BREAKING THINGS AT WORK – Gavin Mueller

Breaking Things at Work centers around the ideas of the Luddite Movement of the 19th century. In the popular imagination, Luddites are “people who hate technology”. A lot of us know little about them. We figure they’re a group that rejects tech like the Amish culture does, but angrier about it for some reason. We see them as opposed to progress, and that opposition sounds mindless to us.
Gavin Mueller is here to tell us we’ve got it all wrong. The Luddites weren’t anti-tech for its own sake. Instead, they revolted against technological change that made conditions worse for workers. The Luddites grew from groups of textile workers in 19th century England. At that time, capitalists introduced new forms of machinery to their mills. This machinery reduced the value of, and need for, skilled labor. The devices could replicate much of what these workers did for much less money. With their wages cut as a result, workers were unable to sustain their families. They lashed out, destroying hundreds of machines and facilities in coordinated attacks. They also conducted protests, riots, and acts of theft from their employers’ facilities. Mueller reminds us that during this period, there was no organized labor movement. There were no unions, and no legal or political recourse for these workers. This was the action available them, and they took it. When they did so, the locals tended to support them as well. The Luddites didn’t succeed in the end, and the name of their movement became smeared with slander. But they proved something very important through their actions: technology is political. Its use and advancement are not inevitable. They are up for debate, and can we can contest them. This is the message that Mueller wants us to remember throughout his book.

He’s also directing this lesson toward 21st century issues and foes. Before he even gets to the Luddite movement, he brings up the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. These two billionaires are building rockets to the stars in a measuring contest of sorts. In the process, they’re also working on an escape plan in case they need to flee from their own peasantry. Meanwhile, they sell us the idea that more technology creates the “path to a brighter future”. They argue that Marxists, environmentalists and many progressives stand as enemies to progress. Meanwhile, some of those same left-wing malcontents believe in a different technological vision. Author Aaron Bastani calls this fully automated luxury communism. This idea proposes that technology can bring forth a future without scarcity, poverty, or labor. These automation promoters cheer the advances we’ve made in computing and robotics. They think we can use Amazon and Wal-Mart’s logistical techniques to build socialism. When capitalists develop new technologies, they’re not just doing it for their own profits. They’re also building tools that the people can pick up and use for their own purposes after the coming revolution.

Breaking Things at Work argues that “technology has separated us from some kind of essential part of ourselves.” Technology does not definitely mean progress. To the author, tech makes the lives of working people worse as often as it helps. It usually just allows the wealthy to get wealthier. In doing so, they exploit us more often and more efficiently. It takes control away from workers, and prevents them from organizing to fight back. To this end, the author wants to turn Marxists into Luddites. He believes the two philosophies are compatible.
The book then takes on a tour through the 20th and 21st century history of labor, with technology as our focus. We see factory owners attempt to institute Frederick Taylor’s system of “scientific management”. This system, which we now call Taylorism, sold as a way to increase efficiency. Taylor believed he could break down “each work process into carefully scrutinized component tasks”. In doing so, he’d crack the code to figure out the ideal way to perform any task and get the most out of each worker. These insights would help management maximize profits and keep labor in check. It didn’t really work that way. Turns out, a lot of his “insights” were arbitrary bullshit. Much of his data was poor. And yet this philosophy of management never entirely went away, it just changed form. The Soviets instituted it in ways that also failed while deepening worker resentment. The modern philosophies of management can trace their roots, in part, to the flawed thinking and goals of Taylorism.
These and other schemes piss workers off, and not just because wages and conditions get worse. Workers notice when managers leech their jobs of autonomy, creativity and dignity. They know when they’re unable to socialize and build solidarity with other workers. They also know that when automation does reduce the workforce, women and black workers have been the first layoff victims. Mueller quotes the famous activist Mario Savio:

In that spirit, workers engage in acts of passive (and sometimes active) resistance. As computerization transformed work, managers gained new ways to collect data and spy on workers. Workers know this increases corporate control but doesn’t improve the lives of employees. Their resistance takes the form of sabotage, hacking, gaming the system, and finding ways to steal back time from bosses. We live in a world that’s turned software and knowledge itself into commodities. I know – I just looked up an article on the Luddites for a little more context, finding one on an academic database. Then I balked at the $70 price tag. This environment makes free-to-use software and even file sharing into legitimate resistance.

This book won’t wow anyone with its style or passion. Still, it’s clear, effective, and well-researched. I can’t say I’m convinced by Mueller’s argument that fully automated luxury communism is a dead end. That’s in part because I haven’t read all the other thinkers he brings into the conversation. Yet authors like Eric Hobsbawm, Shoshanna Zuboff, and Aaron Bastani were already on my reading list. After seeing them cited here, I’ll bump them up a few places. Still, I will keep part of his central argument in mind. Technology won’t always lead to better conditions for workers or the people at large. Tech isn’t neutral – it’s made for a purpose. The purposes of those in power will always color what gets built and implemented. We can’t assume that an automated future will be in our interest. Maybe that does mean we should be trying to “decelerate” the pace of technological change. At least, until the labor movement can catch up to make sure that change can meet our needs. What’s more, workers and customers are resisting already, in a thousand ways. This ranges from file sharing to computer hacks. It includes stealing from grocery self-checkout registers and beating up HitchBOT outside Philadelphia. Whether we’re Marxists or not, there’s already a little Luddite in all of us. That’s a seed that can grow.