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The use and rapid growth of technology has often be seen to many of the
working class as a bad omen, like a cancer it spreads and gradually, one surcum
to the inevitable. One occasion which arose and was met with resilience occured
in England in 1811 when the revolutionary crop machine became the center of
attention. A group of disgruntled workers from various textiles industries,
called the Luddites formed a secret community of machine breakers. They used
their primitive weapons to try and destroy the textile mills and machines that
were believed to be the root of their problem. The Luddite's believed their
skill and pride in their work made them a unique commodity and was one of the
differences between them and the machines. Their skills have been passed from
generation, to generation; in essence it is a direct trait of their identity.
The craftsmen felt the machines were not as skilled as they were, therefore if
they were to operate these machines they would probably lose their valuable
skill and identity to become slaves to the machine. Work they once did in the
house would now have to be done in textiles, which the luddites opposed because
it housed poor working conditions. Work breaks that were left up to their
discretion was to be timed, and the amount of work was based on a machine that
could last longer than workers. Hence, it is easy to get the impression why the
luddiets wanted to destroy the machines. In his book Society and Technological
Change Rudi Volti expressed the belief that the luddites feared loosing their
jobs to the dreadful revolutionary crop machine is not necessarily the main or
only reason behind the attacks.
That is not to say that fear of the new machines
did not exist or contribute to the Luddite attacks, only that there were many
other contributing factors. For example the Luddite attacks began in the hosiery
trades, because of the long held opposition to the use of wide stocking frames
that allowed employment of cheaper unskilled workers. Volti surmised this could
have been handle peacefully had it not been for the dire economic conditions
that existed at the time. Mainly due to the Napoleonic Wars which resulted in a
general trade depression. A series of bad harvest caused a supply and demand,
the amount of good harvest was scarce but the demand was high therefore raising
the price for food dramatically. Due to theses conditions the Luddites sadly
realized their wages were not enough to met their families basic needs. These
events were followed by the shearers and handloom weavers in the weaving
industry, who feared the advancement of the steam powered weaving machinery. In
the cropping trade the attacks were done to express the prevention of
technological advances. The attack was simply based on the fear of unemployment
based on technological changes. Although the film expressed the reason for the
Luddite attacks were solely based on the so-called techno-fear is simply not
true. The fear of low wages and unemployment due to the revolutionary technology
did exist, however that is by far the only factor. Fear of possible unemployment
and low wages were only contributing factors to the Luddite revolution, the
economic conditions of the time were the main reasons for these attacks and
fears. Volti stated that if the economic conditions were not so bad these
attacks could have been avoided trough collective bargaining.
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