Don't Be A Tool! is a series of mutual education workshops (or reading groups where we aren't too pushy about the reading) trying to bring together the worlds of engineering and radical politics together. The workshops are for anyone who wants to explore how engineering and technology is linked to capitalism and oppressive power structures, how things could be done differently, and where we come into all these big questions.

This workshop's theme is digital technology. Capitalists love to boast that we're in the middle of a new digital industrial revolution. Like the last industrial revolution, digital technology is drastically changing the way we live and work, it's making a few people mega rich and it's built on exploitatative global supply chains. It's also changing things culturally, bringing us into closer contact with people from all over the world, while seemingly entrenching social divisions. It's also so convenient. It's letting me put this event online whereas before I guess I would have had to shout about it in the street... I don't know... I'm so used to digital technology that I'd struggle to go back, especially now that a smart phone is basically your passport to many of societies most basic services.

So, as digital technology changes the landscape, how do we on the left change our strategy and what can we learn from past moments of drastic technological development?

Recommended reading for this session is:

• Future Histories by Lizzie O'Shea
• Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek

As always, these are suggestions not essential reading. Come along ready to share your thoughts on these books, other things you've read and your experiences in work, activism and life in general. The best thing you can do the prepare for the workshop is to think of a question you want to discuss.

The event is free, but if you can please bring a donation for LARC for use of the space.

Contact email: dontbeatool@proton.me