AI and automation aren’t new threats. They’re recycled battles in fresh packaging.
In the UK, job vacancies hit a five-year low this June. The economy’s cooling, but so is worker power. Employers lean on technology to replace skilled labor with faster, cheaper machine work. This isn’t innovation—it’s a rerun of old tactics.
The phrase “We are not machines” comes from Swedish miners striking in 1969. They protested new monitoring methods that treated them like cogs. That slogan now headlines a book by Sarah O’Connor. She warns that while we build machines in our image, we risk reshaping ourselves to fit theirs.
Amazon’s EMA4 warehouse in Sutton Coldfield is a case study. Robots and humans work side by side, but the humans aren’t just picking items. Remote workers in Costa Rica and India spend nine-hour shifts screening up to 8,000 videos weekly, auditing AI camera feeds. The machines don’t run themselves; humans keep the system honest, often under grueling conditions.
Frederick Winslow Taylor, a century-old management guru, still haunts workplaces. His principles, known as Taylorism, break tasks into tiny, monitored steps. This method survives under the guise of neutral tech tools. But these tools carry old ideas about control and efficiency, now dressed up as AI progress.
The Luddites protested similar technology fears two centuries ago. They lost to royal violence, but their concerns remain valid. They opposed the destruction of shared resources and the rise of lower-skilled, lower-paid labor. Factory work was brutal—terrible pay and deadly conditions. Bloodshed, like in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, forced reforms.
Today’s pushback against Big Tech echoes those battles. Power and wealth concentrate in a few hands—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, 60% of Americans can’t afford groceries. Neo-Luddites challenge not technology itself, but society’s failure to manage it fairly.
There’s hope. Workers fight back. The Writers Guild of America strike and Dutch care workers creating their own practices show resistance can work. Employees and consumers remain agents, not victims. The future of work is still ours to shape.
Meanwhile, culture reflects these tensions. The dystopian Scottish satire “Raveheart,” published July 2, 2026, imagines an ultranationalist crackdown on youth culture and electronic music. Its protagonist, William Patterson aka “DJ Turbo,” dives into a drug-fueled paramilitary underground. The novel draws on Milton, Dante, and Apocalypse Now to sketch a grim future—one where technology and politics collide.
Closer to reality, British-Ghanaian writer Krystle Zara Appiah’s novel “Half Lives,” released July 1, 2026, revisits 1970s Ghana. It captures economic hardship through the story of sisters Evelyn and Maggie. Evelyn marries a wealthy New York surgeon, while Maggie faces pregnancy out of wedlock and shame. Their pact to raise Maggie’s child through Evelyn reveals how personal survival intertwines with broader social struggles. Publishing consultant Nancy Adimora calls it an “emotional gut-punch.”
The invention of the first camera in 1816, coinciding with the Luddite movement, serves as a metaphor. Technology changes how we see and live. Restrictions on photos today may reflect a desire to experience moments beyond screens—an urge to reclaim human dignity amid relentless digitization.
Machines aren’t just tools. They carry old power battles into new realms. We should remember: the fight for dignity at work is a century-old story. The latest chapter is AI. It’s up to workers and society to write the ending.
Based on
- We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor review – can dignity at work survive the tech revolution? — theguardian.com
- A dystopian rave satire | Semafor — semafor.com
- Inside the Luddite festival harnessing Gen Z’s rage against Big Tech | Ars OpenForum — arstechnica.com
- A tale of star-crossed sisters | Semafor — semafor.com
- BBC Learning English – English at Work / Reality bites — bbc.com
