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Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software
From: |
Danny Spitzberg |
Subject: |
Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software |
Date: |
Mon, 31 Aug 2020 08:38:33 -0700 |
Jean makes a great point that I’m surprised nobody has expanded upon:
> injustice is injustice, if it happens to me personally
or if it happens to other people. Spreading of free software is one
way to liberate others, and talking about it and teaching others is
also one good way to liberation. Injustice need not be personal for me
to act to help other people.
In most workplaces, there are owners, bosses, and managers with their
interests — and then there are workers with their interests.
Workers get the short end of the stick, with wage theft, harassment,
unfair firing, and unfree software. Some workers stay in deadens jobs
or feel trapped by their situation. And some change things, often by
withholding labor in various forms: doing EXACTLY what the job
description says to prove a point about their creative abilities and
critical value, shallowing down production, staging a sit-in, walking
out, or forming a picket line. These forms of withholding labor work to
make change if workers are united, act collectively, and have a demand.
Members of the WNBA (women’s national basketball association in the
USA) did that last week, refusing to play in protest of yet another
Black person murdered, and it spread to dozens of other sports teams.
The antecedents first this sort of thing are hard — made harder for us
because few people appreciate the vital necessity of free/libre & open
source software, or see it ranked very high on their hierarchy of needs
compared to keeping their job, receiving their salary, and getting on
with their lives.
HOWEVER, it’s also very simply to do what Jean talks about: agitate
coworkers to ask genuinely about their pains and needs, educate peers
about alternatives and paths to get them, and organize to take action.
Some folks like the IWW union use the acronym AEIOU: agitate, educate,
inoculate — against typical refusals from a boss or manager like “we
just don’t have the budget” or “don’t talk to each other come to my
office instead” — organize, and unionize. I should add here that FSF
workers have a union, and last I heard are capped at 40 hours of work
per week without paperwork for overtime.
If FLOSS is a demand, the instead of quitting a FLOSS-less job solo,
finding a job where FLOSS is respected, or muddling through, consider
talking to your coworkers, asking about their software and tech tool
pains, building relationships around the idea of improving things, and
acting collectively. This might involve a tiny bit of ideology and
politics, but it’s worth it to get the things we want and need.
Some of my favorite resources on this topic of labor organizing:
[1]https://labornotes.org/
On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 11:01 PM Mike Gerwitz <[2]mtg@gnu.org> wrote:
On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 01:51:47 -0400, Mike Gerwitz wrote:
> Hey, Jean:
> I agree, and I agree that we ought to help whomever we can.
>
> But I also recognize that not everybody sees it as an injustice,
and not
> everyone will be convinced. Helping someone who does not want to
be
> helped has its own considerations.
I forgot to emphasize one other point:
In my original message, I encouraged lily to try to change the
working
environment if possible. In a similar way, I don't necessarily
think
that everyone should avoid jobs that don't subscribe fully to the
free
software philosophy.
The reason is that the best way to change an organization is often
from
within. If you make it a goal to do so, then while your ideals may
be
strained, the end result could be quite beneficial to society and to
our
movement. If we avoid situations that conflict with our ideals,
then we
can't hope to change them.
This is in a way similar to using non-free software for the sake of
studying it to write a free replacement. You suffer, but you do so
for
a good cause.
But certainly if your goal is to change a company for the better,
and
that goal proves to be unattainable, it's time to move on.
--
Mike Gerwitz
Free Software Hacker+Activist | GNU Maintainer & Volunteer
GPG: D6E9 B930 028A 6C38 F43B 2388 FEF6 3574 5E6F 6D05
[3]https://mikegerwitz.com
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References
1. https://labornotes.org/
2. mailto:mtg@gnu.org
3. https://mikegerwitz.com/
4. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
5. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, (continued)
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, Matt Ivie, 2020/08/10
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, Roberto Beltran, 2020/08/10
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, Jonathan Sandoval, 2020/08/10
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, Jean Louis, 2020/08/10
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, Mike Gerwitz, 2020/08/28
- Re: Advice Workplace that Forces Non-Free Software, quiliro, 2020/08/31