Universal Automation

Universal Automation is an hacktivist intervention against the destruction of the social safety net in the UK referred to as the austerity programme, and the use of digital technologies by the government to enact it. It's not a hack as such but rather a tool to subvert Universal Jobmatch, a website that recipients of welfare are forced to use to search for jobs as a condition of their benefits.

People are required to spend more hours every week, and apply for more jobs on a government run website full of spam and fraud; a website were legitimate work opportunities are few and far between; a website which sole purpose is to ensure people are not idle no matter if busyness in meaningful in any way; a website where activity is not checked beyond meeting the simplest criteria for a number of application. It is obvious that a simple program can do those tasks instead of a human. Universal Automation is that program.

Universal Automation is a working application used by hundreds of people in the UK. It challenges the prevailing work ethics, the assumption that work is a value on its own, no matter if it's socially useful or fulfilling. It questions how digital automation is used to immiserate people.

We would like to use this project as a starting point and see where we can get. We could have a discussion about it as an statement about anti-work politics and how it can be mediated by technology. We could brainstorm how to further the struggle it is a part of. We could run a hacking workshop where we actually do that.