Mobilising operaismo in the digital age: Continuities and ruptures with the 1960s ‘mass worker’ struggles

Abstract

This article examines whether the recent surge in labour mobilisations within the gig economy represents genuinely novel forms of worker resistance, or whether it is a reconfiguration of established patterns of collective action. To achieve this, the article analyses the relationship between workers’ struggles and changes to the labour process, comparing contemporary gig workers’ mobilisations with those of the ‘mass worker’ in Western Europe in the 1960s. To explore these dynamics, we employ the notion of class composition, a political and analytical tool developed within the Italian workerist tradition (operaismo) to capture the interplay between technological change, labour processes, and collective resistance. Through this lens, the analysis identifies continuities and ruptures between the mobilisations of mass and gig workers in three key areas: the actors involved; the action repertoires deployed; and the demands articulated. Crucially, we develop a taxonomy of the two waves of mobilisation, emphasising their similarities and differences. This taxonomy provides a framework for understanding how transformations in the labour process in the digital age are shaping new forms of collective action and protest.