Abolish Silicon Valley! (6-22-20)

Disruption, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit – Silicon Valley is viewed by many as the cradle of technological development and progress in our world today. But, behind the luster of unlimited growth and unbounded ambition lies Capitalism’s standard blend of exploitation and concentration of individual wealth at the expense of public good. ———————————————————— At a time when technology is seeping even deeper into our lives, how can we reclaim it for the many and not the few? Join authors, activists and radicals Rob Larson and Wendy Liu for a discussion on Big Tech’s monopolistic power today, and how we can respond to it with a radical vision of digital socialism. Rob Larson is a professor of economics at Tacoma Community College and author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley, and Capitalism vs. Freedom. He writes for Jacobin, In These Times, Current Affairs and Dollars & Sense. Wendy Liu is a tech commentator, software engineer and former startup founder who left the tech industry to pursue a masters degree in inequality from the London School of Economics. She has written for Logic Magazine, Tribune, and New Internationalist, and has been featured in articles for The Atlantic and CNBC on tech worker union organizing. ———————————————————— Cosponsored by Haymarket Books and the Left Book Club. The Left Book Club is a subscription book club for everyone interested in left politics. Relaunched along the lines of Victor Gollancz’s ground-breaking organisation active in the 1930s, the LBC seeks to popularise ideas from the left across the UK and abroad. Subscribe today to receive the best books on radical politics: https://www.leftbookclub.com/ ———————————————————— To Join the Left Book Club: https://www.leftbookclub.com/member In the US, order a copy of Bit Tyrants here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1447-bit-tyrants To order a copy of Abolish Silicon Valley: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781912248704 Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/yrnBZMhKCnY Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks