Luddites

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The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who protested the usage of certain types of automated machinery owing to their concerns over worker pay, labour savings, child labour, working conditions, and output quality. They often destroyed production machines in organised raids. Members of the group referred to themselves as Luddites, self-described followers of "Ned Ludd", a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials. The Luddite movement began in Nottingham, England and spread to the North West and Yorkshire between 1811 and 1816. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters, and the Luddites were eventually suppressed by legal and military force, which included execution and penal transportation of convicted members. More recently, the term has been adopted as a reference to those who are opposed to new technologies.

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