Book Event: Against Tech Oligarchy

Join us for a discussion of with Co-Authors Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan, facilitated by Nikhil Pal Singh.

As tech bosses align themselves with the government, tech workers are fighting back. This is the rousing inside story of their movement—and the way it spawned an anti-worker backlash now reshaping the industry.
In 2016, the tech industry sprang into action, with workers and CEOs alike joining mass mobilizations against new anti-immigrant policies. But it wasn’t long before the tech bosses started to align themselves with the government.

In response, tens of thousands of tech workers protested against their own employers for betraying the progressive values that once defined the industry—including organizing against military contracts, walking out to protest sexism, and even launching a wave of union drives. By the early 2020s, these workers had sparked what observers were calling the tech worker movement, one that seemed capable of checking the industry’s reckless growth and reactionary drift.

But as their struggle grew, so did the employers’ backlash. A new class consciousness took root among tech's billionaire owners. Hell-bent on stamping out any and all dissent, tech executives began lashing out against the “woke” ideology they blamed for turning their once loyal employees against them—and replacing the good tech jobs of the 2010s with incessant layoffs, grind culture, and a management style that treats workers as disposable.

Against Tech Oligarchy provides a gripping account of this inspiring workers' movement and the rise of the hostile labor politics that define Silicon Valley today.

Nikhil Pal Singh is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at NYU, who works at the intersection of contemporary US history and political theory. His book, Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy, published by Harvard University Press in 2004 was recognized as the best book in US civil rights history by the Organization of American Historians.

This event is governed by the Engelberg Center's Code of Conduct and NYU's COVID policies. KN95 masks and Covid-19 rapid tests will be available for attendees.