Luddism
The Luddite (often congruent with " Maschinensturm used") was a primitivist movement of English workers in the early 19th century against loss of status and impending social impoverishment by the onset of industrialization .
The representatives of Luddism, known as Luddites , were textile workers who fought against the deterioration in their living conditions in the course of the industrial revolution and who also deliberately destroyed machines in the process. The movement, named after its legendary fictional leader Ned Ludd, was militarily crushed in 1814. Many of the people involved were executed or deported to Australia .
etymology
Appeals by the Luddites, regardless of their actual authorship, were often signed with Ned Ludd , who was also called King Ludd, General Ludd or Captain Ludd. Ned Ludd acted as the fictional leader of the Luddites and the collective pseudonym of the various groups. He was the reparator or the great enforcer who defended the traditional rights of the artisans and journeymen.
history
The movement originated in Nottingham in 1811 . By 1812 it spread all over England . The Luddites destroyed numerous wool and cotton spinning mills . They developed their greatest strength in November 1811 in Nottinghamshire , early 1812 in West Riding of Yorkshire and from March 1812 in Lancashire . The Luddites fought real battles with the military at Burtons' Mill in Middleton and Westhoughton Mill , both in Lancashire. Judges and grocers were also targeted, as judges were accused of cracking down on luddites, while grocers were accused of extorting workers' low wages for their goods.
As a result, "machine storming" ( sabotage ) was declared a capital crime and the movement was militarily suppressed. Numerous Luddites were executed after mass trials or deported to Australia.
Luddism is one of the great struggle cycles of the English working class in the early 19th century. He is embedded in a generally increasing unrest that z. B. led to the Pentrich uprising in 1817 .
criticism
In the reception of progressive political tendencies such as liberalism and later social democracy and Leninism , the Luddites were perceived as reactionary and hostile to technology.
Edward P. Thompson
Edward P. Thompson's book The Making of the English Working Class also contributed to a new understanding of Luddism among the wider public. According to Thompson, the Luddites were mainly not opponents of the new technology, but opponents of the new economic relationships (such as the abolition of fixed prices) that were to be enforced in the course of their introduction.
The machines were not attacked indiscriminately as the supposed cause of this change. The destruction of the machines was accordingly an organized and targeted form of action directed against certain owners who were to be persuaded to comply with the old regulations, while machines from other owners were often spared. The high efficiency, purposefulness and organization of the luddist actions with up to 100 participants is also seen by Thompson as a sign of the great acceptance of the Luddites in their communities.
Overall, according to Thompson, the ideas that have long been common on the left - Luddites are rampaging criminal gangs or limited people who see the machines themselves as the cause of their misery - appear as a continuation of the propaganda of the government and owners of the time. In reality the Luddites were nothing more than workers who came together to defend their interests and looked for promising paths.
Lord Byron
One of the few prominent advocates of the Luddites and opponents of repression was Lord Byron . In his maiden speech on February 27, 1812, he defended the actions of the Luddites in Nottinghamshire in the House of Lords of the British Parliament . He also turned against the Frame Breaking Bill in 1812 with a moderating speech . In 1816 he celebrated the Luddites in his poem Song of the Luddites :
- As the Liberty lads o'er the sea
- Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
- So we, boys, we
- Will die fighting, or live free,
- So we, boys, we
- And down with all kings but King Ludd!
- When the web that we weave is complete,
- And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
- We will fling the winding-sheet
- O'er the despot at our feet,
- We will fling the winding-sheet
- And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd.
- Though black as his heart its hue,
- Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
- Yet this is the dew
- Which the tree shall renew
- Yet this is the dew
- Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!
Neo-Luddism
Even in the 20th and 21st centuries there are luddist structures such as the Adbusters Media Foundation , an organization that is critical of consumption .
Other Buddhist groups attack researchers involved in nuclear or nanotechnology, or, more generally, people who appear to be closely related to modern technology. Such attacks were carried out, for example, by the American terrorist Theodore Kaczynski , known as the “Unabomber” , who sent letter bombs to fellow citizens who, in his opinion, represent an autopoietic system that he called “the industrial-technological system” , which is constantly expanding through technical progress spreads and the individual thus absorbed, alienated from life, robs them of freedom and dignity and thereby creates a lot of suffering, above all psychological problems.
Reception in popular culture
- The metalcore band Heaven Shall Burn celebrates the battle of the Luddites in their song The Final March .
- Ernst Toller created a drama called Die Maschinenstürmer .
- Edmund Cooper wrote the book The Cloud Walker (German: The Cloud Walker . Goldmann, 1978, ISBN 3-442-23276-7 ) which takes place in a world in which Luddism dominates England.
- In the song White Coats by New Model Army , which deals critically with technical progress, a "toast to the Luddite martyrs then / who died in vain" is played.
- In Terry Pratchett's novel The Time Thief , a foundling guild of foundlings is referred to as "Ludd's boys".
- In the fantasy saga Der Dunkle Turm (The Dark Tower) by the American writer Stephen King , the devastated city of Lud appears and its name is associated with Luddism by a (partly fictional) Stephen King who appears later in the series.
- In Sam & Max: Season One , Sybil calls the two main characters Luddites because they don't have a computer.
- In The Difference Machine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, the protagonist Sybil Gerard is the daughter of an executed Luddite agitator.
- The American author Thomas Pynchon published an essay on October 28, 1984 entitled Is it OK to be a Luddite? .
- In Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy, people who fear the new genetic creations are referred to as ape luddites .
- In Season 1, Episode 8 of the TV series The Blacklist , a group of Luddites is worked on. The group is called General Ludd.
- In the computer game The Moment of Silence , “Luddites” fight against the surveillance state.
- In the novel, Quality Country of Marc-Uwe Kling , the appeals foremost front of resistance against the rule of the machines (VWfgdHdM) to the Luddites.
See also
literature
- Edward Palmer Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class. London 1963. (Paperback edition: ISBN 0-394-70322-7 ; German edition: The emergence of the English working class. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-02687-9 ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Edward P. Thompson: The Origin of the English Working Class . Second volume, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1987, p. 635.
- ↑ Harold Bloom: George Gordon, Lord Byron. 2009, ISBN 978-1-60413-438-4 , p. 4. (English), accessed on February 26, 2011.
- ↑ Peter Mühlbauer : Neo-Luddites threaten nuclear researchers and nanotechnologists. heise.de, June 1, 2012.
- ^ Theodore Kaczynski: Industrial Society and its Future. In: Heracles Concept. Lutz Dammbeck, May 31, 2003, archived from the original on September 30, 2019 ; accessed on September 28, 2019 (English).