Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Technology should be used to better serve workers, not to cheat them out of pay
With AI now widespread across TV, film and video games, actors and performers need their rights vigorously defending from fraudulent use of their work, says Equity leader PAUL W FLEMING
Equity leader Paul W Fleming

THOSE who oppose new technologies are sometimes accused of being Luddites in a pejorative way — it’s a term thrown at those who simply oppose progress or change. 

However, as trade unionists, we should perhaps bear the mantle of Ned Ludd’s movement as it was originally intended by our radical working-class forebears. 

The movement’s response to the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI), whether in the creative industries or in the economy and society more broadly, merits the Luddite rallying call not to oppose change or progress but to tackle technology which was used, as they said “in a fraudulent and deceitful manner” to cut jobs, pay and undermine terms and conditions.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
SEEKING SOLIDARITY: Paul W Fleming is looking for support from the rest of the labour movement in fighting exploitative practices by Big Tech
TUC Congress 2025 / 9 September 2025
9 September 2025

PAUL W FLEMING is unequivocal that Labour’s unpreparedness and resulting ambiguity on copyright in the creative industries has to be reined in with policies that will reverse the growing abuse by Big Tech AI

CLASS SELECTION: March of the Valedictorians by 2023 Turner
BenchMarx / 4 March 2025
4 March 2025
CAILEAN MCBRIDE proposes a response to the encroachment of AI in the arts by reducing the duration of copyright and assuring full protection
THE UNACCEPTABLE FACE OF TECHNO-CAPITALISM: Entrepreneur Mar
Books / 22 November 2024
22 November 2024
JON BALDWIN recommends a well-informed survey of the ills promoted by AI tech corporations, and the measures needed to stop them exploiting us