Educational Trip 2027 from Germany

Artificial intelligence is often perceived as clean and immaterial. In reality, AI depends on vast amounts of energy, water, and raw materials. As governments and corporations race to expand AI infrastructure, the environmental and social costs are increasingly shifted onto communities and ecosystems around the world.

Together with Tiziana von Witzleben from Heiße Luft and Ben Hardman from EarthRights, we will explore the material foundations of AI. We will discuss the role of rare earth elements in digital infrastructure and the consequences of their extraction, particularly in Myanmar. We will also take a critical look at the rapid expansion of data centers in Germany, their growing demand for energy and water, and the political decisions that increasingly prioritize the growth of AI and digital infrastructure over environmental protection and community concerns.

Registration

This webinar features organizers from the recent World Social Forum in Benin—who are also joining the Educational Trip. Simultaneous interpretation from French into German will be provided.

The World Social Forum is a radical alternative to the World Economic Forum. In contrast to the exclusive gathering in Davos—where dominant economic players seek new ways to exploit people and nature—the World Social Forum is an open meeting of civil society. It aims to exchange strategies and forge new alliances to create a world where people and nature can coexist harmoniously. The 2026 World Social Forum in Cotonou demonstrated that a just and fundamentally democratic organization of raw materials, technology, and the economy is possible. This webinar offers an insight into the World Social Forum in Cotonou and presents two examples from the forum of struggles for the democratization of the economy.

• Aïchata Kone is a feminist land rights activist with the UACDDDD land rights movement in Mali and the transnational movement network CGLTE-OA. Aïchata co-coordinated the "Political Caravan" that brought hundreds of land rights activists from 14 West African countries to the World Social Forum.
• Pascaline Agassounon is a feminist trade unionist with the domestic workers' union ADDAD in Benin and the transnational movement network CGLTE-OA. Pascaline was part of the organizing secretariat for the 2026 World Social Forum in Cotonou.

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This event already took place.

Everyone is talking about “AI” but what is actually behind it? Where do the data, data centers, and resources required for AI come from? And why are Google, Microsoft, Meta, and others investing so heavily in these technologies right now?

Sarah and Dominik will give you an overview of the fundamentals, political context, and current debates surrounding AI and Big Tech. Afterwards, there will be time for your questions and a group discussion on the best ways to take action against the tech giants. No prior knowledge required!

• Sarah and Dominik from the AiAiAi Collective

Registration

Please register here only if you’d like to participate in this event but haven’t already registered for the entire Educational Trip.

Palantir is an AI, surveillance, and defense tech company led by far-right billionaires Peter Thiel and Alex Karp. Their technology is integral to the US deportation machine, the genocide in Palestine, the attack on a children's school in Iran, and several current armed conflicts around the globe. In this workshop, we’ll explore what resistance against Palantir looks like across geographies, exchange updates and strategies, and map out the relationship between Peter Thiel, Palantir, and the rise of the fascist right across the world. Participants are encouraged to come ready to share about their work, and with questions that will benefit our organizing in different parts of the world.

• Kay is a Black socialist movement builder who has worked with and learned from movements and organizations across the US and the world for over a decade. He is currently organizing against tech authoritarians with the Purge Palantir campaign, and campaigning in the US state of Georgia against data centers and energy companies. Prior to this, Kay spent several years organizing around racial justice, economic justice, and police violence.
• Jeff Ordower has been a labor and community organizer for over 30 years, getting his start organizing school cafeteria workers and janitors in Texas in the 1990s.  He has been fortunate enough to support communities organizing all across the US, and also done some work in Colombia. Over the years, he has helped organize Uber Drivers, renewable energy workers, people fighting extraction and much more. Recently, Ordower has joined the a small group called the Other Side Project, which has supported groups running campaigns against the oligarchs supporting authoritarianism, including campaigns against Tesla and Elon Musk, and Palantir and Peter Thiel.

Program for in-person registrants: Following the presentation by Kay and Jeff, we’ll discuss lessons learned for our own protest against Big Tech in Davos.

Program for online participants: The presentation will be live-streamed from the in-person venue. After the presentation, there will be a brief talk about the Educational Trip and what to expect in Davos.

Registration for online participation

Please register here only if you wish to participate in this event but are not already registered for the entire Educational Trip.

In Davos, we’ll encounter a lot of press from all over the world. To ensure that we’re not only visible but also featured in the press with our demands and perspectives, we’re organizing a press training session. The press training is open to everyone coming to Davos, and especially to those who want to join the press delegation.

The press training covers developing narratives and practicing interview scenarios.

In this workshop, we’ll build on the knowledge gathered from previous sessions and weave it together into a cohesive whole. Why does it make sense to protest against Big Tech? What alternative perspective on social organization and change does the World Social Forum offer?

We’ll also explore our emotions and reflect on what we need for our well-being and a long-term commitment to a world built on solidarity—beyond the protests against the WEF.

Dinner will be served after the workshop.

For anyone who still has questions about the Educational Trip, there will be time for an FAQ session before the workshop.

What happens every year at the Davos "crime scene"? We’ll look back on several years of protest marches against the WEF, share some behind-the-scenes stories about everything we’ve experienced, and talk in detail about how the WEF is organized. Get ready to learn about the special role of name tags, military exercises, and pop-up stores from Microsoft, LinkedIn, and others.

Registration

Please register here only if you’d like to attend this event but haven’t already signed up for the entire Educational Trip.

For anyone who hasn’t yet participated in an action training session, we’re organizing one specifically tailored to the protest march. The in-person action training includes practical exercises, while the online session will focus solely on discussing scenarios.

If you don’t have a reference group yet, you can also find one here.

During the Educational Trip, many topics always come up that need to be discussed before departure, often from the various working groups. This event is scheduled for that purpose. The meeting will be held in a hybrid format. Since some preparations cannot be done hybrid, the in-person portion of the meeting will take longer. If possible, it’s best if you attend in person.

For anyone signing up at the last minute, there will be an onboarding session before this meeting.

• Thursday: Travel to the Swiss accommodation via the Blauer Solibus and Weißer Solibus
• Friday: Workshop day
• Saturday: Protest march with StrikeWEF to Davos, Day 1
• Sunday: Protest march with StrikeWEF to Davos, Day 2
• Monday: Action rally in Davos (Blauer Bus) **//** Departure via Solibus (Weißer Bus)
• Tuesday: Departure (Blauer Bus)

• 5:30 a.m. Berlin
• 8:30 a.m. Between Leipzig and Halle
• 12:30 p.m. Nuremberg
• 4:00 p.m. Memmingen
• Afternoon: St. Gallen