Tips from a Tech Worker

i'm still unemployed and rent is due tomorrow 🙀 commissions are very open!

"liberal", at least in a political sphere, refers to a specific ideological framework of "free markets", "right to private property", and "liberty" - which is a deliberately pretty vague concept. note that these are all principals that both major parties in the US political projects all venerate (in their own way to the people they deem rightfully deserving).

modern political projects tend to move away from the "small state, free market" approach, to a strong state which attempts to bring about market forces within more and more aspects of society. this is generally referred to as "neo-liberalism", and is the governing ideology of most western countries.

looking at US political parties again, and a great example of neo-liberal and liberal ideologies in practice, you might ask "well why do they disagree?" and the answer is pretty straightforward: on a lot of key issues, they don't disagree, and in fact reinforce one another on issues such as immigration (note that more people were deported per year under the biden and obama administrations than the first trump administration), foreign policy (see palestine vs israel, invasion of afghanistan, interference in political projects across the globe), economic policy (where both parties agree in broad strokes that private property and the "guiding hand of the free market" are gospel), and "security". largely they disagree on the minutiae. and where the democrats have pushed for a more "progressive" social policy, they have rolled these back quite rapidly on any criticism from their sister party.

similarly, looking at european politics, the EU has been constructed on the principal of neo-liberal marketization, pushing austerity and privatization policies on all its member states. and even states outside of the EU such as the UK and russia are largely governed by the primacy of private property and privatization.

all of this to say.. its all liberalism.. all the way down.. and its an ideological framework that, at least personally, i do not want to be near at all. privatisation and marketisation are two of the main reasons everything is getting increasingly worse for the working class, and to a lesser extend the petit-bourgeoisie. liberalism, and its children are actively harmful to the working class, be they minoritized, oppressed, or otherwise "othered".

i know some people who have called themselves "liberal" in the political sense, despite the fact they are anti-free-market, and incredibly anti-private-property. maybe its time to consider dropping that label and its associated political project(s).

this was very much an "on the fly" rant. there are probably points i could have made a lot clearer, but i largely just wanted to get this all out of my head because i saw someone i respect on bluesky dot com posting about how liberalism is really cool actually. despite being completely mistaken on what it was, that could have been resolved with a very very quick google search.

You are not getting paid Kenough"

I was under the impression that we did know why: AI isn't actually a brain and can't actually think or understand information, so it has no concept of something being true or not, or what markers indicate truth or falsity, or how to synthesize information. It's putting a bunch of words in a jar, shaking the jar, and then dumping it out, and acting like that means the jar knows how to talk.

https://udm14.com/

If you have a recognised union (or even an unrecognised one) that you are a member of, get in contact with them immediately. Odds are, if there is a mass redundancy, they will already know about it.

If there are more than 20 folks being made redundant, the redundancies are in one establishment, and the redundancies are being proposed in a 90 day period, then your employer is required by law to hold a collective consultation. Of course, quite often your employer will not know the law around this, and its worth arguing that you should have a collective consultation anyway. The consultation wont necessarily stop the redundancies, but it gives you time to plan.

Additionally, if anyone who is being made redundant is either pregnant, on maternity/paternity leave, or on adoption leave, then your employer must find alternate work for them if there is any available.

Your employer can only make people redundant if they have no more use for your role. If your employer is looking to use contractors, or alternate provisions to fulfil that role, you can make a fairly good argument that the dismissal is unfair or wrongful. Protections are weird in the UK around this if you haven't worked at a place for at least 2 years, but again with all of this, argue the point anyway.

Your employer probably wont know any of the law around redundancy and it is good to push that fact as a strategy. It is also very useful to be talking to all your co-workers in this process. Make sure everyone knows what is going on, their rights, and what you can all do collectively.

Ideally you will have done some workplace organising beforehand, but these things can happen unexpectantly.

Finally, if you do not have any union representation nearby, join a union as soon as you can (*cough* IWW *cough*). They may not be able to help you with something on such short notice, but it is another strategy to scare the boss shitless if they think you're going to be a problem for them.

See also: https://www.tumblr.com/tips-from-a-tech-worker/725120769477214208/how-do-i-improve-my-workplace?source=share

All of this information is available on the ACAS website, and you can contact them free of charge. Also recommend Citizens Advice as well. Sources used: - https://www.acas.org.uk/redundancy - https://www.acas.org.uk/your-rights-during-redundancy - https://www.acas.org.uk/redundancy-protection-for-pregnancy-and-new-parents - https://www.acas.org.uk/collective-consultation-redundancy - https://www.acas.org.uk/dismissals/unfair-dismissal - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/redundancy/check-your-rights-if-youre-made-redundant/

If you have a recognised union (or even an unrecognised one) that you are a member of, get in contact with them immediately. Odds are, if there is a mass redundancy, they will already know about it.

If there are more than 20 folks being made redundant, the redundancies are in one establishment, and the redundancies are being proposed in a 90 day period, then your employer is required by law to hold a collective consultation. Of course, quite often your employer will not know the law around this, and its worth arguing that you should have a collective consultation anyway. The consultation wont necessarily stop the redundancies, but it gives you time to plan.

Additionally, if anyone who is being made redundant is either pregnant, on maternity/paternity leave, or on adoption leave, then your employer must find alternate work for them if there is any available.

Your employer can only make people redundant if they have no more use for your role. If your employer is looking to use contractors, or alternate provisions to fulfil that role, you can make a fairly good argument that the dismissal is unfair or wrongful. Protections are weird in the UK around this if you haven't worked at a place for at least 2 years, but again with all of this, argue the point anyway.

Your employer probably wont know any of the law around redundancy and it is good to push that fact as a strategy. It is also very useful to be talking to all your co-workers in this process. Make sure everyone knows what is going on, their rights, and what you can all do collectively.

Ideally you will have done some workplace organising beforehand, but these things can happen unexpectantly.

Finally, if you do not have any union representation nearby, join a union as soon as you can (*cough* IWW *cough*). They may not be able to help you with something on such short notice, but it is another strategy to scare the boss shitless if they think you're going to be a problem for them.

See also: https://www.tumblr.com/tips-from-a-tech-worker/725120769477214208/how-do-i-improve-my-workplace?source=share

All of this information is available on the ACAS website, and you can contact them free of charge. Also recommend Citizens Advice as well. Sources used: - https://www.acas.org.uk/redundancy - https://www.acas.org.uk/your-rights-during-redundancy - https://www.acas.org.uk/redundancy-protection-for-pregnancy-and-new-parents - https://www.acas.org.uk/collective-consultation-redundancy - https://www.acas.org.uk/dismissals/unfair-dismissal - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/redundancy/check-your-rights-if-youre-made-redundant/

Also, odds are this has been hashed out before, and in much easier to understand terms.

Anarchists need to stop being liberals.

For context, I would describe myself as an anarchist, so understand that these critiques come from a place of love rather than destructive ranting. As well as this, I live on the british isles, and the left-wing scene here is well and truly pacified. I might winge about this more in the future..

As a side note, "anarchist" isn't a particularly useful term anyway, because it refers to a broad group of philosophies concerned with a critique of power, and each one of those philosophies can vary WILDLY.

Also, by "liberal" I am refering to an advocate of free-enterprise, free-markets, and private property.

There is a concept known as "political prefiguration", which broadly refers to ways of organising that reflect the future society that you wish to build. Do you want a future non-hierarchical society? Then you have to literally act as if you were in one. And the more you do, the better you get at it, and the more you understand how to develop through it.

So often I see so-called anarchists talking about owning a business and hiring employees. And sure, if you're the kind of anarchist that either doesn't understand what capitalism is, or you don't see it as an issue, then sure, whatever. But IMO you can hardly call yourself an anarchist when you own employees? You are putting yourself in an unnecessary position of power over them. And you will only ever learn how to exercise that power over them.

Additionally, I hear so-called anarchists come out with "I'll just wait for someone to tell me what to do." And again, you will only ever learn how to follow orders and take instruction. You will never learn to think for yourself. You'll never know how to work with others. You have to step forward and say "I want this" and you work with your comrades to figure out how to get it.

And I get it. I really do. The society we live in really doesn't teach us anything useful, and if it did, it would cease to exist as it does. And there isn't any easy way to survive in this world without exploiting someone, even if it is several degrees separated. But you need and have to try.

Talk to people in your communities, be that where you live, where you work, where you learn, or where you play. Pick an issue people care about. Work together to figure out how to fix it. And then do it.

Meet your neighbors, yes it's scary but if you don't know your neighbors how do you know what they need.

If your religious talk with your spiritual leaders and community.

We need community if we want anything to work.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott only worked because people who owned cars got people to work without the bus.

Union strikes only work when those union dues and the union itself takes care and supports its members.

And because I know it's gonna be said YES YOU HAVE TO BUILD COMMUNITY WITH PEOPLE YOU DONT LIKE

Also, odds are this has been hashed out before, and in much easier to understand terms.

Anarchists need to stop being liberals.

For context, I would describe myself as an anarchist, so understand that these critiques come from a place of love rather than destructive ranting. As well as this, I live on the british isles, and the left-wing scene here is well and truly pacified. I might winge about this more in the future..

As a side note, "anarchist" isn't a particularly useful term anyway, because it refers to a broad group of philosophies concerned with a critique of power, and each one of those philosophies can vary WILDLY.

Also, by "liberal" I am refering to an advocate of free-enterprise, free-markets, and private property.

There is a concept known as "political prefiguration", which broadly refers to ways of organising that reflect the future society that you wish to build. Do you want a future non-hierarchical society? Then you have to literally act as if you were in one. And the more you do, the better you get at it, and the more you understand how to develop through it.

So often I see so-called anarchists talking about owning a business and hiring employees. And sure, if you're the kind of anarchist that either doesn't understand what capitalism is, or you don't see it as an issue, then sure, whatever. But IMO you can hardly call yourself an anarchist when you own employees? You are putting yourself in an unnecessary position of power over them. And you will only ever learn how to exercise that power over them.

Additionally, I hear so-called anarchists come out with "I'll just wait for someone to tell me what to do." And again, you will only ever learn how to follow orders and take instruction. You will never learn to think for yourself. You'll never know how to work with others. You have to step forward and say "I want this" and you work with your comrades to figure out how to get it.

And I get it. I really do. The society we live in really doesn't teach us anything useful, and if it did, it would cease to exist as it does. And there isn't any easy way to survive in this world without exploiting someone, even if it is several degrees separated. But you need and have to try.

Talk to people in your communities, be that where you live, where you work, where you learn, or where you play. Pick an issue people care about. Work together to figure out how to fix it. And then do it.

So far I have completed one entry and am well on the way through making the second. Thought I'd post them here for feedback, but also just to share them around.

Organising 101: Mapping: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pw-qCwhI-tfURKlRopPCdKcAKvnWIJEDgdooX22V078/edit?usp=drive_link

Organising 101: Talking to co-workers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14bwTNW_UqZ3Uf12ugcSjS6AUWcmL398Y_QoNE1bbFak/edit?usp=sharing

Let me know what you think!