Militant Luddism: do we need to stop the machines?
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At the birth of automation — as machines began to replace the human touch of workers — a group of British textile labourers, led by the enigmatic Ned Ludd, began to smash up their machines. Was this an act of violence perpetrated against progress? A Cnut-like attempted to turn back the tides? Or was this something quite different?
Violence is a difficult political tool. In this episode of The Ned Ludd Radio Hour, I talk to Mauro Lubrano, author of Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Machine Extermism about the journey from the Luddites to the Unabomber. With Artificial Intelligence proving the greatest challenge to working people (that’s my assertion; I think digitisation was, net, a job creator) since the first Industrial Revolution, it’s time to start thinking about technology vs labour.
Because the legacy of the Luddites isn’t found in recalcitrant boomers, refusing to use the latest iPhone features. We might call them Luddites, but that’s not what the movement was all about. In fact, the movement may well have precipitated the legalisation of trade unions, one of the most influential political moments in modern history. That would make their violence — against machines — an extremely successful act of civil disobedience. As we consider our AI future, are there lessons to learn?
