Who we are

We are a new movement, but we don't start from scratch. Behind us is Atlas, a civic network of around 26,000 people in 134 countries that has organised campaigns, protests and lobbying since 2020 against authoritarianism, climate change and inequality. Of all the threats Atlas has taken on, the concentration of power that AI makes possible is growing fastest, and almost no one is organising to stop it. Human Resistance is that network putting all its strength into this one fight.

Reports, open letters and voluntary frameworks have not slowed the concentration of power around AI. Making those who profit from replacing human work pay their share, giving people a say over the systems that decide their lives, and making international law bind the strongest all need governments and parliaments willing to act. That takes power, and power has to be built.

So we build it in the street, in workplaces and unions, and wherever democracy is still open, inside the institutions that make the rules. Our programme rests on two demands, set out in the manifesto:

• Our share. The wealth AI creates must come back to the people whose work, words and research built it.
• Our say. No system may decide over a human life without a person who can be held to account, and every people deserves to shape its own future, free from domination.

Human Resistance was initiated by Andrea Venzon (Instagram), a political activist who co-founded the pan-European party Volt Europa and the Atlas Movement, a 26,000-strong progressive network. He leads it with the support of Colombe Cahen-Salvador (Instagram), who co-founded Volt and Atlas with him, and Yassine Benjelloun (Instagram), who works in artificial intelligence and sailed with two Global Sumud Flotillas in support of Palestinian freedom.

We are only the beginning. Organisers, hosts and volunteers are joining every week, and the movement's leadership will grow with them. The people who build Human Resistance in their own cities will be the ones who lead it.