From the Knowledge Commons to Artificial Intelligence Monopolies: The Crossroads of the IT Worker

The world of information technology is leading one of the fastest and deepest transformations in human history. We are the ones who build the future at the keyboard, in server rooms, in data centers. Yet in this process of building, we often become isolated, drifting away from the true value of our labor under the shadow of flashy titles and "corporate family" fairy tales.

BilişimSen exists to put an end to this loneliness, to raise our rights to international standards, and to defend the dignity of labor with a common intelligence.

1. Our Common Heritage: The Knowledge Commons and Artificial Intelligence

The artificial intelligence models and vast technological systems we watch with admiration today are in fact a product of the knowledge of humanity accumulated over centuries, that is, of the "Knowledge Commons."

• Collective Labor: Every line of code we produce, every bug we solve, is in fact part of our collective labor within a global digital economy.
• Technology Is for Everyone: We defend the transformation of artificial intelligence not into a weapon in the hands of monopolistic companies that devalues labor, but into a tool that shortens working hours, increases welfare, and liberates our creativity. We are not merely the "object" of technology, but the digital intellectuals who direct it and oversee it for social benefit.

2. Artificial Intelligence from a Scientific Perspective: The New Frontier of Exploitation and the Position of the IT Worker

When we evaluate the threat of artificial intelligence and the claims of layoffs through the eyes of a trade unionist, we see that the issue is not merely technical progress, but a struggle to deepen the dominance of capital over labor.

The Logic of Capital: Surplus-Value and Deskilling

For capitalism, artificial intelligence is Marx's analysis of "mechanization" adapted to the digital age. The owner of capital, in order to increase his profit, must lower the cost of labor power (variable capital) and increase investment in machines (constant capital). In this process, artificial intelligence is a perfect tool for the production of relative surplus-value:

• Productivity Increase and Devaluation: AI increases the productivity of work enormously. This shortens the necessary labor time while lengthening the surplus-labor time for capital. However, as productivity increases, the IT worker's labor is devalued in the market as "abstract labor." The software developer who "writes code 10 times faster with AI" is in fact lowering the unit value of his own labor.
• Deskilling and the Reserve Army of Labor: The companies' claim that "AI will take your job from you" is in fact an effort to create, in the IT sector too, the reserve army of labor (the mass of the unemployed) that Marx spoke of. By standardizing complex work processes with AI and breaking them into small pieces, the need for highly skilled workers is reduced. This increases the worker's "replaceability," suppresses wages, and deepens precariousness (precaritization). AI wants to transform the IT worker from the "creator of code" into the "assembly-line worker of the algorithm."

The Digitalization of Exploitation: Algorithmic Despotism

Artificial intelligence deepens exploitation not only through the threat of unemployment, but at every moment of the work process. Companies, by delegating the authority of supervision to algorithms, carry the real subsumption that Marx spoke of regarding the assembly-line system in the factory into the digital offices. We call this algorithmic despotism: our performance, our breaks, even our emotional state are measured by algorithms; mobbing becomes systemic and impersonal.

3. Rights That Transcend Borders: Global Standards, Local Gains

IT labor by its nature knows no borders. That is why our struggle, too, must know no borders.

• Equal Rights: The "right to disconnect," flexible yet secure working models, and protective shields against mobbing that our colleagues working at the headquarters of multinational companies enjoy must also be standard for us.
• A Vision of Vested Rights: By bringing the best practices in the world to our country, we will place the working conditions of the IT worker on the ground of "universal rights." In place of the companies' "family" rhetoric, we will put legal guarantees and professional trade-union support.

4. From Consciousness to Organized Power: Protection and Development

BilişimSen is not just a door for seeking rights, but at the same time a center of development and solidarity.

• Legal and Social Armor: Against every kind of violence and pressure we face, from mobbing to job insecurity, we stand by our member with the support of our expert lawyers.
• Transparent Exposure and Awareness: By sharing with the public the practices of those who usurp rights, we will create awareness and become the "conscience of the public" against the mindsets that normalize corporate violence. Our aim is not to destroy companies, but to build a democratic work culture that respects labor.

5. The Heart of BilişimSen: Participatory Democracy and Transparency

The greatest strength of our union is the trust its members have in one another and their participation in decision-making processes. In this fresh structure that has not yet held its general assembly, we embrace democracy as a way of life.

• Common Intelligence: BilişimSen is an inclusive home that values the ideas of all its members without any discrimination and encourages a culture of debate. Our different points of view do not weaken us; on the contrary, they are like a "code review" that helps us find the truth.
• Transparent Governance: We make our decisions on transparent platforms, with the will of the grassroots and with open-heartedness. The right of every member to participate in, criticize, and oversee the management is sacred. Our unity is bonded around the common denominator of the "IT laborer," beyond any group or clique.
• We Are Strong in Unity: We pursue not personal ambitions, but collective success. Our general assembly will be the most concrete sign of this unity and solidarity.

6. Our Call: Let Us Write This Future Together!

We will make a difference not only with our technical skills, but also with our organized stance. If artificial intelligence is a tool of exploitation in the hands of capital, in the hands of the working class it can be a tool that makes the production process transparent, oversees it, and organizes collective life.

To unite under the roof of BilişimSen is to claim our own knowledge, our own data, and our own labor against the AI monopolies. Come, let us write the codes of the future not with exploitation but with solidarity; not for the benefit of the monopolies, but for the benefit of society.

Because we are strong together, together we are BilişimSen!