Black flag.

        Lots of people recognise the Black Flag, but not so many are aware of its origins or the thoughts behind the choice. It's a symbol that is unmistakably anarchists, but where did it come from?
        Maurice Dommanget, claims Louise Michel was among the first to announce the black flag as a symbol of the anarchist movement, though there is some evidence of the Black Flag being present at earlier revolts, riots and revolutionary actions. At the twelfth anniversary of the outbreak of the Paris Commune Louise Michel made speech stating;

“No more red flags, wet with the blood of our fighters. I will raise the black flag, in mourning for our dead—and for our illusions."

Newspaper coverage depicting Louise Michel at a rowdy demonstration on March 9, 1883.

       An excellent article on the history of the Black Flag here on Crimethinc: 

       In the first article in this newspaper, entitled “The Premier of the Black Flag: To Anarchists,” the editors spelled out their aspirations:

           Is there a need for a program when we take the title “The Black Flag” for our newspaper; are we not already indicating what our course of action will be? In taking this title, we were inspired by the local history of the city of Lyon, because it is on the heights of Croix-Rousse and Vaisse that the workers, driven by hunger, displayed it for the first time, as a sign of mourning and revenge, and thus made it the emblem of social demands. By taking this title, therefore, it means that we will always be on the side of the workers against the exploiters, on the side of the oppressed against the oppressors.
         It is a commitment that we will not fail, taking inspiration from the campaign that our predecessors started with The Social Duty, The Revolutionary Standard, and The Struggle; we will see The Black Flag fly at the front in the assault that the anarchists carry out against this corrupt old society, which is already trembling on its foundations; an organ of struggle and combat, The Black Flag will wage war on all the abuses, all the prejudices, all the vices, all the hypocrisies, which, under the name of social institutions, are currently joining forces to delay the fall of this rotten old world, which, left to its own devices, would soon collapse under the weight of its infamies.
         Supporters of absolute freedom, we will wage war on all those pseudo-liberals, makers of laws, who only understand freedom when it is well regulated, for we believe that freedom is only real if it is unhindered; we will wage war on laws, codes, judges, police officers, and all institutions, in the end, whose real goal is to restrict this freedom, which we proclaim so loudly, and to promote the exploitation of the masses by a privileged minority.

Tina Modotti, “Woman with Flag”—a photograph of a woman walking “with the black flag of the Anarcho-Syndicalists” in Mexico City in 1928.

Read the full article HERE: 

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Anarchism.

       For those who might be unsure, thought this was worth sharing, so lifted it straight from ANARCHISM:

Le Monde Libertaire - Officiel

🏴 For a st century anarchism.
By the Black Star - FA group of Allier - via the website of Libertarian Socialism (full text online)

🏴 Anarchists want an egalitarian society of free men and women For anarchists, any government, any state power makes it possible materially to dominate and exploit one part of society by the other. To the way social, government and centralizing life are organized, they are opposed to a self-managerial and federalist mode of organization. Anarchist ideas are distanced both from the reformist views of socialism (who believes it possible to gradually change the unequal foundations of capitalist society through parliamentarism) and from Marxist concepts, especially dictatorship as a revolutionary means.

🏴 "... Anarchism is the requirement to place our lives under the double seal of individual freedom and social equality between these individuals, the refusal to abandon one of these pillars on the other's pretense, and the placing in place of a way of organization of society allowing these goals to continue to be fulfilled.

▶️ Read the whole text: http://www.socialisme-libertaire.fr/2019/07/pour-un-anarchisme-du-xxie-siecle.html

· See original ·

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The Struggle Continues.

      We the ordinary people have a history we can be very proud of, and we should do what we can to remember those who helped make that proud history. We should tell their stories and keep their ideas alive, we are still struggling to achieve their ideas and dreams. Their lives can inspire us and point us in the right direction, the lives they lived should not be in vain. There are those today who are writing that rich history of the ordinary people in their struggle for justice and freedom, we must offer up our solidarity. It is our duty to carry that battle forward for that better world for all. The final chapter in that history will be our victory over injustice, exploitation, authority, poverty and wars.

From Roar Magazine.

• ROAR Collective

      From the barricades of the Paris Commune to anti-colonial resistance in the South Pacific, Louise Michel was one of the most important revolutionaries of the 19th century.

       Louise Michel, born on 29 May, 1830, is today remembered as one of the most influential and charismatic revolutionaries of the 19^th century. Her role in the Paris Commune of 1871 — first in the ambulance service and later on the front lines with the National Guard fighting against the Versailles troops — eventually led to her capture and deportation from France to a penal colony in New Caledonia.

It was during her exile that Michel turned towards anarchism, which would continue to dominate her writing and organizing for the rest of her life. In 1880 she was granted amnesty, and upon her return to France she continued her revolutionary activities, writing articles, giving speeches, setting up a soup kitchen for impoverished ex-prisoners who returned from exile, and traveling across Europe delivering her revolutionary message to large audiences. In 1890 she opened the International Anarchist School for children on London’s Fitzroy Square, before returning to France in 1895. Michel died on 10 January, 1905, after which her funeral in Paris was attended by more than 100,000 people.

      Michel’s revolutionary defiance is clearly expressed in her defense speech before the 6^th council of war after her capture during the defeat of the Paris Commune:

I do not wish to defend myself, I do not wish to be defended. I belong completely to the social revolution, and I declare that I accept complete responsibility for all my actions. I accept it completely and without reservations.

You accuse me of having taken part in the murder of the generals? To that I would reply Yes, if I had been in Montmartre when they wished to have the people fired on. I would not have hesitated to fire myself on those who gave such orders. But I do not understand why they were shot when they were prisoners, and I look on this action as arrant cowardice.

As for the burning of Paris, yes, I took part in it. I wished to oppose the invader from Versailles with a barrier of flames. I had no accomplices in this action. I acted on my own initiative.

I am told that I am an accomplice of the Commune. Certainly, yes, since the Commune wanted more than anything else the social revolution, and since the social revolution is the dearest of my desires. More than that, I have the honour of being one of the instigators of the Commune, which by the way had nothing–nothing, as is well known–to do with murders and arson. I who was present at all the sittings at the Town Hall, I declare that there was never any question of murder or arson.

Do you want to know who are really guilty? It is the politicians. And perhaps later light will be brought on to all these events which today it is found quite natural to blame on all partisans of the social revolution…

But why should I defend myself? I have already declared that I refuse to do so. You are men who are going to judge me. You sit before me unmasked. You are men and I am only a woman, and yet I look you in the eye. I know quite well that everything I could say will not make the least difference to your sentence. So a single last word before I sit down. We never wanted anything but the triumph of the great principles of the revolution. I swear it my our martyrs who fell at Satory, by our martyrs whom I acclaim loudly, and who will one day have their revenge.

Once more I belong to you. Do with me what you please. Take my life if you wish. I am not the woman to argue with you for a moment….

What I claim from you, you who call yourselves a Council of War, who sit as my judges, who do not disguise yourselves as a Commission of Pardons, you who are military men and deliver your judgement in the sight of all, is Satory where our brothers have already fallen.

I must be cut off from society. You have been told to do so. Well, the Commissioner of the Republic is right. Since it seems that any heart which beats for freedom has the right only to a lump of lead, I too claim my share. If you let me live, I shall never stop crying for revenge, and I shall avenge my brothers by denouncing the murderers in the Commission for Pardons….

I have finished. If you are not cowards, kill me!

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As Blood Flows Across Borders, So Should Solidarity.

      Dictator Erdogan's bloodshed flows across the world, brutal repression in Turkey, and savage bloodshed in Afrin, from there it streams across borders to other lands. It is our brothers and sisters that are being viciously slaughtered in Erdogan's grab for more power and territory. 

This from Anarchist News:

First appeared in Empty Cages Collective.

         Our hearts are heavy with sadness today as this weekend we learned of the death of our friend and comrade, Anna Campbell.
         Anna was killed in a missile strike in Afrin while fighting with the YPG. Anna was a core member of the Empty Cages Collective and an active organiser in many anti-prison projects and campaigns, including Community Action on Prison Expansion, Smash IPP as well as Bristol Anarchist Black Cross. She made organising a joy.
          She was a dedicated anarchist deeply committed to fighting for liberation. Her list of engagement in social struggles is long, from hunt sabotage to student occupations. She was a passionate feminist and proudly queer.
      Like, Louise Michel, her favourite historical anarchist, social revolution was the deepest of her desires and is what took her to Kurdistan. Anna died on the frontlines where she wanted to be – defending a revolutionary movement. She will be deeply and desperately missed by friends and family. Her courage inspires us to keep fighting for liberation, and for the destruction of the state and its prisons.

“We revolutionaries aren’t just chasing a scarlet flag. What we pursue is an awakening of liberty, old or new. It is the ancient Communes of France, it is 1703; it is June 1848; it is 1871. Most especially it is the next revolution which is advancing under this dawn.”
– Louise Michel

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Workers Now Your History, Louise Michel.

       We should remember our own. On this day in 1883, Lousie Michel,(1830-1905) French anarchist, teacher, medical worker at the Paris barricades, was sentenced to six years in prison and 10 years monitoring, following several bakeries being looted after a large demonstration.

This from Wikipedia:

      During the Paris Commune of 1871, she was active as an ambulance woman treating those injured on the barricades. During the Siege of Paris she untiringly preached resistance against the Prussians. On the establishment of the Commune, she joined the National Guard. She offered to shoot Thiers, and suggested the destruction of Paris by way of vengeance for its surrender.

       She was with the Communards who made their last stand in the cemetery of Montmartre, and was closely allied with Théophile Ferré, who was executed in November 1871. Michel dedicated a moving farewell poem to Ferré, l’œillet rouge (The Red Carnation). Upon learning of this loss, Victor Hugo dedicated his poem Viro Major to Michel. This ardent attachment was perhaps one of the sources of the exaltation which marked her career, and gave many handles to her enemies.

       In December 1871, she was brought before the 6th council of war, charged with offences including trying to overthrow the government, encouraging citizens to arm themselves, and herself using weapons and wearing a military uniform. Defiantly, she vowed never to renounce the Commune, and dared the judges to sentence her to death.^[3] Reportedly, Michel told the court, “Since it seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no right to anything but a little slug of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never cease to cry for vengeance.” ^[4]

    She spent twenty months in prison and was sentenced to deportation. At this time the Versailles press gave her the name la Louve rouge, la Bonne Louise (the red she-wolf, the good Louise).

The text of the L’œillet rouge"^[5] is as follows:^[6]

If were to go to the black cemetery

Brothers, throw on your sister,

As a final hope,

Some red 'carnations' in bloom.

In the final days of Empire,

When the people were awakening,

It was your smile red carnation

which told us that all was being reborn.

Today, go blossom in the shadow of the black and sad prisons.

Go, bloom near the somber captive,

And tell him/her truly that we love him/her.

Tell that through fleeting time

Everything belongs to the future

That the livid-browed conqueror

can die more surely than the conquered.

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