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Issue No. 17 | Spring 2015

Ours to Master

In 1934, Sutnar repeated his feat at the 3rd Workers’ Olympiad, collaborating again with the creator of the theme, Karel Loersch, and director Vojta Novák. The script on “liberated labor,” inspired by hopes for a socialist future, was influenced by the Great Depression of the 1930’s. The design is striking — darkly dressed masses of “workers,” masses of “engineers” in white and an iron army of robots reel around the key symbol of mechanized industry: a huge press. When economic depression causes workers to lose their jobs, they turn to the machines attacking them as enemies. The capitalists flee from the factories and the press then addresses the rebelling masses, telling them in a human voice that it is a laborer, just like them. A new era opens, with machines and people joined in labor for the good of the whole society.

Ladislav Sutnar, Design in Action

Edutopia

Education is not a design problem with a technical solution. It’s a social and political project neoliberals want to innovate away.

Occupation Apps

New applications and mobile services for Palestinians are being called liberatory. But they’re more a way for capitalists to profit from occupation.

Ours to Master

Our challenge is to see in technology both today’s instruments of employer control and the preconditions for a post-scarcity society.

Red Innovation

Far from stifling innovation, a socialist society would put technological progress at the service of ordinary people.