FEATURING CATHY KENNEDY - Unionized nurses across the United States led protests in late August against the AI company Palantir, a notorious firm that has enabled mass government surveillance and immigration-related policing and attracted major opposition. The nurses took particular aim at federal detention of children in migrant jails. And they made crucial links between the defunding of healthcare in order to pay companies like Palantir to surveil us.
Sonali Kolhatkar: So tell me why Palantir? People know that Palantir is this organization, this corporation that basically has been doing quite evil things, but why do nurses care enough to have nationwide protests against this company?
Cathy Kennedy: Well, number one, everyone trusts a nurse. And for us, it's about caring for our patients and our communities, and Palantir is someone that we absolutely do not need in our government, in our hospitals, or in our communities. And so that is the reason why nurses are out in front saying, "No to Palantir, purge Palantir," along with our community allies.
Kolhatkar: Tell me where the protests took place. They were in various cities around the country. What did they look like? How many people showed up? What were some of the signs that people held?
Kennedy: Well, I had an opportunity to-- I'm from Sacramento, so we took two buses from Sacramento down to Palo Alto, and that is where the headquarters of Palantir is. And we met other nurses from the Bay Area, so Oakland, San Francisco, along with our community allies.
And so we came into Palo Alto with our signs, "Purge Palantir," "No to Palantir," and we had other signs from our community allies that were quite creative. We also had these huge Band-Aids that said, "Cut Palantir," "Out to Palantir."
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