Despite the dot‑com crash of 2000, the tech sector remained a magnet for talent, as the digital age of global connectivity and computing took hold and high‑paying roles for engineers, designers and other professionals multiplied. MIT PhD candidate JS Tan, who graduated from Brown and RISD in 2015, joined the industry believing that internet‑related technologies could create a more progressive world. Google once embodied this ethos with the slogan “don’t be evil,” but the advent of the Trump administration prompted many workers to question whether their employers truly supported democratic values. Tan and former colleague Clarissa Redwine co‑authored Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry (Haymarket Books, 2026), documenting how tech workers organized, the tactics they employed, and the impact on Silicon Valley labor politics over the past decade.
In 2017, while Tan was at Microsoft and Redwine at Kickstarter, President Trump issued an executive order banning nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries and indefinitely suspending Syrian refugees. OpenAI co‑founder Sam Altman joined airport protests and wrote a blog post urging tech firms to take a public stand, arguing that employees have leverage because companies rely heavily on talent. His call sparked industry‑wide activism, with workers staging walkouts and protesting contracts with the U.S. military, immigration enforcement agencies, and workplace policies they deemed sexist. In 2018, after Google employees protested, the company chose not to renew its contract for Project Maven, a Pentagon AI‑driven drone‑surveillance program. Eight years later, more than 600 staff signed an open letter demanding Google reject classified AI work with the Pentagon; the company’s response was a terse “we’re committed to working with the Pentagon,” highlighting a shift in corporate politics.
Tan attributes the erosion of employee leverage to two major shocks. First, the 2022 interest‑rate hikes wiped out hundreds of billions in tech market value, prompting cost‑cutting measures that targeted the sector’s expensive salaries. Second, the rise of generative AI coding tools has deskilled many roles, heightening job‑security anxieties. Without a union or a cross‑company bargaining platform, workers have struggled to mount effective collective resistance.
Tan enrolled at MIT Media Lab in 2020 and is now a doctoral student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, focusing on the political economy of tech. Redwine was a key organizer of Kickstarter’s union drive and was fired in 2019—a dismissal she claims was retaliation, which the company denies. Their motivation for writing the book is to remind that tech workers still want a say in how their technologies are built and to establish proper guardrails. The manuscript began in 2024 and was published in 2026; Tan describes the writing process as “exhilarating.” A launch discussion co‑hosted by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning is scheduled for Oct. 26.
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