The Luddites were early 19th-century English textile workers (active 1811–1816) who organised to destroy industrial machinery as a protest against the factory system, declining wages, and the displacement of skilled artisanal labour during the Industrial Revolution.
In popular usage, “Luddite” has become shorthand for someone who futilely resists technological progress. This reading misrepresents the original movement: the Luddites were not opposed to machinery as such, but to the way new machinery was being used to undercut wages, replace skilled workers with unskilled labour, and concentrate wealth among factory owners. Their struggle was about who controls Technology and who benefits from it.
The Luddite frame returns whenever new technologies threaten existing labour arrangements – most recently in debates about automation and AI. Dismissing concerns about technological displacement as “Luddite” tends to obscure the same political question the original movement raised: whether productivity gains will be shared or captured.
References
- Wikipedia: “Luddite”
- Gary Stevenson - Will AI destroy the economy?