What do these mean?

The is the general sign for "anarchy", which legend has it was first used by Bakunin (?) to illustrate "Anarchy is Order"- hence the A in an O.

:red: is the historical sign for Communism, whereas a black star meant anarchism, hence anarco-communism being denoted by the

has been the sing meaning enviromental anarchism, or green anarchism since the 60s (?)

nice to meet you mate

'Anarchy is order' was from Proudhon. And the circled a appered in the 1960s.

The circle-A stands for anarchism. Originally it was meant to be an A inside of an O, meaning "anarchy is order".

The five-point morning star has many different meanings, from the five elements (earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit) to both Christ and Satan (depending on which way up it hangs). For the last few centuries it has been associated with socialist and other radical movements, although I'm not sure why.

Certain colors have traditionally stood for different ideologies and movements. For example:

red = socialism/class struggle (militancy, the blood of the proletariat)

black = anarchism (negation, mourning for the victims of oppression)

green = environmentalism (plants!)

pink = queer (as in the pink triangle gay men were forced to wear by the Nazis)

purple/lavender = feminist (the latter particularly associated with lesbianism)

brown = fascist (as in brownshirts)

blue = conservative

yellow = liberal

orange = social democratic

white = monarchist, also pacifist

The above colors can be combined to create syntheses of ideology. A combination of red and black represents anarchism with a strong commitment to class struggle, and historically has been used to symbolise anarcho-syndicalism. Black and green is a more recent combination, and represents anarchism with a strong commitment to ecology -- particularly primitivism.

Surely we can take it back a step further and say red = rage and black = anger (idea used with flags during french revolution 1789).

And for when you discover these icons woof (hidden in the 'view more emoticons tab':

= Anarchy

= Anarchist Feminist

= Queer Anarchist

Almost forgot -- as well as anarchism, the color black is sometimes associated with lesbianism: black triangles were worn by lesbian victims of the Nazis.

really? i was not aware that the nazis persecuted lesbians. i don't think they saw them as any real threat.

but then again, perhaps the history books be lying to me. or i just stopped reading!

Yeah, lesbianism was considered by the Nazis to be unnatural. I guess Aryan women were meant to be in heterosexual marriages making babies for the Reich.

Wikipedia has an entry for the black triangle. Browsing that site, I came across an entry for all the concentration camp badges -- the system of categorization was much more complex than I realized. Disturbing reading.

Homosexual women werent persecuted as vigorously as homosexual men, but when they were particuarly "unusual" or they were assosciated with other "crimes" they were attacked, imprisoned etc.

And in an anarcho-syndicalist flag, with the red for class struggle/communism and the black for anarchy, does the black go above the red or the red above the black? does it matter (i hope not) and is there any significance to that?

i read once that the black (anarchy) cuts through the red (communism) giving a clear idea which is more important.

but then i thought that was a pile of shit

Thanks for asking my question

I hope you don't mind me asking what are the "simple" philosophy behind each Communism, Trots, Socialism, Anarchism, etc. and lastly what are the philosophy on Fascists?

Sorry I forgot to mention Neo-Liberals what are their philosophy?

Ta.

I'd take a look at our thought section first before getting people to give massively long explanations for these!

www.enrager.net/thought

Usually the red goes on top from the bottom left to top right. I don't know why. But I've seen it the other way round. If you look at most anarcho-syndicalist unions/groups that is how they have their flags, badges etc.

i think anarcho-anoraks say that a-syndicalists have the red on the top, and a-communists have the black on the top (something to do with the fai and the cnt, although i may have imagined it).

can i ask WHY the red star is visible all the time and not the black star? surely black would be more useful for a forum with lots of different anarcho variations on for when we want to stop being sectarian, whereas the red star is a disgusting symbol of authoritarian oppression who's only link to anarchism is in it's suprression... unless you introduce an icepick icon to be aimed it i'll begin to think there's a secret conspiracy of trotskyism by the backdoor going on here....

Am i making this up or in Spain '36 and before didnt the CNT used red and black flags which were horizontal and not diaganolly cut. The red was always on top then. So i guess it carried on.

The Anarchistfaq.org site has a good bit on flags / symbols etc.

Pah - horizontal line my arse.

And the black should be on the top-right (although bottom-right is also okay)

Yeah, wasn't it on the Anarchist FAQ or some such silliness (you know like the word of the non god-god) that I read a breakdown of the red and black flag.

While I can't imagine that it's definitive, I thouught it made lots of sense and made me all warm and fuzzy...

Basically, it was along the lines of the black being on the right, like Alexa said, symbolising the growth of Anarchisim out of the commune (red). The explination was more indepth then that, but thats it in a nutshell, a very small one at that.

I did a quick scan of the FAQ and can't see it jumping out at me... I am often proved wrong with shit like this, so I have no doubt someone will pop up with the correct link or telling me that I'm just totally deluded... which I am

Yeah the red bit represents class struggle (the blood of the workers massacred in the paris commune), and out of the class struggle comes anarchism

Anarchism is the class struggle.

I'm with steve on this one - black is most often on the bottom right. doesn't really matter though, and in some of the old spanish pics you can see horizonally divided flags.