Jacobin Radio: Gilets Jaunes, the Gamification of Class Struggle

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2018

⏱️ 60 minutes

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Summary

In this episode, Suzi talks to Jacobin contributing editor Sebastian Budgen about the gilet jaunes protests rocking France, named for the yellow traffic vests the protestors wear. The movement was ignited by President Emmanuel Macron’s so called climate measures — hiking gas taxes and reducing the speed limit, but quickly included other basic economic demands about low wages and the increasing impossibility of making ends meet, while the wealthy were getting tax breaks. Sebastian Budgen looks at the movement’s origins, politics, support, and potential. Then Sarah Mason joins Suzi to describe her experience as a Lyft driver doing precarious work in the gig economy. She explains, in her article in the Guardian, how workers are motivated, essentially in game mode, to do insane amounts of driving, and how the insertion of the algorithm into the traditional class struggle has changed the way workers can fight.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio and I'm Susie Weisman.
0:09.0	Today we begin with the Yellow Vests Movement in France. McE Stark New World of Work for the Precariat.
0:23.4	Sebastian Budgen joins us first with a report
0:26.8	and analysis of the Jilijon or Yelugvast social movement
0:31.0	in France that was ignited by President Macron's so-called climate measures
0:35.0	hiking gas taxes and reducing the speed limit on the backs of those increasingly
0:40.0	unable to make ends meet while the wealthy were getting tax breaks.
0:44.0	Macron's support is plummeted while the spontaneous Yellow Vests movement has the support
0:49.2	of two-thirds of the population.
0:51.4	The protesters have blockaded roads, erected barricades,
0:54.3	danced in the streets, while police have responded with mass arrests and
0:58.6	violence. We get Sebastian's understanding of this movement, its demands, politics, and its potential.
1:05.0	Sarah Mason then joins us to explain what precarious work is like in the so-called
1:10.3	gig economy. She's been driving for lift and explains in her article in the Guardian called High Score
1:14.1	Scorelobay, why the Gig Economy, about her
1:17.4	why the Gig Economy loves gamification about her experience, how workers are motivated, essentially in game
1:25.2	mode to do insane amounts of driving and how the insertion of the algorithm into the traditional
1:31.1	class struggle has changed the way workers can fight.
1:34.7	Sarah says the chat room is the modern version of a work stoppage, but it has limitations.
1:40.6	We'll get our analysis when Jacobin Radio returns in'm Susie Weisman Radio. I'm Susie Weisman.
1:59.0	And today we're going to look at the Yellow Vest Movement, also known as the Gilejeune.
2:04.2	Sebastian Budgen is with us, and he's an editor for Verso Books
	...

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