Anarchist symbolism
Anarchist symbolism is the repertoire of anarchist symbols .
overview
Peter Kropotkin , the founder of the theory of communist anarchism in the 19th century, propagated the red flag as a common symbol with socialism and communism . In addition, other symbols of their own developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The best known today are the circled A and a simple black flag . According to the definition of anarchism as “free of domination”, many anarchists fundamentally criticize the legitimacy of symbols, flags or even hymns , especially of nation states, and deny “respect” to them in the form of expressions of respect. For this reason, some also reject a corresponding symbolism that is supposed to represent anarchism or a partial movement of anarchism.
Despite the criticism of symbols from their own ranks, symbols have always been used by anarchists and anarchist groups.
A in a circle
The anarcho sign (also Anarcho-A , Kreis-A or Circle-A ) is the most famous symbol of anarchism. The symbol forms a capital "A" in a circle. According to Peter Marshall the circled "A" refers to the maxim " A chy is O rdnung" by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon , the quote from him but reads in full: anarchy is order without domination.
A more common interpretation is A in O , which means that in the end (of the destruction) of the old there is the beginning (the beginning) of the new.
The first confirmed use of an A in a circle comes from the Spanish section of the First International . This was founded by the Freemason Giuseppe Fanelli in 1868. It was probably adapted by the anarchists as it was only used as a symbol by many by the Freemasons. According to George Woodcock , this symbol was not used by classical anarchists.
The first public use of this symbol by anarchists probably dates back to the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. The oldest photo documentation comes from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). One picture shows an anarchist fighter of the republic who wears the mark on the back of his helmet.
According to some sources, on November 25, 1956, the French anarchist group Alliance Ouvriere Anarchiste took the A in the circle as an official symbol. What is certain is that it was proposed in April 1964 - without reference to Freemasonry - by Tomas Ibanez and René Darras in the Bulletin des Jeunes Libertaires in order to find a practical and quick method with which texts and slogans could be signed. Circolo Sacco e Vanzetti, a youth group from Milan, took it over in 1968. First it became popular all over Italy, then quickly spread worldwide.
The A in the circle has the Unicode U + 24B6: Ⓐ. In addition, the “@” sign or “(A)” is used on the computer.
Dark Star
The black star is another well-known anarchist sign. The symbolism of the diagonally divided flag also appears in a similarly designed red-black, green-black, purple-black and pink-black five-pointed star.
The black star is available in Unicode as U + 2605: ★.
Black flag
The black of the anarchist flag does not indicate a symbol of rule and is interpreted as a negation of rule.
The first black flags with political symbolic power probably appeared for the first time in France at the beginning of the 19th century. During the July Revolution in 1830 and then during the workers' uprisings in Lyon in 1831, black flags were used, which soon spread throughout France as an expression of desperation and willingness to resist. The French newspaper "Le Drapeau Noir" (The Black Flag), which appeared until 1882, is one of the first written evidence of the use of the black flag by the anarchists. In connection with Louise Michel , a well-known member of the Paris Commune , reports are made about the use of the black flag that she waved over an unemployment demonstration on March 9, 1883. Since then, the black flag has become more and more popular as a symbol in anarchist circles. It wafted over the territory of the Ukrainian Machno during the Russian civil war as well as over the anarchist militias of the Spanish civil war.
The black flag is available in Unicode as U + 2691: ⚑.
Two-tone flags
The anarcho-syndicalist movement often uses the colors black and red together, in the flag diagonally black-red or red-black divided into two equally large, appropriately colored triangles. This sign is also used by anarchist communists, undogmatic leftists and social revolutionaries. The use of the black and red color combination is documented for the first time during the uprising of Bologna in August 1874, where participants wore the “black and red cockade of the anarchists.” Other anarchist movements also use the diagonally divided flag, in which a triangle remains black. Eco-anarchism, primitivism, and anti-speciesism use a black and green flag and anarcha feminism uses a black and purple flag. More recently, a black and pink divided flag can be observed, which is used by queer anarchists, who are mainly committed to deconstructing the sexes and promoting different sexual identities .
Black cat
Since the 1880s, the black color has served as a symbol of anarchism. The black cat , in an alarmed, combat-ready mood, was later adopted as an anarchist symbol. This cat, often called "Sab Cat" and used in the FAU logo , is particularly associated with workers-related anarcho-syndicalism, but is also used generally as an anarchist symbol.
As a court witness in a 1918 trial against Heads of the Industrial Workers of the World , Ralph Chaplin , widely believed to be the creator of this symbol, found that the Black Cat “was widely viewed by the boys as representing the idea of sabotage . The idea was to scare the entrepreneurs by mentioning the term sabotage or by employing a black cat. You know, if you see a black cat crossing your path anywhere and you are superstitious, then you will be a little unlucky. The idea of sabotage is to use a little black cat against the boss. "
Wooden shoe
The wooden shoe , French sabot , was symbolically used by the anarchists of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century in France by Émile Pouget (1860–1931) in the fight for the 8-hour day . From this the term sabotage developed . In addition, the term is believed to come from the fact that workers threw these traditional shoes into factory and harvesting machines and stopped working until the machines were repaired in order to exert pressure.
In Philadelphia there is the anarchist bookstore Wooden Shoe , in Bonn there is a bookshop collective called Le Sabot , and in Wiesbaden there is a left-wing cultural association with a bar and event room called Sabot .
additional
The letter combination NRK is rarely used as an onomatopoeic abbreviation for anarchy : If the three letters are pronounced in English and quickly, the result is the English word for anarchy - anarchy.
The black rose is a not very common anarchist symbol that is used to name magazines, publishers and info shops.
The Jolly Roger is sometimes used and is particularly related to the mythical pirate colony Libertalia .
The Anarchist Black Cross has its own logo with the black fist on a black cross.
The non-violent anarchism used the broken rifle of anti-militarism with the A in a circle or the black star.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Woodcock, George. Anarchism: A History Of Libertarian Ideas And Movements . Broadview Press. 2004. p.8
- ↑ Marshall, Peter Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism HarperCollins London, 1992 pp 558
- ↑ 'La Masoneria y el obrero movimento' ( Memento of 13 July 2006 at the Internet Archive ) Alberto Fernández Valín.
- ^ "According to Peter Marshall," [i] n 1964 a French group, Jeunesse Libertaire, gave new impetus to Proudhon's slogan 'Anarchy is Order' by creating the circled-A a symbol which quickly proliferated throughout the world. " [Op. Cit., P. 445] This is not the earliest sighting of this symbol. On November 25 1956, at its foundation in Brussels, the Alliance Ouvriere Anarchiste (AOA) adopted this symbol. Going even further, a BBC documentary on the Spanish Civil War shows an anarchist militia member with a "circled-A" clearly on the back of his helmet. Other than this, there is little know about the "circled-A" s origin. " An Anarchist FAQ: internet Archive (2007), accessed June 3, 2019
- ↑ drapeaunoir.org , accessed on March 2, 2013: Le 25 novembre 1956, le groupe Alliance ouvrière anarchiste fait de ce A cerclé son symbole officiel.
- ↑ Original: «trouver un moyen plus pratique et rapide de minimiser le temps et la longueur de signature sous les textes et slogans. »
- ↑ L'histoire véridique d'un symbole anarchiste, le A cerclé ( Memento of June 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Woodcock, George. Anarchism: A History Of Libertarian Ideas And Movements . Broadview Press. 2004. p.8
- ↑ Roland Gaucher: Le drapeau noir , Miroir d l'histoire, No. 224/1968, p. 29
- ↑ George Woodcock Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements Penguin Books 1963
- ↑ Robert Michels: The psychology of the anti-capitalist mass movements , in: Grundriss der Sozialökonomik, IX. Department, Part 1, Tübingen 1926, p. 344 ff.
- ↑ black red? No idea where that comes from ... - www.anarchismus.at. Accessed April 11, 2018 (German).
- ^ Nunzio Pernicone , Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892, p. 93 quoted from Anarchist FAQ ( Memento of July 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ): The earliest recorded use of the red-and-black colors was during the attempted Bologna insurrection of August 1874 where participants were “sporting the anarchists' red and black cockade . ”[Nunzio Pernicone, Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892, p. 93] In April 1877, a similar attempt at provoking rebellion saw anarchists enter the small Italian town of Letino "wearing red and black cockades" and carrying a "red and black banner." These actions helped to "captur [e] national attention" and "draw considerable notice to the International and its socialist program." [Nunzio Pernicone, Op. Cit., Pp. 124-5 and pp. 126-7] Significantly, another historian notes that the insurgents in 1874 were "decked out in the red and black emblem of the International" while three years later they were "prominently displaying the red and black anarchist flag." [TR Ravindranathan, Bakunin and the Italians, p. 208 and p. 228] , accessed December 6, 2009
- ^ Anarchist Flags: The Symbols of Anarchism. In: Green is the New Red. August 25, 2017, accessed September 6, 2019 .
- ^ Industrial Workers of the World, An Alphabet Soup: The IWW Union Dictionary
- ^ Salvatore Salerno: Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World 1989, SUNY Press, p. 178, from US v. WD Haywood, et al., Testimony of Ralph Chaplin, July 19, 1918, IWW Collection, Box 112, Folder 7, pp. 7702 & 7711, Labor History Archive, Wayne State University.
- ↑ Kulturkneipe Sabot in Wiesbaden . Retrieved February 16, 2013
- ↑ Federation of Nonviolent Action Groups / Grassroots Revolution (FöGA) - DadAWeb. In: dadaweb.de. Retrieved June 10, 2015 .