Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the circle-A (â'¶) and the black flag, although anarchists have historically largely denied the importance of symbols to political movement. Since the revival of anarchism around the start of the 21st-century concurrent with the rise of the anti-globalization movement, anarchist cultural symbols are widely present.
Black flag
The black flag, and the color black in general, have been associated with anarchism since the 1880s. Many anarchist collectives contain the word "black" in their names. There have been a number of anarchist periodicals entitled Black Flag.
The uniform blackness of the flag is in stark contrast to the colorful flags typical of most nation states. Additionally, as a white flag has been used to request parley or to surrender, the black flag symbolizes defiance and opposition to surrender.
Historical origins
The black flag represents the absence of a flag, and thus stands in opposition to the very notion of nation states. In that light, the flag can be seen as a rejection of the concept of representation, or the idea that any person or institution can adequately represent a group of individuals. Modern anarchism has a shared ancestry with â€" amongst other ideologies â€" socialism, a movement strongly associated with the red flag. As anarchism became more and more distinct from socialism in the 1880s, it adopted the black flag in an attempt to differentiate itself. Some anarchists at the time, such as Peter Kropotkin, preferred to continue using the red flag rather than adopt the black.
Both the black and red flags first gained notoriety for their use by Buccaneers, who were pirates of French origin operating in the West Indies. The black flag (later the "Jolly Roger") was displayed, or 'run up' the mast, first as an indication that the lives of the crew would be spared if they surrendered. If the crew resisted, the red flag would then be displayed to indicate that the offer of amnesty had been withdrawn; no prisoners would be taken (see also Jolly Roger/Pirate flag below).
Subsequent usage
During the French Revolution, the red flag was adopted by the Jacobins, whose members controlled the insurrectionary Paris Commune during the assault on the Tuileries, the September Massacres, and throughout the Reign of Terror. In 1831, the black flag was displayed as an emblem of protest during the first of the Canut revolts, an uprising of silk workers in Lyon; it was also flown in the 1840s during hunger riots, as a symbol of the desperation of the starving urban poor.
It first became associated with anarchism in the 1880s. The French anarchist paper, Le Drapeau Noir ("The Black Flag"), which existed until 1882, is one of the first published references to use black as an anarchist color. Black International was the name of a London anarchist group founded in July 1881. Louise Michel, participant in the Paris Commune of 1871, flew the black flag on March 9, 1883, during demonstration of the unemployed in Paris, France. An open-air meeting of the unemployed was broken up by the police and around 500 demonstrators, with Michel at the front carrying a black flag and shouting "Bread, work, or lead!" marched off towards the Boulevard Saint-Germain. The crowd pillaged three baker's shops before the police attacked. Michel was arrested and sentenced to six years solitary confinement. Public pressure soon forced the granting of an amnesty. According to Michel, the "black flag is the flag of strikes and the flag of those who are hungry."
The black flag soon made its way to America. On November 27, 1884, the black flag was displayed in Chicago at an Anarchist demonstration. According to the English Language newspaper of the Chicago anarchists, it was "the fearful symbol of hunger, misery and death."
In the 1917 Russian Revolution, Nestor Makhno's anarchist forces were known collectively as the Black Army. They fought under a black flag with some success until they were crushed by the Red Army (see Black Guards). Emiliano Zapata, a Mexican revolutionary in the 1910s, used a black flag with a skull and crossbones and Our Lady of Guadalupe on it. The flag's slogan was "Tierra y Libertad" ("Land and Liberty"). In 1925, Japanese anarchists formed the Black Youth League, which had branches in Taiwan under Japanese rule. In 1945, the group named their journal Kurohata ("Black Flag").
More recently, Parisian students carried black (and red) flags during the massive General Strike of May 1968. In the same year, these flags were seen at the American Students for a Democratic Society national political convention. Also at about the same time, the British-based journal Black Flag was started, and is still in existence today. Black flags remain a symbol of anarchists today.
Circle-A
The Circle-A is almost certainly the best-known present-day symbol for anarchy. It is a monogram that consists of the capital letter "A" surrounded by the capital letter "O". The letter "A" is derived from the first letter of "anarchy" or "anarchism" in most European languages and is the same in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. The "O" stands for order. Together they stand for "Anarchy is the mother of Order," the first part of a Pierre-Joseph Proudhon quotation. This character can be written as Unicode codepoint U+24B6, enclosed A: â'¶. In addition, the at sign @ or "(A)" can be used to quickly represent the circle-A on a computer.
History of anarchist usage
The first recorded use of the A in a circle by anarchists was by the Federal Council of Spain of the International Workers Association. This was set up by Giuseppe Fanelli in 1868. It might even have its origin in the emblem of the Fraternal Democrats from 1850. It predates its adoption by anarchists as it was used as a symbol by others. According to George Woodcock, this symbol was not used by classical anarchists. In a series of photos of the Spanish Civil War taken by Gerda Taro a small A in a circle is visibly chalked on the helmet of a militiaman. There is no notation of the affiliation of the militiaman, but one can presume he is an Anarchist. The first documented use was by a small French group, Jeunesse Libertaire ("Libertarian Youth") in 1964. Circolo Sacco e Vanzetti, youth group from Milan, adopted it and in 1968 it became popular throughout Italy. From there it spread rapidly around the world.
The Circle-A and popular culture
As noted above, the circle-A long predates the anarcho-punk movement, which was part of the punk rock movement of the late 1970s. However, the punk movement helped spread the circle-A symbol more widely, and helped raise awareness of it among non-anarchists. This process began with the use of anarchist imagery when members of the band Crass become aware of the symbol while traveling through France. With time, the symbol â€" and "anarchy" as a vague synonym for rebelliousness â€" were incorporated into common punk imagery. This led to gradual appearances in mainstream culture over the course of several years, at times far removed from its political origin (described by Situationists as "recuperation"). These appearances typically connected it with anarchy and were intended as Sensationalist marketing ploys, playing off of mainstream association of anarchy with civil disorder.
Bisected flags and stars
Various schools within the anarchist movement have adopted their own flags. These flags are bisected diagonally with the right half in black for anarchy and the left half in a color representing each school's ideas. These color templates are also extended to five-pointed stars representing the same schools.
The red-and-black flag is the symbol of the anarcho-syndicalist and anarchist communist movements. Black is the traditional color of anarchism, and red is the traditional color of socialism. The red-and-black flag combines the two colors in equal parts, with a simple diagonal split. Typically, the red section is placed on the top-left corner, with the black on the bottom-right corner of the flag. This symbolizes the co-existence of anarchist and socialist ideals within the anarcho-syndicalism movement.
The black-and-yellow or black-and-gold flag is used by some who identify as anarcho-capitalists. The yellow is intended to symbolise gold, a commodity of exchange often used in marketplaces unrestricted by state intervention. The flag was first used in public in Colorado in 1963 at an event organised by Robert LeFevre.
Conversely, classical anarchists do not consider capitalism to be a part of anarchist ideology, which has traditionally been anti-capitalist and anti-private property and moreover, yellow is the political color traditionally associated with liberalism in opposition to socialism and worker unionization, for instance in the case of the yellow union thus, many anarchists view this flag not as a legitimate part of anarchist symbolism, but as a defacement of it.
The black-and-green flag is used by green anarchists and anarcho-primitivists. It is generally taken to symbolize the green anarchists' idea of resistance against industrial civilization, and cooperation with nature.
The black-and-purple flag is used in association with anarcha-feminism, as is the black-and-pink flag, although the latter is more closely associated with queer anarchism.
The black-and-white flag seems neither to be used by anarcho-pacifists nor Christian and Buddhist anarchists.
The black-and-orange flag is sometimes used by Mutualists.
The bisected stars are often turned, so that the two colours are not split vertically, but diagonally to imitate the design of the flags. This is commonly used by anarchist communism.
Other symbols
While the black flag and circle-A have been associated with anarchism as a whole, there are various other symbols used by certain groups of anarchists.
Black cat
The black cat, also called the "wild cat" or "sabot-cat", usually with an arched back and with claws and teeth bared, is closely associated with anarchism, especially with anarcho-syndicalism. It was designed by Ralph Chaplin, who was a prominent figure in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). As its aggressive stance suggests, the cat is meant to suggest such ideas as wildcat strike actions, sabotage, and radical unionism.
The origin of the black cat symbol is unclear, but according to one story it came from an IWW strike that was going badly. Several members had been beaten up and were put in a hospital. At that time a skinny, black cat walked into the striker's camp. The cat was fed by the striking workers and as the cat regained its health the strike took a turn for the better. Eventually the striking workers got some of their demands and they adopted the cat as their mascot.
The name Black Cat has been used for numerous anarchist-affiliated collectives and cooperatives, including a well-known music venue in Austin, Texas (which was closed following a July 6, 2002 fire) and a now-defunct "collective kitchen" in the University District, Seattle, Washington.
Black cross
The Anarchist Black Cross organization's primary goal is to eliminate all prisons. It originated in Tsarist Russia as a support organization for political prisoners. Their symbol is a black cross, with the upwards-facing line being replaced with a raised fist, a symbol also associated with anarchism, defiance of authority, and personal empowerment (black power, youth power, women's liberation, American Indian Movement, International Socialist Organization, 'power to the people', etc...). The fist also represents union, as "many weak fingers can come together to create a strong fist".
The cross is a modification of the Red Cross emblem used by International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (founded 1863), the world's largest group of humanitarian organizations. Originally called the Anarchist Red Cross, the name was changed around 1920 to avoid confusion when the Red Cross started organizing relief for prisoners as well.
Black rose
The black rose is a rarely-used symbol of anarchist movements.
Black Rose Books is the name of the pre-eminent anarchist bookstore in Montreal, an anarchist infoshop in Portland, Oregon, and a small press imprint headed by anarchist philosopher Dimitrios Roussopoulos. There is also an anarchist communal library and space called The Black Rose in Newtown, New South Wales. Black Rose was the title of a respected journal of anarchist ideas published in the Boston area during the 1970s, as well as the name of an anarchist lecture series addressed by notable anarchists and libertarian socialists (including Murray Bookchin and Noam Chomsky) into the 1990s.
Black Rose is also the name of an anarchist federation in the United States that began in 2014.
Jolly Roger / Pirate flag
The Jolly Roger as a black flag with skull and bones has recently gained a popularity among anarchists.
Some claim to use the Jolly Roger as a form of appreciation for the Pirate way of life in freedom and a lack of authority. Many Pirate ships were loosely democratic and most crew mates were working class fugitives from the highly repressive societies in which they were born. Anarchists may find affinity with the concept of pirate utopias, especially the island of legend, Libertatia. The Libertatian pirates have been identified as precursors to anarchists. Several articles relating to the connection between anarchism and piracy can be found in the libcom.org library Some anarchist hacktivists and infoanarchists consider themselves pirates due to their free lifestyles in the world of technology and their defiance of intellectual property laws by way of copyright infringement, patent infringement and software piracy, all of which are called piracy. See also Free software movement and Free culture movement
Sabot
The sabot or wooden shoe (also known as clog) was used symbolically by anarchists in the 19th and early 20th century, although it has largely faded from use since then. The French word for wooden shoe, sabot, is the probable root of the word sabotage, and refers to the tactic by early Dutch unionists of throwing sabots into the gears of factory or farm machinery, effectively stopping work until the equipment could be repaired. The American analogue of this tactic is "monkeywrenching," referring to the similar practice of throwing a monkey wrench in the machinery to damage it and prevent strikebreakers from being able to replace striking union members, and is now principly used to refer to ecotage.
A flag depicting a regular leather shoe of a type worn by peasants in the 16th century was carried by the peasants in the German Peasants' War of 1524-1525, a proto-anarchist rebellion.
Squatting sign
The squatting sign is one used by squatters globally. Sometimes as a graffiti, it is often used to indicate an occupied building, though it is also used in the graphic design of posters and flyers. The sign may have originated in the squatters scene in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in the late 1970s.
Egalitarian and equality symbol
Similarly to the Circle-A symbol, the egalitarian and equality symbol, also known as the Circle-E, features the letter E enclosed in a circle or letter O. It is thus used by class-struggle anarchists, who prefer these two letters to most others.
See also
- Communist symbolism
- Anarcho-syndicalist symbolism
- Anarcho-capitalist symbolism
References
External links
- The Symbols of Anarchy from An Anarchist FAQ.
- History of anarchist symbols from AnarchyIsOrder.org
- Anarchism at Flags of the World
- "Anarchism and the History of the Black Flag". Spunk Library.Â
- Blog: Heart in a Hearless World
