Industrial Revolution 4.0: Revolution for whom?

The development of technology to facilitate human work is growing rapidly. For more than 200 years since the capitalist system was born, this system has brought various inventions to advance production. First of all the discovery of steam engines and trains that mechanize human work. The second was the discovery of electricity, communication equipment, chemistry, and oil so that production was mass-produced. The three found computers, the internet and mobile phones which were the beginning of automation, and then the discovery of robots and machines which began to replace human work in terms of assembly.

Now we are entering the Industry 4.0 era, which is an era where computers and automation are united in a completely new way, where robots are connected remotely with computer systems (artificial intelligence) that can control and work on production so as to minimize human intervention. The introduction of this technology not only has consequences for low-skilled workers but also poses a threat to high-skilled management-class white-collar workers.

The introduction of this technology has received a lot of attention from the world's bourgeoisie today. They are pessimistic that this technology can bring significant improvements to the fate of millions of human beings. Even though they believe that the presence of Industry 4.0 will increase world productivity, when they are asked about their readiness to wade through it, it turns out that not many of them say they are ready. Even a bourgeois economist, such as Paul Krugman, is pessimistic about this. In his article in the New York Times, "A New Industrial Revolution: The Rise of the Robots", he said that the use of smart machines can indeed increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but at the same time it can also reduce the demand for labor. including the smart ones. According to research conducted by the University of Oxford,

This technological progress threatens the working class every time, just as it did when capitalism was first introduced in Europe. The introduction of technology is now able to increase more profits than in the past. For example, running a transportation business that used to require a lot of workers, now it's enough to use a smart application, such as Uber or Gojek. Companies only need to spend money to make applications without having to pay other costs such as taxes, maintenance, etc. Under the pretext of work partners, workers are forced to work under conditions without health insurance with long working hours to make ends meet. The relationship between employers and workers has become looser so that workers working in this 'smart' sector of the economy work almost without any legal protection at all.

This technological development has not only stripped the standard of living of the working class but also the rights of the workers themselves. This means that current technological developments do not bring improvements to the lives of workers but instead add to the misery of the working class itself. This condition is no better than the working class of the 19th century who had to work 14 hours to meet the coffers of the profits of the manufacturing bourgeoisie.

The more advanced capitalism is, the more brutal and blatant its suppression becomes. The more new billionaires are born from this process, the more miserable the working class underneath will be. The wealth of billionaires is growing six times faster than that of the majority of the working class. This fact alone shows that the current economic system is no longer relevant to humanity. The concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people proves that this system has failed to bring progress to mankind. Technological progress has become a tool for capitalists to enslave humans. To make technology at the service of humanity we need to destroy capitalism. As long as capitalism exists, technology will serve the interests of profit capitalists. This system must be replaced by socialism, a system which serves the entire majority of the working people. All present technical and technological advances have created the conditions for the birth of a socialist society. But the problem is that the current system cannot be overthrown without a fight. A handful of this ruling class will stubbornly defend the capitalist system that has made them rich. To overthrow their dictatorship, the working class must organize and develop their own ideology: scientific socialism. Without this the working class will continue to be the victim of technological progress under capitalism. Finally the choice that is before our eyes is: socialism or barbarism!