> It's basically crying that someone else is doing something better than you.
That "someone else" used state power to beat you, imprison you and starve your family if you dared to organize with other workers.
Meanwhile, literal conspiracies of factory owners had full legal protection and the ability to write laws, including laws that gave the death penalty for machine breaking.
The Combination Act of 1799, and following Combination Acts, made it illegal for workers to organize in any sense[1][2].
> Luddites pre-dated socialism and worker organization
They pre-date Marxist socialism, but the term socialism predates Marx and has had various meanings before then. Marx chose to adopt the existing term to describe his concept of socialism.
It's weird for you to say that Luddites pre-dated worker organization, when workers had organized for collective bargaining in the past, and owners made it illegal. It's also interesting considering the history of workers organized in guilds that certainly predate the Luddites by centuries.
That "someone else" used state power to beat you, imprison you and starve your family if you dared to organize with other workers.
Meanwhile, literal conspiracies of factory owners had full legal protection and the ability to write laws, including laws that gave the death penalty for machine breaking.