Reclaim Our Future: A Nonpartisan National Day of Action Against Data Centers

Hey, everyone, this is Derek Brose with the Conscious Resistance.

Sup, y'? All? It's Hakeem and Noir.

Hey, guys. We are so excited to share with you a new initiative that we're both launching together between Above Phone and the Conscious Resistance and all of our, all of our related projects. It's called Reclaim Our Future, a national day of action against AI data centers. And it's happening on August 1st. So, Hakeem, tell us why we're doing this.

Well, this to me feels like the final frontier. These massive billion dollar data centers coming into communities. Whether, whether or not people want it, these things are being installed. And this goes from the very top. Federal, state and local levels are supporting this rollout. So we're finding that regulation is failing at every turn and it's really up to us to push back. So that's what Reclaim Our Future is all about. We're putting together educational resources and giving you a framework to throw events all over the country.

Absolutely. And one thing I want to make really clear is that this is a nonpartisan, transpartisan, bipartisan, however you want to think about it, movement. You know, we're not just trying to talk to conservative or just talk to left leaning liberals, progressives, et cetera. We want to talk to all people. Whether you're apolitical, consider yourself politically homeless, left, right, center. If you're concerned about data centers, whether that's related to the surveillance issue, environmental concerns, water concerns, eminent domain, private property, or maybe even just for those of you who are just wholesale against AI, there's a space for you in this. We're not trying to tell you what to think. We're just saying for those of us who have these concerns, let's come together for one single day of action and let's see what we can do.

And on top of that being 100% committed to nonviolence, because it's this very tricky area right now where they're looking at anti data center protesters and trying to label them as violent extremists. And that's not what this is all about. That goes against the law of karma. It's going to make this movement harder. So this is all about peaceful nonviolent resistance?

Absolutely. We want to make sure that everybody's committed to that. So the website is reclaimfuture.com reclaimfuture.com you can go there. Let me go ahead and show that on screen. You can see the beautiful website that Hakeem and his team have put together there. You can go through this and you can find out More of the reasons why we are opposing data centers. While we're concerned about this, you can join the email newsletter if you want to get updates. And of course, the most important piece of this is to put your protest your action. And again, we want this to be diverse. So it could be protests, marches, rallies, it could be educational events, teach ins, and you can go ahead and add your event here to the map. We just launched last week, so we're hoping to get a lot of protest. We know there's other organizations and other groups doing this. We want to collaborate with you. So if you're out there and you're involved in a group or a local organization, national organization that is taking on this issue, let's unite our efforts and let's focus on this date of August 1st. So you can go to the website, put your events on there, it'll populate on the map and other people can find you and can learn about it. And we also have lots of great educational resources and links there, including a new report that Hakeem has been working on.

Thanks, Derek. This, this is coming down to be a decentralized local issue. So over the past six months, we've been working on this project called the AI Data Center Map. I'll just bring it up on screen here. Aidatacentermap.org and so what's the best way to get people to care about what's going on in the area? We'll actually talk about what's going on in the area. So if you live in Denver, for example, and you want to see the impact of local data centers, all you have to do is, is click on the map and there you go. This is a rough estimate of how many, how much power and water these centers are using. And that combined with the report, if Derek, you could bring that up on screen. This report we published, which you'll be prompted to download when look at the map, you'll actually get all the knowledge you need about a data center, like what's inside them, the powers behind them, how they get tax breaks and also the legal life cycle. So how they go from picking out a site, you can actually predict where a data center is going to be. If you read through this report, how they get industrial zoning and when exactly you can stop them, because it only, it only comes down to people power. It takes a whole bunch of people going to city council and telling them, hey, we're seeing this, we're watching this, and we're not going to let that happen because that's, that's your responsibility at the end of the day?

Absolutely. Really excited about that. So, guys, reclaim future.com that'll also link you to the report Hakeem is talking about. It's hosted on the the same website. So go reclaimfuture.com check out what we're doing here. We really, really want to encourage you guys. If you're out there again, if you're already doing this, let's unite for one single day. I know there's regular protests happening in different parts of the country already. If we come together and we bring our resources together, regardless of your political persuasion or apolitical, we focus this, I think we can really show people not only that those of us who oppose data centers for various reasons are nonviolent and aren't extremists as they're trying to paint us, but also that we can bring together a movement that cuts across partisan lines. And I think this is really one of those issues that does impact people, whether you're a conservative farmer or a left wing climate change activist, progressive, what have you, that this is an issue that is bringing people together. So we really hope you guys will join us. And please check out the links below the video you're watching and we hope to see you guys on August 1st.

Let's get that map filled out.

All right, guys, we'll talk to you soon. Till next time. Remember, you are powerful, you are beautiful, and you are free.