I B M's Control - What Did the Struggle Against Apartid Look Like?

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I b m's control sounds very familiar with arguments that are being made to day about why we need unions in the teckh industry. Another piece of this that you described in your conversation with james lee's was also the apartid struggle, right? And at this moment, it wasn't just the racism being experienced by workers in i b m, in american companies, there was the apartid regime. It was being supported by the united states, and companies like i b m were still selling it computers so that they could continue to administer the apartid system.

Paris Marx is joined by ann haeyoung to discuss IBM worker organizing in the 1970s and 1980s against racism and apartheid, and how those stories are important to informing tech organizing in the present.

ann haeyoung is a media artist interested in technology and labor. She is also a former tech worker and organizer, and a graduate student at UCLA.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

ann wrote about IBM organizing for Wired, and put together a four-part series on her research for Tech Workers Coalition.
Science for the People published an article about tech worker organizing in the 1960s and 1970s.
Logic Magazine spoke to Joan Greenbaum about the early days of tech worker organizing.
Tech Won’t Save Us is looking for a producer.

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