Thursday 26 October 2017

Interrogating Digital Capitalism 3 Digital automation: 'post-capitalism' or a new Lucas Plan?

Interrogating Digital Capitalism 3
Digital automation: 'post-capitalism' or a new Lucas Plan?
 
November 9th 2017, 7.15pm.  London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street London E1. Free/donation
 
 
Digital technology-driven automation and restructuring has been ongoing since the 1960s, most notoriously in the destruction of the printers’ unions by Rupert Murdoch in the 1980s.  Now, the impending ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ is creating widespread public anxiety about massive job losses caused by robots and software, and threats to workers rights as digital technology restructures the economy.  Some on the left have welcomed this trend, arguing that, with Universal Basic Income, automation can produce a post-work, or even ‘post-capitalist’ utopia.  Another left tradition, embodied by the Lucas Plan of the 1970s, argues for socially useful work and for putting human skills at the centre of production.
  • Tahir Latif of PCS union will describe current challenges for workers facing automation in air traffic control.
  • Jim Benfield, of Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) will talk about the Deliveroo strike and impact of digital technology in the gig economy.
  • Dave King of Breaking the Frame will critique recent calls for 'full automation' from the left, and show how the Lucas Plan provides a better solution for the future.
Free/donation.
7.15pm, November 9th
Venue: London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street London E1
 
 
Coming soon....
Big Gene Gathering +20 - A celebration of 20 years of anti-GM food campaigning
December 2nd, London.  For more info contact info@breakingtheframe.org.uk.

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