#socialism

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Today in Labor History April 26, 1937: The Nazis and Italian fascists bombed Guernica, a town in the Basque region of Spain, at the request of Spanish fascist leader, Francisco Franco. Later that year, Picasso painted his famous painting, Guernica, in protest of the atrocity. This was during the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans, a coalition of anarchist, socialist and communist partisans, were fighting the Nationalists, led by Franco. They bombed Guernica for two hours, killing between 1,000 and 3,000 civilians, or 20-60% of the population.

The grey, black, and white painting, on a canvas 3.49 meters (11 ft 5 in) tall and 7.76 meters (25 ft 6 in) across, portrays the suffering wrought by violence and chaos. Prominent in the composition are a gored horse, a bull, screaming women, a dead baby, a dismembered soldier, and flames. By Pablo Picasso - PICASSO, la exposición del Reina-Prado. Guernica is in the collection of Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.Source page: http://www.picassotradicionyvanguardia.com/08R.php (archive.org), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1683114

Still a little more than 3 weeks to collect signatures for resolutions for our Convention! There's a ton of exciting stuff and it's important for DSA members to sign on to shape how the organization will look for the next two years.

Check out https://convention2025.dsausa.org for more details about this year's convention!

DSA Members: you can also visit the Convention Hub here: https://dsausa.us/con25-hub

Not a member? Join DSA! https://dsausa.org/join

Happy birthday comrade Lenin!

Lenin and the Bolsheviks envisioned a new world based on principles of justice, equality, and unity. They imagined a society where all work together for collective benefit, free from class divisions that perpetuate global strife. Today we are told that we cannot conceive a new form of society, only superficial modifications to our current system. But what sort of life is it without aspirations for a better future?

Linux and open source demolish capitalist myth that profit drives innovation. Some of the world's most vital software being built by volunteers as opposed to corporations proves that humans create interesting things for the sake of curiosity and joy. When profit becomes the primary motive, you get ads, not Apache; microtransactions, not MySQL. Real innovation thrives when we're free to build, not just bill.

", if it is to maintain its political legitimacy, may well have to be accompanied by very levels of on , which would, in effect, socialize the financial returns that the generate. Perhaps this was what the A.I. pioneer was getting at during a recent interview when, on being asked about the economic policies needed to make A.I. work for everybody, he gave a one-word answer: .”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/how-to-survive-the-ai-revolution

Today In Labor History April 7, 1870: German-Jewish anarchist and pacifist, Gustav Landauer, was born. He was friends with, and influenced, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. He served as the Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction during the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, during the German Revolution of 1918–1919, but was killed when the republic was overthrown. He was also the grandfather of film director, Mike Nichols (The Odd Couple, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate).

Photo of Gustav Landauer, in a light-colored suit and tie, with a thin mustache, wearing pince-nez glasses. By Oscar Suck - National Library of Israel, Schwadron collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92807450