A theory-driven account of the stakes and knowledge-building practices of the resurgent labor movement from organizers across the gig economy and tech industry.
As tech billionaires align with Trump, they are also launching a renewed political and technological assault on labor. But it still takes workers to make fortunes for the bosses, and collective action is again on the rise. The rank and file are coming from the precarious new “gig jobs” and drawing strength from a new class of worker who does the jobs that computers still cannot. Previously thought to be “unorganizable,” these workers are part of a North American collective movement that is reaffirming faith in collective revolutionary action with new forms of organizing, new ways of association, and new ways of thinking and recombining labor organizing and research.
To capture this growing class consciousness as it happens, the Capacitor Collective has conducted ten illuminating interviews with platform workers who are also organizers committed to connecting old motivations and new tactics in a text that shakes up the worker inquiry tradition to imagine new ways to produce knowledge with and for workers.
Capacitor Collective is a research collective dedicated to digital worker inquiry rooted in labor organizing within and against digital capitalism. The collective includes: Enda Brophy, Julie Chen, Alessandro Delfanti, Brian Dolber, Lilly Irani, and Tamara Kneese.
Contributors include:
Enda Brophy is a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Julie Yujie Chen is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Hiu Fung Chung is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto.
Alessandro Delfanti is a professor at the University of Toronto.
Wei Ding is a professor at Shenzhen University.
Brian Dolber is an associate professor at California State University San Marcos.
Victoria Fleming is a PhD candidate at York University in Toronto.
Cailean Gallagher is an associate lecturer at the University of St. Andrews.
Qi Ge is a taxi driver with the Shenzhen V Fleet.
Seamus Bright Grayer is a graduate of the Simon Fraser University School of Communication.
Erik H is an organizer, systems engineer, and food service worker in Seattle.
Alex Hanna is director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute.
Mostafa Henaway is an organizer with the Immigrant Workers’ Centre in Montreal.
Mikaiil Hussein is the President of United Taxi Workers San Diego.
Lilly Irani is a professor at the University of California San Diego.
Krystal K and Phil are organizers at Turkopticon.
Tamara Kneese is a research director at Data & Society.
Diana Limbaga is a graduate student at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Sarah Jean Salman is a Communication PhD student at Cornell University.
Tyler Sandness is a member of Rideshare Drivers United and former Lyft driver.
Kate Sim is a researcher and organizer with No Tech for Apartheid and TWC.
RK Upadhya is an electrical engineer based in San Antonio and an organizer with TWC and IWW.
Milla Vodello is the pseudonym of an organizer with the Amazon Worker Solidarity group in Toronto.
Peter Zschiesche is a founder of the Employee Rights Center in San Diego.
