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Open Source Software: a necessary tool to build our movements | What's Left
http://cpress.org/leftnews/news-item-91Date Written: 2016-07-25 Publisher: Citizens' Press Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX19828 Software companies are exploitative and other companies should invest in unionized products, condem work to lower wages and act in solidarity with other workers in the software industry. Abstract: - Excerpt: Behind the shine, proprietary software is produced by outsourced, non-union workers, the majority of which have no benefits and little health and safety support. Their work environments are male-dominated, where sexual harassment abounds, where age and experience are often seen as negative attributes. The knowledge developed in these environments is then sold at huge profit to the private investors with little care about the social impacts. ... Socialists demand that our organizations buy unionized products, oppose outsourcing of work to lower wages and act in solidarity with other workers. For the same reasons, we should be demanding the rejection of proprietary software when alternatives exist and demanding in-house developers be employed and their code shared with the rest of the movement. We must reject the millions of dollars wasted through the purchase of restrictive and unnecessary licences when that money could be used to employ people to expand development. Subject Headings |