Pax Silica by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action Los Angeles/People Against RacistTerror (ARA-LA/PART)
https://antiracist.org/pax-silica/ Talk about Orwellian Double-Speak. Pax Silica is aUS-led initiative to put Artificial Intelligence, which is still primarilydriven by military and surveillance tech, at the center of an internationalgeo-strategic economic development and national security alliance directed atcountering Chinaand protecting US economic, political and military dominance in the secondquarter of the 21st Century. It is being labeled as a mechanism of"pax" --peace -- when it is in fact a stratagem of a system that isaddicted to war and engaged in war. Tellingly, at the Pax Silicadeclaration on the US State Department website, the US is not listed as asignatory -- because the Pax Silica is a US-initiated and directed project towhich its vassals and allies have signed on. (See: https://www.state.gov/pax-silica/)The declaration states, in part: "We recognize that the technologicalrevolution in AI is accelerating, increasingly reorganizing the world economy,and reshaping global supply chains. We believe that economic value and growthwill flow through and across all levels of the global AI supply chain, drivinghistoric opportunity and demand for energy, critical minerals, manufacturing,technological hardware, infrastructure, and new markets not yet invented. "In this spirit, we declareour shared vision to deepen our economic partnership through shared efforts oninvestment security practices, infrastructure, and incentives. We encourageefforts to partner on strategic stacks of the global technology supply chain,including, but not limited to, software applications and platforms, frontierfoundation models, information connectivity and network infrastructure, computeand semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, transportation logistics, mineralsrefining and processing, and energy. We believe in mobilizing the immensecreative and financial power of private industry and entrepreneurship ....Weseek scalable approaches and solutions to supply chain security by mobilizingthe complementary industrial and technological strengths of strategic companiesand firms from our respective economies. "We understand the importanceof addressing non-market practices that undermine innovation and faircompetition. We believe that coordination is essential to protect privateinvestment from the market distortions of overcapacity and unfair dumpingpractices, and to preserve a level playing field for innovation and growth. Weunderstand the importance of cooperation on the enforcement of our respectivepolicies to protect sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure fromundue access, influence, or control. Inthis spirit, we intend to further strengthen economic and national securitycooperation, including taking complementary actions as appropriate to addressnon-market policies and practices and enhancing investment security." In Europe, Pax Silica is explicitly connected toNATO, as was made clear in Marco Rubio's recent visit to Sweden, where the Pax Silica connection wasdefined as based in Sweden'snew membership in the NATO military alliance (giving the lie to Trump's claimsor threats to leave or destroy NATO). See: https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/05/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-and-swedish-foreign-minister-maria-malmer-stenergard-at-the-united-states-sweden-technology-prosperity-deal-signing-ceremony/ Sweden'sforeign minister Stenergard declared, "Dear Secretary Rubio, dear Marco,it’s such a pleasure to welcome you to Helsingborgand the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. But right now, we are here tocelebrate a milestone in our bilateral relation by signing a Technology ProsperityDeal... Our bilateral ties are strong and we are deepening our cooperation inkey areas. In just the past year, Swedenhas joined NATO, opened consulates general in both Houstonand San Francisco, signed a bilateral defensecooperation agreement, and joined the U.S. flagship initiative PaxSilica. "Today we are taking another stepforward. This Technology Prosperity Deal will unlock new potential forour shared security and prosperity. By building on our common interestsand complementary strengths, this memorandum will deepen cooperation betweenour companies and bolster economic growth. Whether it’s AI, connectivity,defense innovation, or space, we are stronger when we work together." Rubio echoed her: "So impressed with[Sweden], and really, just in the context of NATO, a model Ally, but a countrywe’ve [been] working with very closely for a long time beyond NATO. ...This is a very creative and innovative society... – you were also the firstones to sign Pax Silica – it shows that we’re going to build what is already ashared legacy and history of cooperation in the fields of technology andinnovation to become even more competitive in the years to come. All thesecutting-edge industries, ...whether it’s biotechnology, whether it’s artificialintelligence, telecommunications, ...I think it’s just going to make us both –both of our countries and the broader West and really the world – morecompetitive, more innovative, ...to solve some of the most challenging problemsthat mankind faces, but also to the benefit of our peoples, our countries, andour economies." In the so-called Middle East, Pax Silica iscentered on the Israeli military-industrial-intelligence-surveillance complex,which is why Trump is so intent on bringing all the Arab and Muslim countriesin the region into the Abraham Accords, under which the United Arab Emiratesand a number of other countries have already "normalized" relationswith the Zionist settler-colonial apartheid state. This has brought a flood ofArab investment into those Israeli tech firms. Emulating the Emirates and anumber of other wealthy but under-populated Arab regimes (such as Saudi Arabia), Israelis now importing labor from South and Southeast Asia,Malaysia and the Philippines. Inthe process, it has rendered the colonized Palestinian labor, on which itpreviously relied, redundant or superfluous. This has intensified and promotedthe US-backed genocide and ethnic expulsions of the Palestinians from Gaza and even the West Bank.The Israeli flag was prominent at the recent Pax Silica gathering that the US held. Theextension of A-I from military to domestic economic applications, and theattendant replacement of human intellectual and physical labor with roboticreplacement portends further genocidal elimination of "superfluous"human populations elsewhere in the imperial core countries, includingespecially the US, where genocide has always been at the base of economicdevelopment. In the Asia/Pacific theater, Pax Silica isexpressly connected to an effort to encircle China and overcome itstechnological and diplomatic advances. India(where Rubio went next after Sweden)and the Philippinesare two key participants. In India,Rubio said: "I’ve spoken ... about the strategic alliance between the United States and India and how important that is forour national interest .... We are twocountries who have a strategic interest in ensuring reliable long-term accessto critical minerals and supply chains that are important for our innovationeconomy. ... I think the groundwork waslaid for this on the 4th of February when we launched the ...critical mineralsforum .... It gained momentum later thatmonth when Indiasigned onto Pax Silica. It was one ofthe first and early member and signatories, and now today, because we both havea strategic and shared interest in the fact that vibrant innovation economiessuch as ours cannot afford to leave the foundational materials of theseindustries vulnerable to single-source monopolies that could deny us thesethings – not just in a time of conflict but as a leverage point contrary to oursovereign national interests." See: https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/05/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-and-indian-external-affairs-minister-subrahmanyam-jaishankar-at-the-signing-of-a-critical-minerals-framework/ Jacob Halberg, the Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs made thetargeting of China clear ata reception in New Clark City,Luzon, the Philippines,as that country joined the "Pax Silica" initiative earlier this month. See: https://www.state.gov/releases/under-secretary-for-economic-affairs/2026/05/under-secretary-jacob-helberg-visits-the-philippines-planned-economic-security-zone/ "When people hear the words AI supply chain,they think of computer chips. But the chips are only the tip of a very longtail. The chain runs on thousands of inputs. It runs on the precision motors,rare-earth magnets, packaging and testing that turns a slice of silicon intosomething a buyer can plug in, moldings, plastics, and so much more. For eachof those parts, our position today is unacceptably over-concentrated,"Halberg said (not mentioning the human labor inputs). "This is not a theoretical point," hecontinued. "American firms are losing weeks of production to customsdelays that nobody will explain. Orders placed in good faith are cancelled, andno reason is given. A single notice from an office in a far-away capital canshut down a metal the whole industry depends on. We have watched it happen —with rare earths, with gallium, with germanium, with graphite. Rules inventedon a Friday and enforced on a Monday. That is not the behavior of a market. "When ninety percent of a critical input comesfrom one country, you do not have a supply chain. You have a hostage chain. "And the timing could hardly be worse. Thebuild-out of artificial intelligence is creating a surge in demand at everylevel of the chain — chips, of course, but also metals, magnets, motors,packaging, test capacity, actuators, energy, etc. Growth on that scale requirescertainty of supply. The present arrangement is already failing today. And itis entirely ill-equipped for the future bearing down on us. "As President Trump’s National SecurityStrategy makes clear, securing our supply chains is a strategic priority of theTrump administration and is a centerpiece of the State Department’s Pax Silicainitiative. "We are committed to pursuing this objectivein our own distinctly American way, which will be sharply different than China’s Beltand Road Initiative." Tellingly, NewClark Cityis a tech-oriented development by the Filipino "Bases Conversion andDevelopment Authority" (BCDA) under Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., son of theformer US-backed dictator of the Philippines. After the"people's power" movement toppled the elder Marcos and his wifeImelda (she of 1000-shoe collection), a number of US bases in the country wereshut down. Now they are being repurposed as "A-I native" technologyhubs reconnected to the USmilitary through private corporations. Tens of thousands of Filipinos work indigital sweatshops, processing and tagging texts, images and other dataelements as feed-stock for A-I, which require that low-paid sweated human laborto function. See: https://antiracist.org/a-i-squared-artificial-intelligence-product-and-tool-of-american-imperialism/ The site is within the LuzonEconomic Corridor and is being designated as a "Golden Node," or anAI-native investment acceleration hub under the Pax Silica framework. Thecorridor is a trilateral effort involving the Philippines,U.S. and Japan. As Halberg explained, "The Golden Node is notabout recreating the factories of the last century. It is about building themanufacturing ecosystems of the next century, AI-native from day one, anchoredin the rule of law, and integrated into a network of trusted nations that willdefine global supply chain resilience for decades to come." Calling it theGolden Node is an obvious Trump-brand reference. Gilding this 'A-I native' military-industrialalliance, as Trump has been doing more literally with monuments in DC that heis spending millions to layer with gold veneer, is -- to change the metaphor --putting lipstick on a pig. The driving force and major profit centers of A-I are notin consumer applications but in military applications -- drones, autonomoustanks and warships, command and control technology that feeds data to human androbotic soldiers on the battlefield, cyber warfare -- and the connectedspace-war applications in surveillance satellites, rocketry, andanti-ballistic-missile systems to achieve first strike capability. A recent episode of the "Tom Clancy'sJack Ryan" potboilers on Amazon, (which pre-figured Trump's incursion intoVenezuela and kidnapping ofthe President and his wife, a Congressmember,) attributed a clandestine CIAmilitary operation in Venezuelato the discovery of rare earth minerals there. Rare earth minerals haveapparently been a motivating factor IRL in the Congo,Ukraine and Afghanistan aswell. A-I, despite its pretenses of "machine-learning" or existing in"the cloud", in fact relies on material inputs of energy, water, criticalminerals, and as noted above, sweated human labor primarily in the Global South.It also depends on and reinforces the coercive powers of the state. Thecontroversies erupting over the physical and environmental consequences of theconstruction of massive data centers across the US also make that clear. As The Terminator films, based on a dystopian andgenocidal future war of machines against their human creators, repeatedlyemphasized, however, "there is no fate but what we make." Humans havecreated A-I and all its attendant military technology and granular surveillanceand intelligence-gathering capabilities. Capitalism and its logic are notinexorable forces of nature but are the product of human actions and choices.If we take back our power and agency from the war-makers and tech broligarchs,we can shape a different, more humane and ecological future. Michael Novick 323-636-7388https://www.antiracist.org -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41883): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41883 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/119569036/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
