Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ned Ludd is a legendary figure, possibly fictional, credited with breaking two stocking frames in 1779 near Leicester, England. The story was first traced to an article in The Nottingham Review on the 20th of December 1811, and there is no independent evidence of its veracity. A competing account from the same year names the figure as a lad called Ludlam rather than Ludd.
By 1812, frame-breakers adopted Ned Ludd as a fictitious leader, signing letters and proclamations as King Ludd, Captain Ludd, or General Ludd so that real organizers could not be identified and arrested. The tactic gave the movement a figurehead who could not be tried or executed.
Chumbawamba recorded "The Triumph of General Ludd" on their 2003 album English Rebel Songs 1381-1984. Robert Calvert released a song called "Ned Ludd" on his 1985 album Freq. Steeleye Span devoted a five-part section to the subject on their 2006 album Bloody Men, and the Gourds called him Uncle Ned in "Luddite Juice" on their 2009 album Haymaker!.
Edward Abbey's 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang is dedicated to Ned Ludd. Edmund Cooper's 1973 alternative-history novel The Cloud Walker depicts Ludd as a messianic religious figure. David Liss included Ned Ludd as a character in his 2011 novel The Twelfth Enchantment.
The legend traces to Anstey, a village near Leicester, England, where a weaver named Ludd allegedly smashed two knitting frames in 1779. The first written account appeared in The Nottingham Review on the 20th of December 1811. John Blackner's History of Nottingham, also from 1811, gives a variant story involving a youth named Ludlam who beat his father's knitting needles into a heap with a hammer.
In The Blacklist season 1 episode 8, a character named General Ludd leads a network opposing the financial system. The Disney Channel's Big Hero 6: The Series features a recurring character named Ned Ludd. The video game Starsector includes the Luddic Church and its extremist offshoot the Luddic Path as factions opposed to advanced technology and artificial intelligence.