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Possible Futures is a newsletter cataloging movement towards ethics, social responsibility and systemic change in tech, design and culture.

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Solidarity, not Advocacy in Tech

Image of people demonstrating in front of Amazon with signs that say No Tech for Ice and Amazon: Whose Side Are You On?

article: There is Something Missing from Tech Worker Organizing by Carmen Molinari from Organizing Work, 12/9/20

Carmen Molinari critiques common yet largely ineffective strategies in worker organizing at big tech in the IWW-related blog Organizing Work. Though any evidence of organizing in tech has been cause for celebration for journalists, labor activists and disillusioned tech workers the past few years, there have been very few actual wins. Thoughtful examination is warranted. Molinari's personal reflections feel resonate beyond tech organizing to account for broader failures in activism that focuses on advocacy, high-profile individuals and party-line progressivism driven by a mix of guilt and superiority. Instead, they suggest focusing on one's own personal grievances and what's happening with their immediate coworkers and building power for change there. Though not likely to make headlines, it can result in actual improvement of one's day-to-day conditions - and cultivate true solidarity with lower-paid workers who are often in structurally similar situations.

Issue: 
Workplace Democracy
Tags: 
workplace organizing

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