Protesting data centre construction in South Morang

As discussions about AI datacentres dominate the headlines, it can feel like working-class people have no input into the rollout of these monstrosities. Multinational companies are building them across our suburbs without any constraints, despite the overwhelmingly negative attitude of the public.

Meanwhile the Labor state government has proposed a policy which would allow them to be built a stone's throw away from residential property, and refuses to clarify whether they would be allowed to use toxic diesel generators as a backup. And somehow they have the nerve to call this enabling policy a ‘ban’, with the capitalist media eagerly reprinting their press release!

The Yan Yean, Thomastown and Mill Park branches of the Victorian Socialists were proud to organise a demonstration of locals on Saturday 19th September against the proposed construction of two enormous datacentres in South Morang. More than 50 residents mobilised outside the office of outgoing Labor MLA Lily D’Ambrosio, whose government has fast-tracked the approval of dozens of these destructive facilities across the state.

The outer northern suburbs of Melbourne is not a typical location for protests, with working-class residents packed into under-serviced and under-resourced estates with no shared public places. Yet the anger in the crowd was palpable. Aside from Jesse Lambourn and Priya Reddy, the Victorian Socialists candidates for Mill Park and Thomastown respectively, the crowd heard from a number of local residents fearful of the impact that the data centres would have.

“The Labor government boasts about Victoria becoming the national leader in AI whilst the Liberal party think we don’t invest enough and are ‘behind in the race’”, said Reddy. “Meanwhile working class people are forced to live with the consequences of these water and energy guzzling behemoths.”

“Residents of South Morang want investment, for sure, but we want better schools, an update for the Northern Hospital, better roads and transport”, argued Lambourn. “AI datacentres bring nothing but profits for tech bro billionaires, and misery for the local community.”

“But we also want to be clear, our fight is bigger than just data centres and it’s bigger than South Morang - it’s even bigger than AI”, Reddy went on. “It’s about fighting for a world where our communities come before the greed of silicon valley bastards. A world where the people whose labour create the profits are the ones who make the decisions on how the world works and where these profits go.”

Victorian Socialists are proud to have organised this mobilisation, one of many we’ve spearheaded over the years around a range of issues. We are the only party who believe in the capacity of working-class people to take ownership over our communities, our workplaces, and our society. We are the only party that understands that the billionaires, the bosses, and their political lackeys have never given us anything without a fight.

We will be on the front lines of resistance to capitalism and all its injustices regardless of what happens in November. But it would certainly help to have a presence in parliament which we could use to amplify the voices of working-class people, to call out the major parties for their indifference to our concerns. Join us now, and sign up to help out on election day.