A Very Short History of Working Class Struggle

From the dawn of agriculture to the coming age of artificial intelligence.

Photo by Plato Terentev

In the grand tapestry of human history, the threads of work and technological disruption, woven together, knotted, inseparable, have shaped the course of our species’ journey. From the misty dawn of our ancestors to the glittering promise of an AI-driven future, the nature of work has undergone increasingly profound transformations, often to the detriment of us, the working class. As we stand on the precipice of another new era, I thought it would be nice to briefly reflect on the path that has led us here — and the possibilities that lie ahead. Right now, everything is changing once more.

As Karl Marx once said, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Always have the rich and mighty sought to exploit the labor of the masses; to extract every ounce of value derived from sweat, blood, and calloused hands. But the workers, (occasionally) united in solidarity, have (occasionally) fought back, demanding their fair share. A never-ending struggle, a social democrat’s unstable compromise, designed to keep the otherwise flourishing industry of guillotine construction at bay, soon perhaps to culminate in a dead end.

Let’s dive in. (And keep in mind that I’m no historian.)

The first disruption: agricultural revolution

Approximately twelve thousand years ago, our ancestors embarked on a journey that would alter the course of human history. The domestication (and systematic subjugation) of animals and crops, the mastery of biological processes, and the emergence of agriculture marked the first disruption. This seismic shift gave birth to sedentary societies, cities, writing, culture in the Western, bourgeois sense. It was a farewell to the hundreds of millennia of human “prehistory” and the dawn of an entirely unrecognizable new age. Humans no longer belonged with nature:

Not of the Natural World

As David Graeber (rest in peace) and David Wengrow explore in their book "The Dawn of Everything,” this transition was not the linear march towards “progress” often found in history books, but rather a complex interplay of social, economic, and technological forces culminating, over time (and including many setbacks), in a new status quo. The surplus generated by new agriculture laid the foundation for radically hierarchical societies and the emergence of inequality, yes, but it also opened up new avenues for human creativity and expression. Progress is never black or white, as we very well know.

The rise of agriculture was, in short, the first step toward the commodification of labor and the exploitation of the many by the few. Not all societies followed this trend, but it’s clear that hierarchy, unfreedom (“order”), and a disregard for nature have proven the dominant ways of organizing our lives.

The second disruption: industrial revolution

For thousands of years, the pace of change remained relatively slow. Civilizations rose and fell, empires conquered and crumbled, one ruler replaced the other, but the fundamental sources of energy — human and animal labor — remained largely unchanged. Life expectancy was more a function of geography, social status, and war than technology. Most people’s work revolved around subsistence agriculture in relatively tight-knit communities.

Then, in the middle of the eighteenth century (or around that time), the second disruption began. The steam engine and coal became the backbone of the Industrial Revolution, ushering in the first machine age. The world's population rose dramatically, exploded, went entirely, unfathomably, crazy. New vistas of abundance opened up, with extended life expectancy, near-universal literacy, and increasing, ever-increasing, still increasing, productivity. By the middle of the nineteenth century, it was clear that, for better or worse, there was no going back.

As Karl Marx observed, this transformation was not without its contradictions. The Industrial Revolution brought unprecedented wealth and prosperity, but it also gave rise to entirely new forms of exploitation and alienation. The factory system, with its long hours and harsh conditions, became the symbol of the new economic order. The working class, once tied to the land, now found itself at the mercy of machines and the capitalists who owned them.

“The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors,’ and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment.”

In short: “natural,” feudal forms of domination which emerged with the first disruption were replaced with more abstract types. The landlord and aristocrat became the capitalist entrepreneur.

Marx — sorry for the many quotes — captured this reality with his usual precision: “The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.” The Industrial Revolution may have brought material progress, but it came at a tragic human cost — except if you’re a radical Utilitarian, I guess, who believes that every life, no matter how abhorrent and grim, is worth living. Then, sure, the sheer quantity trumps quality. (Please leave now.)

The third disruption: artificial intelligence

Today, we stand on the cusp of the third disruption. The forces of exponential automation and artificial intelligence are converging to create a world that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors. The possibilities are both exhilarating and terrifying.

On the one hand, we face the specter of ecological collapse, economic inequality, and social unrest. The climate crisis looms large, threatening to upend the delicate balance of our planet’s ecosystems — this, arguably has already happened. Also, the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few has reached unprecedented levels, fueling discontent, disillusionment, depression (guilty), and political division (also guilty).

About half of the activities carried out by workers could soon be automated, according to a 2018 report from the World Economic Forum. Keep in mind: the report is six years old, written before the recent explosion in the field of AI. (Have you seen the recent Nvidia presentation? Fucking terrifying.) Who will bear the brunt of this disruption? The working class, of course. Those who toil in factories, fields, and offices (yes, white-collar workers are also workers), their labor exploited for the profit of the capitalist class.

On the other hand, we will soon have the tools to create a world of abundance and leisure. Automation and AI have the potential to liberate us from the eternal drudgery of working for the benefit of abstract others, freeing us to pursue our passions. Renewable energy, if promoted and built without exploiting Congolese children, offers the promise of a sustainable (and, I dare dream, decentralized) future, one in which we could live in relative harmony with the natural world.

But here's the catch: under capitalism, technology serves to further enrich the wealthy elite. The gains in productivity and efficiency will further line the pockets of the billionaire class, while the rest of us will be left to fight and scramble for scraps. Conclusio: we need to move beyond.

Moving beyond (capitalism)

This is where visions such as “Fully Automated Luxury Communism” (FALC) or Universal Basic Income (UBI) come into play. They are a politics of hope and possibility, a call to imagine a world beyond scarcity and work, a conviction that the fruits of technological progress should be shared by all, not hoarded by a privileged elite. To achieve this vision, we must embrace a politics of collective solidarity and individual agency. We must harness the power of automation and AI to create a world of abundance, where everyone has access to the necessities of life and the freedom to pursue dreams. Seizing the means of production will soon mean seizing artificial intelligence from the claws of the sociopaths.

Yeah, I know what you think.

Right now, this is a utopian fantasy. Soon, however, it might become a practical necessity. As we navigate the challenges ahead, we must remember that another world is possible. We have the tools and the knowledge to create a society that works for everyone, not just the few. We’ve always lacked the strength. Let’s be blunt: every revolution insofar has failed. Pessimism (very guilty) has replaced class war. Instead of equality we got late-stage-capitalism.

AI is the technology of all technologies. This is my conviction. Right now, we are at a monumental crossroads. We’ll talk more about this soon.

To end this, once more, in the immortal words of Karl Marx, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”

Thanks for reading,

Antonio Melonio

You can also support my pursuit of freedom and self-determination on Patreon (starting at $2 a month), or leave a tip on PayPal. Thank you.

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Read more:

AI, Capitalism, and the Collapse of Industrial Society

When Stability Feels Like Suffocation

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