Luddism was a movement against the use of machinery in the workplace.
A movement that emerged in England in the 19th century as a protest against the incorporation of machinery in the workplace is known as Luddism . It was a movement promoted by artisans in the face of the destruction of their jobs .
Brief history
Starting with the Industrial Revolution , spinning machines and looms began to be used to automate and streamline different steps of the textile production process. In this way, specialists in craft work began to be left aside and were replaced by workers with fewer qualifications, who were paid less.
Faced with this reality, Luddism emerged, whose activists attacked and broke the machines as a complaint . According to historians, Luddism was part of a process of growing discontent among the working class that went beyond opposition to the incorporation of technology .
There are experts who maintain that attacks on machines were a way to build solidarity among employees in order to improve the position of workers when negotiating with their employers. In this way, between 1811 and 1816, offensives against industrial plants were recorded in cities such as Nottinghamshire , West Yorkshire , Middleton and Lancashire . The harsh repression of the British government, which included the application of the death penalty, managed to quell the revolts.
It should be noted that the name Luddism is attributed to the actions of Ned Ludd , a supposed worker who would have started the textile machine fires in 1811 . Ludd could be a legendary figure in the style of Robin Hood or the pseudonym of a real person who wanted to avoid retaliation.
In Spain
Although the history of Luddism takes us to England, it is important to mention that this movement also had repercussions in other parts of the world. Such was the case of Spain, where its influence was perceived for the first time around the year 1821, when the so-called events of Alcoy took place.
Known by this name are the demonstrations that brought together more than twelve hundred day laborers and peasants from the towns near Alcoy, a city in the province of Alicante, who worked in their own homes spinning and carding wool in an artisanal way. Just like the events that occurred in England, these hundreds of Spaniards caused the destruction of many machines to demonstrate their discontent.
In Catalonia, on the other hand, we can mention the burning of the Bonaplata factory , which took place as part of the Luddite movement in Barcelona, within the framework of the popular riots of 1835 that are known as the anticlerical riot .
Contemporary Luddism
Currently, anyone who opposes or takes longer than expected to approach current technologies, whether in their personal life or in their workspace, is called a "Luddite." There is also the word "neoludism", which denotes a position opposed to various types of technology.
A neo-Luddite is opposed to technology or slow to incorporate it into their life.
In 1996, the Second Luddite Congress , held in the state of Ohio, stated in its manifesto that Neo-Luddism was leaderless but passively resisting increasingly threatening technologies and consumerism.
It is worth mentioning that it is very unlikely to find people who identify with Luddism or neo-Luddism today, since we find ourselves in an era dominated by phones, tablets, smart televisions and the Internet. This resistance, which is mentioned in the 1996 manifesto, was relatively easy to sustain when electronic devices (except for television and radio) were still believed to be the object of interest of a few, of the youngest or of future engineers.