fears of an AI doomsday are powerful enough to make them reconsider their life choices, then those fears could be powerful enough to draw them into the labor movement, provided labor extends a hand and shows it has a strategy to win.

The case for union control of AI safety is compelling. Like any technology, AI can be put to very different uses, and it can have unintended consequences when safety is not the priority. A hammer can be wielded to build a house or bludgeon someone to death; left in the wrong place on scaffolding, it can be inadvertently knocked off and injure a passerby below. Whether on construction sites or in AI development, the best protection is to take safety out of the hands of the bosses, who are always looking to cut corners to get a leg up on the competition.

What the Movement Should Fight For

Astronomical sums are being poured into AI data centers, even while the country’s essential infrastructure rots, to the public’s detriment. That infrastructure faces a nearly $4 trillion funding shortfall over the next decade. Much of the U.S. electrical grid is over a half century old, and its core components are well past their life expectancy. Yet, instead of upgrading the grid, the billionaires just keep adding to its load, increasing the risk of failure and shifting the costs of the inefficiency onto local communities. This is utterly irrational.

AI companies are racing to automate as many jobs as possible, with no plan to prevent mass pauperization if they succeed. The global economy and the lives of billions are being gambled in the Great Game the U.S. is playing against China. The data center construction craze and socially destructive implementation of AI more generally show why workers should run industry and society at large. When the AI and other monopolists no longer hold the reins, the economy can be organized rationally to address society’s needs.

The struggle for worker and community control of data centers and AI could be the catalyst for just that change. To start down this path, the anti-data center movement must be polarized along class lines, with workers taking the lead. The first steps should be to fight for immediate defensive demands and build collective power, drawing in all the oppressed, including the lower petty bourgeoisie. The movement’s success will depend upon its ability to weld together the working class, white-collar and creative workers and local residents. We propose to fight for these demands:

1. Communities must have the right to reject data center construction and, if centers are built, to oversee and veto their operations, with the backing of the construction unions.

2. Organize the unorganized, from the construction workers building data centers to AI coders to workers in every sector threatened by AI-driven job loss.

3. Union control of hiring, training and special recruitment programs for community members and minorities.

4. Union control of safety, to ensure safe conditions on the job and, in the case of the AI coders, the safe development of AI itself.

5. Defend the right to strike, from construction sites to industries facing AI-driven job loss!

6. Freeze the electricity rates! Open the books—publish energy, water, and end use information for all data centers! For a corporate-paid, union-run overhaul of the electricity grid.

7. Put no faith in the capitalist politicians or courts! Workers must control AI!