Building Power: Movement technology & collective power
Event Information
Description
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 DISRUPTION.
This is an event for anyone with an interest in the labour movement.
Too often in our movement, technology has been touted as the answer to all our problems. Clearly, it's not, but we've got to wield it effectively to build power and coalitions across the movement. 120 years after labour unions founded the Labour Party on the basis of collective action, are we making the most of the tools of the 21st century?
We'll hear from Brian Young, Executive Director of Action Network in the US, where trade unions and activists got together and decided to stop buying technology owned by hedgefunds. Instead they built a coalition first and then the movement decided what technology it wanted and then they created and owned it themselves. This technology has powered the Womens March, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunrise Movement, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Stop School Cuts here in the UK.
Brian will share experiences of building that coalition culture in the states, how they've started to change the way they think about tech so that it serves organisers and activists rather than the other way round.
It's not about one set of tools over another, we want to think about how we build and use technology more effectively to build the power of the labour movement.
Tea & pastries from 2.30pm with a talk and Q&A to start at 3pm.