Ocelot

What We Build With Power: The fight for economic justice in tech

This is a historically conscious manifesto calling for worker organizing, led by Black and Latinx technologists. It was written in the city with the deepest income inequalities in America, across the river from the most prestigious universities in the world. It's a book of paradoxes and uncomfortable truths.

This book has a specific purpose: We are in dire need of a shift in culture, as the next few years bring about the end of the jobs on which our communities of color depend. We need you with us.

Don't hand me a glass of water from your reservoir when you have the power to break the dam.

A free society is one in which people don’t have to spend all of their time working in order to survive. In fact, the presence of an entire class of people who need to give their lifetimes over to their labor just so they can continue to live is symptomatic of a society that is not free. The working poor, disproportionately Black and Latinx, deserve economic justice.

Meanwhile, the tech community continues to fail to understand not only the roots of the crisis of representation but also the reasons for which it really matters. As long as we're not talking about the systemic dynamics and imbalances of power -- their history, as well as their persistence today -- tech will continue to miss the point. We need to fundamentally transform tech culture, and we need to support that transformation with systems of accountability. No more talk without action. And no action without clarity of objective.

It's a Beacon Press publication, with a tentative release date in the Spring 2023. Sign up below to be emailed with occasional updates.

It's Always Been About Power

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