Global HIV activist group ACT UP recently marked its 39th year in operation with a die-in outside Palantir in New York City.
Die-ins became ACT UP’s trademark means of protesting government inaction during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s, 90s and beyond. The demonstrations involve uprotestors lying on the ground together, in a powerful display that symbolises the lives lost due to the government’s inaction.
ACT UP’s anniversary protest was held outside Palantir, a software company that develops surveillance technology. The company’s ongoing contracts with the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were one of the targets of the die-in, alongside the Trump administration’s cutting of HIV healthcare funds and the US’s war in Iran.
Protestors held signs calling for public funding to go toward healthcare rather than the military. Demonstrators also called for the abolishment of ICE.
In a post shared on Instagram, ACT UP wrote: “On Saturday, March 21, after rallying at the NYC AIDS Memorial, we marched to the offices of #Palantir to speak out against its participation in the U.S. autocracy. Since Trump took office, funding for ICE and CBP has tripled to nearly $200 billion. The ICE portion expanded the personnel who abduct mostly Black and Brown immigrants and their families from their communities and imprison them in concentration camps before deportation.”
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The post says Palantir Technologies “profits handsomely” from its contracts with ICE and urged the government to divest.
The statement continued: “Meanwhile, the Pentagon is using its new additional funding of $155 billion to wage an unauthorised war against Iran and fund weapons to Israel in the Palestinian genocide. Activists are demanding an end to the war in Iran and the Palestinian genocide.”
The protest also saw ACT UP honour AIDS and healthcare activist Mark Milano, who died from cancer in January 2026.
“He was a leader in the early years of ACT UP and later in the Trump resistance movement through Rise and Resist,” read an Instagram post from ACT UP.
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