Luddism and Automation: a Strategy for Direct Action
The first and foremost goal of all Marxists and anarchists must be the complete uprooting of the conditions that provide for oppression, in whatever form these conditions may exist. We must sow the seeds of revolution now. Whether it is through publication of articles, pamphleting, establishing worker owned businesses, or other means, we must take direct action in the struggle for emancipation. However, we cannot expect to win the proletariat easily. We cannot shout them down, we must show the proletariat that we stand by them. When sabotaging industry, sabotage must be executed to directly benefit the workers, rather than disadvantage them and their ability to labor. Given these conditions for direct action: that the time is ripe for action and that the action must benefit the proletariat, one option appears evident. That option is the return of Luddism in resistance to automation of service jobs.
For Marxists, there is of course a duality to automation. Under the bourgeois mode of production, machines are naturally negative for workers, for “the instrument of labour, when it takes the form of a machine, immediately becomes a competitor of the workman himself.” The worker, until he understands his exploitation as a member of the proletariat class, tends to identify his competition as the cause of his misery. Whether it is the white wage worker developing prejudice against colored wage workers, or workers disadvantaged by unions, the proletariat today is opposed to competition. Machines are no exception. While Marx later indicates that machinery and automation will become great allies of the working class, for the time being, automation allows laborers skilled and otherwise, to become displaced and have their competitive advantage reduced further. Given these conditions for approaching automation, we as leftists are given a clear course of direct action: smash the self order kiosks, destroy machines that disadvantage workers.
However, we must be cautious in how we proceed, our tactics premeditated and controlled. Our goal is not to ransack businesses, this reflects poorly on us. We cannot have the proletariat believing we are the enemy of their livelihood, so we must not act in a way that harms their ability to labor. We must act in a non threatening way, striking quickly when stores are closed down. We cannot break and enter in a way that hurts the ability of workers to labor. People will not tolerate masked men coming in and causing mayhem while customers and workers are present.
We must also move quickly and intelligently. We want to make things change, that does not mean we want a rap sheet. Wear masks and other items to conceal identity, don’t leave fingerprints, don’t get caught. We only have a handful of minutes to get in and do what we need to do, so move fast, and have a getaway ready. Obviously, do not park your getaway near the target, do not make it a unique vehicle, get as far as possible and dispose of or conceal evidence once out of the vicinity. With caution and discipline in mind, direct action such as this stands to greatly benefit the proletariat, and through propaganda of the deed, stands to grow our ranks out of obscurity, and towards a coming insurrection.
