What Was the Story of a Black Woman in Ibm?

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One of the other people, as you mentioned there, that you spoke to was marceline donaldson. Her story was really interesting as well, because she was this black woman who was entering into i b m and really wanted to be on the sales team. But for a while they told her, like, no, she needed to go on to a different team first. She couldn't go right on to sales. And then when she did, she like hit her targets. She was above her targets. Yet still, she was having trouble moving forward. So in order to counteract that enormous presence and that enormous control, a, you need another like enormous presents. The best way

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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