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I think something like this would need to be attached to something that is fun or solves an immediate need. Nobody is going to sign up for the "Wobbly App" to o

I think something like this would need to be attached to something that is fun or solves an immediate need. Nobody is going to sign up for the "Wobbly App" to organize their workplace for fun, but if Microsoft died tomorrow and left LinkedIn to the IWW in its will, I can imagine that they would find lots of ways to turn that into organizing muscle. A more realistic scenario is some kind of labor-backed nonprofit coming out with a platform that includes labor organizing features, but whose users mainly see it as another kind of service and only tangentially about building worker power. I don't know what that would be though: dating app? tax software? payment app? If the service was truly popular, how difficult would it be for the initial backers to keep control (see OpenAI)? Would capital and the state torpedo this thing as soon as it saw its first success, or co-opt it to their ends?

foxyv 3y ago
Probably it would just start off as a non-profit work social media thing like Nextdoor for employers instead of neighborhoods. (Hopefully with a lot less racist BS) Or a Glassdoor with a focus more on labor organization. A place for people to complain about bad scheduling or share rumors or news without corporate monitoring. Definitely encrypted and invite only. Right now, most workplaces are panopticons and employees don't get much chance to gather and discuss. Some places are even monitoring phone communications through apps on employee phones. We could even bring in employment attorneys as a benefit of the service to answer questions about the law and provide a secure way to journal workplace harassment. You already see stuff like this on Reddit, but they are rife with bad actors.