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by adasdasdas 1000 days ago
> Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers above the inequitable profitability of machines

Being against the inequitable profitability of machines is just as dumb as being against technology, especially outside of a socialist context which this definitely was. It's basically crying that someone else is doing something better than you. In fact, I think being against technology wholesale is a much more defensible position since it creates an arms race, its unpredictable, it forces everyone into a lifestyle, etc.
1 comments
heavyset_go 999 days ago
> It's basically crying that someone else is doing something better than you.

That "someone else" used state power to beat you, imprison you and starve your family if you dared to organize with other workers.

Meanwhile, literal conspiracies of factory owners had full legal protection and the ability to write laws, including laws that gave the death penalty for machine breaking.

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adasdasdas 999 days ago
Source for this please

> That "someone else" used state power to beat you, imprison you and starve your family if you dared to organize with other workers.

Luddites pre-dated socialism and worker organization. Unless you mean, organizing a terrorist organization to blow up factories.

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heavyset_go 998 days ago
> Source for this please

The Combination Act of 1799, and following Combination Acts, made it illegal for workers to organize in any sense[1][2].

> Luddites pre-dated socialism and worker organization

They pre-date Marxist socialism, but the term socialism predates Marx and has had various meanings before then. Marx chose to adopt the existing term to describe his concept of socialism.

It's weird for you to say that Luddites pre-dated worker organization, when workers had organized for collective bargaining in the past, and owners made it illegal. It's also interesting considering the history of workers organized in guilds that certainly predate the Luddites by centuries.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_Act_1799

[2] https://www.marxists.org/history/england/combination-laws/in...

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