Tech Won't Save Us! Building solidarity and collective labour power!

Participants at re:publica know about the rich history of "techies" getting involved in activism. A novel development here, is tech workers are increasingly starting to position themselves as workers with the ability to negotiate and withhold their labour if necessary. The Berlin Tech Workers Coalition was formed in June 2019 and is peer-led by tech workers for tech workers - broadly speaking. This includes diverse sectors ranging from e-commerce, automotive startups, content moderators, video game studios, delivery riders, non-profit tech etc... How does a peer-led grassroots coalition bring diverse work-forces together under a common umbrella and what can we achieve in the future to come? How does this map across the globe and with other collective labour structures?

As tech workers increasingly become political actors, it creates new possibilities for external civil society including legislators, NGOs and social movements to address some of the hardest problems.