Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the Luddite Uprisings: Technology Politics Then and Now

Cel­e­brat­ing the 200th Anniver­sary of the Lud­dite Upris­ings: Tech­nol­o­gy Pol­i­tics Then and Now

Date: Wednes­day June 8th, 7pm

Venue: Fem­i­nist Library meet­ing room, 5a West­min­ster Bridge Road, Lon­don SE1 7XW, Near­est tube Lam­beth North,

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154817494584557

Organ­ised by: Luddites200 Organ­is­ing Forum luddites200@yahoo.co.uk www.luddites200.org.uk

No admis­sion charge, dona­tions wel­come. Please con­tact organ­is­ers about dis­abled access.

In 1811-12 arti­san cloth work­ers in the Mid­lands and North of Eng­land rose up against fac­to­ry own­ers who were impos­ing new machines and putting them out of work. Since the 1950s the Lud­dites have been paint­ed as fools opposed to all tech­nol­o­gy and progress, but in fact the Lud­dites were very selec­tive in their attacks, break­ing only machines they thought were ‘hurt­ful to Com­mon­al­i­ty’.

What can the Lud­dites teach us about the ongo­ing use of tech­nol­o­gy to replace work­ers’ jobs, as well as issues like GM food, nuclear pow­er, repro­duc­tive tech­nol­o­gy and sur­veil­lance? Can we escape the myth that tech­nol­o­gy always brings progress? On the anniver­sary of the first action against a GM crop site in Britain, come and dis­cuss the issues with speak­ers from the Luddites200 Organ­is­ing Forum, Stop GM, a trade union activist, and the Stop Nuclear Net­work.

PLUS! Lud­dite enter­tain­ment and CAKE