Seeing the collective conservation efforts of multiple successive governments to eliminate all non-native predators from New Zealand by 2050 is really inspiring.

https://youtu.be/OmPrp1w1QYA

I feel facial recognition is more efficient than human labour. But the dangers of its misuse were too high for the EU to stomach. Seems like a similar issue here, but it’s the unions stepping up to force regulation because the government is too weak and stupid to do it itself.

The misuse of unfettered AI actors does pose real danger of unintended side effects not just to jobs but to society as a whole.

I don’t think it’s inevitable that a technology that has an advantage to business is destined to succeed. We’ve been able to ban a number of technologies that are ultimately more harmful in the long run, CFCs, engineered stone, asbestos and even recently the EU banned facial recognition AI. We just need to help people recognise the harmfulness of a technology.

They want to pay for an actor’s likeness once then own it for a lifetime. Hollywood should take a lesson from their own anti-piracy ads of the 90s. ‘You wouldn’t download an actor.’

As for is resistance futile. Here’s just a few things that resistance has bought us just in Australia (a nightmare capitalist society):

Annual Leave

Paid Annual Leave was first won after a campaign by printing workers in 1936. The Arbitration Commission granted the workers paid leave, which was then gained by other workers through their unions in different industries. Annual leave loading of 17.5 per cent was first won by workers in the Metal Industry in 1973.

Awards

Awards are legally binding documents that set out the minimum entitlements for workers in every industry. The first industrial award, the Pastoral Workers Award was established by the Australian Workers Union in 1908, mainly covering shearers. The shearers had experienced a terrible deterioration of their wages and conditions during the 1897 Depression and decided to take action to protect working people. Since 1904, awards have underpinned the pay and terms and conditions of employment for millions of workers. Awards are unique to Australia and integral in ensuring workers get ‘fair pay for a fair day’s work’.

Maternity leave

Australian unions’ intensive campaigning for paid parental leave ended in victory with the introduction of the Paid Parental leave scheme by the Gillard Labor government. Under the scheme, working parents of children born or adopted after 1 January 2011 are entitled to a maximum of 18 weeks’ pay on the National Minimum Wage.

Superannuation

Prior to 1986, only a select group of workers were entitled to Superannuation. It became a universal entitlement after the ACTU’s National Wage Case. Employers had to pay 3% of workers’ earnings into Superannuation. This later increased to 9% and on November 2, 2011 the ACTU and its unions’ “Stand Up for Super” campaign celebrated another win for working Australians, when the Labor Government moved to increase the compulsory Superannuation Guarantee to 12% over 6 years from 1 July 2013 to 1 July 2019.

Equal Pay for Women

Although there were attempts to introduce equal pay going back as far as 1949, the principle of equal pay for women was finally adopted by Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in 1969.

Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation Workers compensation laws first came into existence in West Australia in 1902. For many years unions agitated and campaigned for health and safety laws which compelled employers to provide a safe working environment. In Victoria, legislation was introduced in 1985 which saw the active role of workers in maintaining safety on the job. Building unions agitated for many years to ban the use of asbestos, finally succeeding in the 1980’s.

Long service leave

Coal workers went on strike in 1949 over a 35 hour week and Long service leave. Long service leave was finally introduced in New South Wales in 1951. Unions in other states followed.

Meal Breaks, rest breaks

Before unions agitated for meal breaks and rest breaks to be introduced, workers were required to work the whole day without a break. In 1973, workers at Ford in Melbourne engaged in industrial action over many issues, one of their demands being a proper break from the production line.

Unfair Dismissal Protection

Unfair Dismissal Protection came from the concept of a “fair go all round”, after the Australian Workers Union took a case to the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission on behalf of a worker who had been unfairly sacked in 1971. Since then, unions have campaigned for laws that reflect that ‘fair go’ principle, which is about having a valid reason to sack someone and that the dismissal cannot be harsh, unjust or unreasonable.

Green Bans

‘Green bans’ and ‘builders labourers’ became household terms for Sydneysiders during the 1970s. A remarkable form of environmental activism was initiated by the builders labourers employed to construct the office-block skyscrapers, shopping precincts and luxury apartments that were rapidly encroaching upon green spaces or replacing older-style commercial and residential buildings in Sydney. The builders labourers refused to work on projects that were environmentally or socially undesirable. They developed a ‘new concept of unionism’ encompassing the principle of the social responsibility of labor: that workers had a right to insist their labour not be used in harmful ways.

Proper unionised workers fighting in solidarity CAN protect their interests through resistance.

Solidarity ✊

Great show of solidarity.

Great show of solidarity.