Should the left strive towards a techno-utopian liberation from labour or should it, conversely, devote itself towards inventing and facilitating an alternative, non-capitalist societal recognition of human labour, one that would run even against technological progress?
Or is it precisely this increasingly unassailable complex of automation that offers possibilities for new forms of self-control and self-deliberation? Such and similar dilemmas may seem distant now, but as they quite probably imply radically divergent fighting strategies, it would make sense to draw a conclusion as soon as possible.
The seminar “Labour and Technology” on 6 October is one starting point to do so.
It is organized by the Institute of Labour Studies, Slovenia, in collaboration with transform! europe and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe.
Working language: English
Contact: info@delavske-studije.si
Programme
11.00 – 13.00
Panel: Limits of automation
Panelists:
Matteo Gaddi (Punto Rosso, IT)
Nadia Garbellini (Punto Rosso, IT)
Tomislav Medak (MAMA, CRO)
Anže Dolinar (IDŠ, SLO)
Host: Nejc Slukan (IDŠ, SLO)
14.00 – 16.00
Panel: Revisiting the plan
Panelists:
Mislav Žitko (CRO)
Sašo Furlan (IDŠ, SLO)
Martin Hergouth (IDŠ, SLO)
Host: Jan Kostanjevec (IDŠ, SLO)
17.00 – 19.00
Robots & A.I. – Utopia or Dystopia?
Keynote lecture: Michael Roberts (UK)
Robots and AI are a leap forward in mechanisation and automation but are they fundamentally different from earlier revolutions in technology? Huge numbers of existing human occupations may disappear and be replaced by robots, but will new jobs replace the old? Can the information revolution and AI take human beings out of hours and years of toil into a new world of leisure? Will the basic contradictions of inequality, crises and exploitation under capitalism be ended? Does this mean that history as class struggle will end or will it intensify as robots take the jobs and the owners of robots rule?