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Luddites
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- 1Writer Cites Mother's Sweatshop Electronics Skills in Call for New Luddite Movement●that my mother had the architectural and engineering skills to solder components for aeronautical electronics yet was ma
A writer describes how her mother had the skill to solder components for aeronautical electronics, yet was made to believe those skills were worthless because she was classed as an exploited sweatshop garment worker. The post argues that this devaluation of working women's technical expertise is exactly why a new Luddite revolution is needed, drawing attention to hidden engineering labour in manufacturing.
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A new essay examines the original Luddites, the early nineteenth-century English textile workers who destroyed machinery they believed threatened their livelihoods, and draws lessons for today's debates about automation and labor. Using lace-making as a case study, it argues the Luddites were not opposed to technology itself but to how economic gains were distributed, a tension that resonates with current concerns over AI and workers' futures.
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The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society has published a piece asking what the Luddites — the 19th-century English textile workers who famously smashed machinery — would make of today's debates over digital access and opportunity. The article uses the historical movement as a lens on modern technology resistance and broadband policy. Broader reaction is not yet visible.
- 4Lessons from the Actual Luddites on Labor and Technology●Lace and Labor: Lessons from the actual Luddites https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/lace-and-labor # HackerNews #
An essay on the Articles of Interest Substack explores the real history of the Luddites through the lace industry, arguing that the movement was less about rejecting machines than about bargaining power and workers' rights. Readers on technology and history forums are sharing and discussing it as debates over automation and artificial intelligence renew interest in how earlier workers resisted labor-disrupting technology.