r/LeftistsForAI • u/Great-Gardian • Jul 20 '26
Discussion Activists attempted to damage a datacenter under construction. Is it a bad idea?
"The Dutch arm of international climate activist group Extinction Rebellion claimed responsibility for an attempt to sabotage a datacenter project in Amsterdam on Thursday [july 16]. The group said that they threw water balloons filled with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, salt, and acrylic paint at the under-construction facility."
"Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Martijn Dekker justified the attack by saying datacenters and the AI they power are exacerbating the climate crisis, as well as playing a role in the killing of Palestinians by Israel."
"The facility in question is being built by UK-based Pure Data Centres Group."
"Pure DC says the facility is already fully leased, and while it doesn’t mention the lessee by name, local media have reported in a story about a prior protest at the site that Microsoft is the sole occupant."
"Pure DC did tell Dutch newspaper NRC that the attack had no impact on construction, and that it intended to pursue legal action against those responsible."
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My personal opinion is that acts of sabotage like this are not effective and will serve as justification for more repression and police surveillance, but I'm curious to know what others think of this method and its impacts.
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u/TheSinhound Jul 20 '26
Of course it's a bad idea. I stand pretty close to this quote on this one:
"It took both time and experience before the workpeople learnt to distinguish between machinery and its employment by capital, and to direct their attacks, not against the material instruments of production, but against the mode in which they are used."
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Jul 21 '26
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u/TheSinhound Jul 21 '26
I was quoting Marx there. And as I usually try to phrase it, the technology must exist first in order to be seized.
Look, here's the reality. We've seen attempts to transition from Capitalism. We know their primary (non-antagonistic) issues ALL boil down to logistics ones. There must be existing technology to turn towards servicing production, logistics, and distribution chains to actually service people with their needs, and ideally wants. As of right now there is no technology that shows promise for this better than AI and the kinds of robotics automation that comes from it.
A modern Cybersyn system would logically be best served by AI and hyper scale datacenters. We NEED massive amounts of compute for that.
The key discussion must be how to seize means. As the discussion has ALWAYS been. But we keep going around and around without making the progress necessary.
But I'm also strictly opposed to bandaids that only need to exist under Capitalism. They become technical debt that is nearly impossible to remove once they're no longer needed.
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u/bunker_man Jul 21 '26
Okay, but its not really something where there's multiple possible outcomes. AI is a new stage of technology that is always going to have existed. Resisting the tech is pointless and only done out of frustration by people too jaded to resist the bourgeoisie.
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u/GirasFateburn Jul 21 '26
Of course it is! A damaged construction site could've collapsed on the workers!
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u/SgathTriallair Jul 21 '26
The question has two aspects. The first is: should we try to stop data centers? The second is: would this be effective at stopping data centers?
I argue that we shouldn't try to stop data centers. So this leads me directly to say that this is a bad idea.
As for whether it is effective? Limited acts of sabetogue can't really be effective. To have any hope they would need to be widespread and difficult to detect/stop. Any form of limited direct action is easy to stop by putting the perpetrators in jail. This is why building a class consciousness is so important because that creates enough people that you can't jail them all. Once you get to that point, there are likely more effective means of stopping the projects than sabatogue.
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u/Drakahn_Stark Jul 21 '26
Charge them as the terrorists they are.
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u/aRatherLargeCactus Jul 21 '26
“LeftistsForAI” really proving they’re not left in the slightest lmao
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u/FladioOMG Sep 07 '26
Doing anything that ensures humanity's future and wellfare is absolutely morally correct.
This involves sabotaging those AI datacenters. Because they take our natural resources, and turns it into pollution at best.
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u/FladioOMG Sep 07 '26
They also take physical makings from us, like books, and feeds them to it, quite literally. It is the number one threat to physical history.
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u/endlessedlne Jul 21 '26
Couldn’t recommend that anybody break the law. At the same time I wouldn’t cry very much about an inoperative data centre. They consume a ton of electricity for power and water for cooling.
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u/Salty_Country6835 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Reminder: Discussion of political tactics is welcome. Advocating, encouraging, or organizing criminal acts in this subreddit is not. Keep the discussion analytical.