Opinion: The US Is Cheating to Stop China Achieving Tech-Supremacy
by Aaron Bastani
The US wants to stop China's technological development, because in a world of free trade it would lose.
Tag: tech
Opinion: White Collar Workers, Welcome to the Revolution
by Aaron Bastani
With huge layoffs in finance, tech and journalism, disaffected white collar workers could be about to get radicalised, argues Aaron Bastani.
Analysis: No, ‘Transparency’ Won’t Stop Amazon Being a Crappy Employer
by Craig Gent
Unions are very slowly catching up with Amazon’s tech agenda - but digital ‘transparency’ is no silver bullet when it comes to improving workers' lives, argues Craig Gent.
Downstream: They Are Lying to Us. Ash Sarkar Meets Paris Marx
We are constantly told that we are witnessing unprecedented innovation in technology, and that our problems will be solved by new apps, electric cars or space exploration. But is this innovation truly liberating? Or does it serve to outsource labour and further consolidate power and money in the hands of the few? Ash Sarkar meets […]
Analysis: At Last, the Gaming Industry Is Unionising
by OS Warren
The gaming industry is notoriously devoid of unions. Yet as misogyny and overwork take their toll on workers, that’s beginning to change, writes OS Warren.
Live: Zuckerberg Renames Facebook in Bid to Create ‘Metaverse’
Facebook is now Meta, and Mark Zuckerberg says our future is in the Metaverse. Is virtual reality the future of the internet, or Zuckerberg’s latest gimmick? With Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani.
Opinion: Grimes is Right About Communism and AI – Kind Of
by Aaron Bastani
Grimes took to TikTok last week with a 'proposition for the communists': drop enforced farming, adopt AI. While she's right to claim technology could recast our world for the better, she's wrong to think it can do so on its own.
The Bastani Factor: Control, Power and Resistance in the 21st Century. Interview With Cory Doctorow
What is the relationship between technology, society and politics? Is the former merely a tool for social control, or can it also open up new vistas of possibility and freedom? How can one become the other, and what does resistance look like in a world where culture, and digital culture, are increasingly constitutive of one […]
Opinion: The TikTok Saga Shows How the Internet and Technology Are Political
by Aaron Bastani
The TikTok and Huawei stories distill how China’s rise is not solely economic and political, argues Aaron Bastani. For the first time in 250 years, an Asian power is vying for long-term technological leadership with the West.
By Our Bootstraps: Why Tech Needs the Left and the Left Needs Tech
by Ciaran Daly
We have the ability - today, right now - to build tech tools that can empower both spontaneous and long-lasting political change, writes journalist Ciaran Daly. It’s time to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.
When the Party Mimics Facebook
by Paolo Gerbaudo
In an edited excerpt from his new book “The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy”, Paolo Gerbaudo looks at the ways in which the so-called tech revolution is changing how political parties operate and the benefits and risks that come with it.
No Alarms and No Surprises? What Lyft’s Slump Tells Us About Modern Capitalism
by James Meadway
In this week's column, John McDonnell's former advisor, James Meadway, scratches the surface of the current tech bubble. To help us make sense of it all, he takes us through the weird economics of networks and the even weirder economics of the last ten years.
Forget Surveillance Capitalism – It’s Time to Build a Digital Commons
by Mathew Lawrence
To build a future of shared digital plenty we need to transform and democratise the ownership of data and technological infrastructure, argues Mat Lawrence.
Now is the Time for Worker Power in the Tech Industry
by Wendy Liu
Among the upper echelons of the tech industry there is strong hostility to the idea of organised labour. But the tech sector is too important to cede control of it to capital, and lately there have been more and more reasons why tech workers need to build collective power, writes Wendy Liu.
Gaming Needs Feminism
#MeToo validated concerns women in the games industry have been raising for years. However since Gamergate, no concrete structures have yet been created to crack down on toxic behaviour. Left Left Up asks – what is to be done? [Spoiler Alert: Unionise!]
OMFG Sarkar: Tech Can’t Solve Rape Culture
Consent isn’t a contract – the allegations against Aziz Ansari show that men can’t rely on an over-simplistic tech solution to challenge rape culture.
4 Reasons the Left Should Care About Data and Surveillance
by Tasmin Lockwood
Most people passively accept the collection, storage and sale of their data - after all, the government tells us mass surveillance makes us safer. But Tasmin Lockwood argues the left should take privacy more seriously and stop ignoring the dangers inherent in letting the state collect so much information about us.