Anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
s have employed certain
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
s for their cause, including most prominently the
circle-A
Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the #Circle-A, circle-A and the Anarchist symbolism#Black flag, black flag. Anarchist cultural symbols have been prevalent in popular culture since around the t ...
and the
black flag.
Anarchist cultural symbols have been prevalent in popular culture since around the turn of the 21st century, concurrent with the
anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalis ...
.
The
punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedom ...
has also had a close association with anarchist symbolism.
Flags
Red flag
The red flag was one of first anarchist symbols and it was widely used in late 19th century by anarchists worldwide.
Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
wrote that he preferred the use of the red flag.
Use of the red flag by anarchists largely disappeared after the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
, when red flags started to be associated only with
Bolshevism
Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, fo ...
and
communist parties
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
,
bureaucratic
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
and
reformist
Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.
Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...
social democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
, or
authoritarian socialism
Authoritarian socialism, or socialism from above, is an economic and political system supporting some form of socialist economics while rejecting political liberalism. As a term, it represents a set of economic-political systems describing themse ...
.
[
]
Black flag
The black flag has been associated with anarchism since the 1880s, when several anarchist organizations and journals adopted the name ''Black Flag''.
Howard J. Ehrlich
Howard J. Ehrlich (1932–2015) was a sociologist, educator, and author.
Early life and career
Howard J. Ehrlich was born and raised in New York City. He later graduated from Columbus, Ohio, public schools. He studied sociology at Ohio S ...
writes in ''Reinventing Anarchy, Again'':
The origins of the black flag are uncertain. Modern anarchism has a shared ancestry with—amongst other ideologies—socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, 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.
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
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
anarchist group founded in July 1881.One of the first known anarchist uses of the black flag was by Louise Michel
Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and important figure in the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she embraced anarchism. When returning to France she emerged as an important French a ...
, participant in the Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
in 1871. Michel flew the black flag during a demonstration of the unemployed which took place in Paris on March 9, 1883. With Michel at the front carrying a black flag and shouting "Bread, work, or lead!," the crowd of 500 protesters soon marched off towards the boulevard Saint-Germain and pillaged three baker's shops before the police arrested them. Michel was arrested and sentenced to six years solitary confinement. Public pressure soon forced the granting of an amnesty. She wrote, "the black flag is the flag of strikes and the flag of those who are hungry".
The black flag soon made its way to the United States. The black flag was displayed in Chicago at an anarchist demonstration in November 1884. According to the English language newspaper of the Chicago anarchists, it was "the fearful symbol of hunger, misery and death". Thousands of anarchists attended Kropotkin's 1921 funeral behind the black flag.
Bisected flag
The colors black and red have been used by anarchists since at least the late 1800s when they were used on cockade
A cockade is a knot of ribbons, or other circular- or oval-shaped symbol of distinctive colours which is usually worn on a hat or cap.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th and 19th centuries, coloured cockades were used in Europe to show the allegia ...
s by Italian anarchists in the 1874 Bologna insurrection and in 1877 when anarchists entered the Italian town Letino
Letino is a ''comune'' and small village in the province of Caserta, in Campania, southern Italy.
It was one of the villages liberated by the Italian Libertarian Communist Insurrection of 1877 by Errico Malatesta, Carlo Cafiero, Pietro Cesare Cec ...
carrying red and black flags to promote the First International
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation
An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as ...
. Diagonally divided red and black flags were used by anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in b ...
s in Spain such as the labor union CNT during the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. George Woodcock
George Woodcock (; May 8, 1912 – January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel wri ...
writes that the bisected black-and-red flag symbolized a uniting of "the spirit of later anarchism with the mass appeal of the irst
An infrared search and track (IRST) system (sometimes known as infrared sighting and tracking) is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infrared radiation, such as the infrared signatures of jet aircraft and helicopters.
IR ...
International".
Symbols
Circle-A
The symbol composed of the capital letter '' A'' surrounded by a circle is universally recognized as a symbol of anarchism and has been established in global youth culture Youth culture refers to the societal norms of children, adolescents, and young adults. Specifically, it comprises the processes and symbolic systems that are shared by the youth and are distinct from those of adults in the community.
An emphasis ...
since the 1970s. An interpretation held by anarchists such as Cindy Milstein
Cindy Milstein is an American Anarchist, anarchist activist based in Brooklyn. They are an Institute for Anarchist Studies board member.
They have also been involved with the Institute for Social Ecology, and are currently a board member with t ...
is that the ''A'' represents the Greek ('without ruler/authority'), and the circle can be read as the letter '' O'', standing for ''order'' or ''organization'', a reference to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...
's definition of anarchism from his 1840 book ''What Is Property?
"Property is theft!" (french: La propriété, c'est le vol!) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book ''What Is Property? or, An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government''.
Overview
By "pro ...
'': "as man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy" (french: la société cherche l'ordre dans l'anarchie).
In the 1970s, anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk (also known as anarchist punk or peace punk) is ideological subgenre of punk rock that promotes anarchism. Some use the term broadly to refer to any punk music with anarchist lyrical content, which may figure in crust punk, hardcor ...
and punk rock bands such as Crass
Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977, who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of life, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk s ...
began using the circle-A symbol in red, thereby introducing it to non-anarchists. Crass founder Penny Rimbaud
Penny Lapsang Rimbaud (born Jeremy John Ratter, 1943) is a writer, poet, philosopher, painter, musician and activist. He was a member of the performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and in 1972 was co-founder of the Stonehenge Free Fes ...
would later say that the band probably first saw the symbol while traveling through France.
Black cat
The origin of the black cat symbol is unclear, but according to one story it came from an Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...
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 music venue in Austin (which was closed following a July 6, 2002 fire) and a now-defunct "collective kitchen" in the University District of Seattle.
Slogans
No gods, no masters
"No gods, no masters" is a phrase associated with Anarchist philosophy. Likely dating back to a 15th-century German proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
, it appeared in an 1870 pamphlet by a disciple of Auguste Blanqui
Louis Auguste Blanqui (; 8 February 1805 – 1 January 1881) was a French socialist and political activist, notable for his revolutionary theory of Blanquism.
Biography Early life, political activity and first imprisonment (1805–1848)
Bla ...
and became the title of Blanqui's 1880 newspaper ' before it spread throughout the anarchist movement, appearing in Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activist ...
's 1885 ''Words of Rebel'' and an 1896 Bordeaux anarchist manifesto. Sébastien Faure
Sébastien Faure (6 January 1858 – 14 July 1942) was a French anarchist, freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism.
Biography
Before becoming a free-thinker, Faure was a seminarist. He engaged ...
resuscitated the slogan during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, after which Paris's Libertarian Youth adopted the name. It has appeared on tombstones of revolutionaries, as the slogan of birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
activist Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
's newspaper ''The Woman Rebel
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth contro ...
'', and as the title of a against capital punishment by Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré (24 August 1916 – 14 July 1993) was a French-born Monégasque poet and composer, and a dynamic and controversial live performer, whose career in France dominated the years after the Second World War until his death. He released s ...
.
See also
* Anarchism and the arts
Anarchism has long had an association with the arts, particularly with visual art, music and literature. This can be dated back to the start of anarchism as a named political concept, and the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on the French rea ...
* Anarchist Black Cross
The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for c ...
* Anarchist schools of thought
Anarchism is the political philosophy which holds ruling classes and the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, The following sources cite anarchism as a political philosophy: Slevin, Carl. "Anarchism." ''The Concise Oxford Dicti ...
* Black bloc
*
* Black rose (symbolism)
Black roses do not naturally exist but are symbols with different meanings or for various things.
Flowers
The flowers commonly called black roses do not really exist in said color, instead they actually have a dark shade, such as the "Black ...
* Communist symbolism
Communist symbolism represents a variety of themes, including revolution, the proletariat, peasantry, agriculture, or international solidarity.
Communist states, parties and movements use these symbols to advance and create solidarity within ...
* Extinction symbol
The extinction symbol represents the threat of holocene extinction on Earth; a circle represents the planet and a stylised hourglass is a warning that time is running out for many species. The symbol dates to at least 2012 and has been attribu ...
* Political colour
Political colours are colours used to represent a political ideology, movement or party, either officially or unofficially. It is the intersection of colour symbolism and political symbolism.
Parties in different countries with similar ideolo ...
* Property is theft!
"Property is theft!" (french: La propriété, c'est le vol!) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book ''What Is Property? or, An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government''.
Overview
By "pro ...
*
*History of anarchism
The history of anarchism is as ambiguous as anarchism itself. Scholars find it hard to define or agree on what anarchism means, which makes outlining its history difficult. There is a range of views on anarchism and its history. Some feel anarc ...
References
External links
"Anarchism"
Flags of the World.
*
"Blog: Heart in a Hearless World"
"History of anarchist symbols"
Anarchy Is Order
''An Anarchist FAQ
An, AN, aN, or an may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Airlinair (IATA airline code AN)
* Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy
* AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey
* Anime North, a Canadian an ...
''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anarchist Symbolism
Activism flags
Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...