Red flag

In politics, a red flag is predominantly a symbol of socialism, communism, Marxism, unionism, leftist politics (social democrat, labor, revolutionary left) and historically, combined with black, anarchism. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution (1789-1799).

The symbol was adopted by socialists during the revolutions of 1848 and became a symbol of communism as a result of its use by the Paris Commune of 1871. The flags of several socialist states, including China, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union, are explicitly based on the red flag.

In Christian iconography, the colors black and red are traditionally used as symbols of evil. Armies used red flags or banners as a symbol of defiance and battle.

It is common to see red flags superimposed with the names or emblems of parties, movements, organizations or unions, for example: the League of Social Democrats of Hong Kong, the Socialist Party of France and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The Labor Party in Great Britain used it until the late 1980s. It was the inspiration for Jim Connell's song, The Red Flag, used as the latter party's anthem. Red flags are frequently seen at protests, demonstrations and marches.

Although the color red has no impact on the bull's charge, the use of the muleta of that color in bullfighting contributes to the showiness of the spectacle and somehow hides the blood stains. Even before the revolution French, red is the color of revolt as well as a symbol of the working class, the proletariat.

History

The revolutionary associations of the color red are ancient. In the Middle Ages, ships in combat flew a long red streamer, called Baucans, to signify a fight to the death. The Chambers Encyclopedia (1727-41) describes the flag used in combat: "The red flag is a sign of challenge and battle." The red cap was a symbol of popular revolt in France dating back to the Jacquerie of 1358.

The Ottoman Empire used a variety of flags, especially as naval insignia, during its history. The star and crescent began to be used in the second half of the 18th century. A 'buyruldu' (decree) of 1793 required ships of the Ottoman Navy to fly a red flag with the star and crescent in white. In 1844, a version of this flag, with a five-pointed star, was officially adopted as the Ottoman national flag.

The true origin of the use of the red flag as the insignia of labor movements dates back to 1789, during the French Revolution. The color red was associated with patriotism at the beginning of the French Revolution due to the popularity of the tricolor cockade, introduced in July 1789, and the Phrygian cap introduced in May 1790. The Law of October 20 of that same year decreed the display of a red flag to announce that the army was going to intervene, in order to suppress a revolt. La Fayette, commander of the National Guard, raised a red flag over the Champ de Mars in Paris on July 17, 1791, as a symbol of martial law, warning rioters to disperse. Up to fifty anti-monarchist protesters were killed in the fighting that followed.

The Jacobins protested this action by raising a red flag in honor of the "blood of martyrs" of those who had been murdered. They created their own red flags to declare "martial law of the people against the revolt of the court". The Jacobins ruled France during The Terror (1793-1794) and made the red flag an unofficial national emblem. However, the Tricolor never lost its official status and regained popularity under Napoleon.

Protesters in South Wales hoisted two red flags soaked in calf's blood during the Merthyr Rising of 1831. It is claimed to be the first time the red flag was flown as a flag of workers' power.

In the 19th century, to show opposition to this Law, the red flag became the symbol of revolutionary insurrection and the labor movement, being used in the Paris Commune by the insurgents and by the socialist parties; hence the name "red" that is given to leftists. The original red flags of the Commune became icons of the socialist revolution.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, one of the pioneers of anarchism and founder of mutualism, was one of the first to associate the red flag as a revolutionary and popular emancipation symbol above any country, describing it as the "federal banner of the genre." human."

With the victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution of 1917, the red flag with a hammer to symbolize the workers and the sickle to symbolize the peasants, became the official flag of Russia and, in 1923 of the Soviet Union until its disintegration in 1991. For this reason it became the flag of the Communist Parties of the Third International (1919). In 1921, members of the French Communist Party arrived in Moscow and presented the new Soviet government with one of the Commune's original flags; It was placed (and is still in place) in Vladimir Lenin's tomb, next to his open coffin.

Other socialist states such as the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, also have mostly red flags. However, other countries and territories of non-socialist governments maintain red flags for historical reasons, as is the case of Morocco and Turkey, among others.

During the first Red Scare of 1919-1920 in the United States, many states passed laws prohibiting the display of warning signs, including Minnesota, South Dakota, Oklahoma and California. However, in 1931 the United States Supreme Court held that such laws are unconstitutional. In 1936, in the film Modern Times by Charles Chaplin, the character Charlot, after seeing a red flag fall from a truck, picks it up and waves it with the intention of returning it without knowing that From behind he is joined by a demonstration of workers, which is put down by the police and, immediately afterwards, Charlot is arrested, believing that he was the leader of the revolt.

The National Socialist Party used the color red in its propaganda and flags to attract the working class and distance it from left-wing parties:

"The red color of our proclamations was enough to attract them to the place of our assemblies. The ordinary bourgeoisie was extremely outraged to think that we too had taken over the red of the Bolshevists, and believed to see in this something of double meaning.

We had chosen the red color for our proclamations, after thorough and deep reflection, seeking to provoke those of the left, to make them ride in anger and thus induce them to come to our assemblies, even if it was only with the intention of disturbing us; more so they gave us the opportunity to make them listen to our word. "

Adolf Hitler (1925) My struggle.

The expression red flag has also been used in songs or commemorative marches of various parties or movements with a socialist inclination; This is observed in the case of the disappeared Italian Communist Party, whose anthem was called Bandiera Rossa; in the Labor Party in Great Britain, with its anthem The Red Flag; in the Venezuelan Red Flag party or even in the name of two newspapers, one Spanish with federal republican ideology (1869-1870) and another Puerto Rican with socialist ideology (1975-).

Other uses

It is one of the signal flags used on the beaches of some countries to indicate the prohibition of bathing. Also by itself it can denote dangerous situations at a general level. In speed motorsports, it is used to indicate that the race has been stopped due to a danger present on the circuit.

Galleries

These are two galleries of national flags and political parties based on the red flag.

National flags

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  Flag of the People ' s Republic of China
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  Flag of Vietnam
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  Flag of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (used 1978-1980)
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  Flag of the Soviet Union (used 1922-1991)
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  Flag of the People ' s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989)
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  Flag of the People ' s Republic of the Congo (1970-1991)
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  Flag of the People ' s Socialist Republic of Albania (1946-1992)

Political parties

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  Flag of the Communist Party of China
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  Flag of the Communist Party of Vietnam
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  Korean Labour Party Flag
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  Flag of the Revolutionary People's Party of Laos
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  Flag of the Communist Party of Nepal
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  Flag of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
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  Flag of the Communist Party of Peru-Sendero Luminoso

Art and propaganda

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  A French soldier draws a red flag from the barricades during the Paris uprising of 1848.

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  A poster of the Paris Commune (1871)

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  A demonstration in Moscow during the failed Russian Revolution of 1905, painted by Iliá Repin.

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  The red was the color of the Russian Revolution in 1917. The Bolshevikpainting by Boris Kustodiev (1920).

Further reading

• Priestland, David (2017). Red Flag: Political and Cultural History of Communism. Planet Group. ISBN 978-84-17067-42-7. Consultation on 4 September 2020.
• Suny, Ronald Grigor (2017). Red Flag Unfurled: History, Historians, and the Russian Revolution (in English). Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78478-564-2. Consultation on 4 September 2020.
• Suny, Ronald (2020). Red Flag Wounded: Stalinism and the Fate of the Soviet Experiment (in English). Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78873-076-1. Consultation on 4 September 2020.
• Priestland, David (2016). The Red Flag: A History of Communism (in English). Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. ISBN 978-0-8021-8979-0. Consultation on 4 September 2020.