Interesting this rush to force everyone online. My family and I have, for the past year, been actively unsubscribing from paying any bills online. We insist on hard mail. We refuse to engage with any major service or agency over the phone, other to confirm an appointment. All correspondence has to be in writing. No online banking, No filling of tax online. Colour us #luddites
RESIST
Today in Labor History March 11, 1811: Luddites attacked looms near Nottingham, England, because automation was threatening their jobs. At the time, workers were suffering from high unemployment, declining wages, an “endless” war with France and food scarcity. On March 11, they smashed machines in Nottingham and demonstrated for job security and higher wages. The protests and property destruction spread across a 70-mile area of England, reaching Manchester. The government sent troops to protect the factories and made machine-breaking punishable by death.
Fantastic find in my pile of shame, and very timely! The book wants nothing less than turning Marxists into Luddites and vice versa. Not sure about being a Marxist, but I already like Mueller’s approach of reading into Luddism as a compositional class struggle, an “assemblage of enunciations”.
was previously unaware of this 1988 thames telly docudrama about the west riding luddites. worth it for the goth face paint, to be honest.
#luddites #luddism #film #documentary #history
https://youtu.be/RWIyRqn0Gj0
always remember: it's not because capitalism was winning that the system had to smash the luddites. it's precisely the opposite. time to return the 'favour'.
#luddites #luddism #smashTheLooms
It's not my best explanation, but it's not the worst either.
what if the sharks been talking to the orcas and decided to join their #Luddites party and go for what the humans can’t live without these days? 
has anybody seen a shark wearing a hand still holding an iPhone as a hat? 
a very much needed secular Sunday sermon, with a shout out to our political ancestors the #Luddites, brought to you by Andrew @ajroach42
https://retro.social/@ajroach42/113578206804231287
fuckit, don’t know if the tag exists so let me tag it and make it the first of many to come.
@DrEvanGowan
An interesting factoid I heard DECADES ago:
A thousand years ago, #China invented paper, gunpowder, new forms of mathematics and led the world in science. Marco Polo brought back "noodles" to give Italy "spaghetti".
Then they built a wall. Their society became closed and plunged into totalitarianism. Science & Innovation vanished and they stayed that way until they reopened trade with the West.
your regular reminder to smash the looms.
#luddites #bigTech #freePalestine #fuckAI #blackrockUK #blackrock
your regular reminder to smash the looms.
#luddites #bigTech #freePalestine #fuckAI
#AoIR2024 So the #Luddites were actually glorious activists, early trade unionists, who were maligned by the Lords who were in charge of Britain at the time. Don’t buy the classist stories that have been told to you. They got a lot done and didn’t actually hate technology. They fought to regulate technology and support labour rights. Brian Merchant’s book Blood in the Machine is a great history of the Luddites, and his newsletter about AI and labour is good too. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown
A push for new automation may be redirected to the workers’ well-being. Funneling must be done by workers actively involved. Here is a win: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/yes-the-striking-dockworkers-were
@Benhm3 By the way, your mention of Luddites provides me the opportunity for a moment of shameless self-promotion. Here's a little song about General Ned Ludd, the (almost certainly fictitious) spiritual leader of the Luddites. The song is traditional; the recording is by my band about 40 years ago.
