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: 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk     

Nancy's Petticoat.

       For those interested in the history and struggles of the ordinary people, I'm still shying away from the coronavirus thingy, I thought I would post these two images I received from a friend in Manchester, thanks Ron. I have transcribed them for easier reading.

Owd Nancy’s Petticoat.
      My earliest remembrances of taking part in Radicalism are the invitations I used to receive to be at ‘owd Nancy Clayton’s in Charlestown, on 16th of August to denounce the Peterloo massacre and drink in solemn silence ‘to the immortal memory of Henry Hunt’
     This old Nancy and her husband were both at Peterloo, and, I believe, both were wounded, at all events, the woman was.
     She wore on that memorable day a black petticoat, which she afterwards transformed into a black flag which on the 16th of August used to be hung out and a green cap of liberty attached there to.
      In the year 1838 a new cap of liberty was made, and hung out with the black flag on the anniversary of the Peterloo massacre.
      These terrible and terrifying emblems of sedition alarmed the then powers that existed and our then chief constable -no lover of democracy- was ordered by a magistrate to march a host of special constables and all the civil power he could command and to forcibly seize and take possession of these vile emblems of Anarchy and base Revolution. Off they marched . . . but the women of that part of the borough heard of the contemplated raid that was likely to befall their cherished emblems. And the women drew them in and hid them.
      Up this gallant and brave band of men went to the front door of poor old Nancy Clayton, and placed themselves in daring military array while the chief constable with a subordinate marched upstairs, and amongst the women there he found my old friend “Riah Witty, who told the writer what follows.
      Imperiously and haughty, as became the chief of so noble a band and in so righteous a cause, he demanded the Black Flag and the cap of Liberty.
     My old friend ‘Riah said,
     “What has thou to do wi’ cap o’ liberty? Thou never supported liberty, not aught ‘ut belongs thee?”
       However, the chamber was searched and the poor black flag was found under the bed and taken prisoner .. the house was searched from top to bottom for the cap of liberty, but neither the genius of the chief nor his subordinate could find the missing emblems of Revolution. Off this gallant band of men marched with poor old Nancy’s petticoat – the black flag never more to grace a radical banquet of potatoe pies and home brewed ale …
      The Saturday after this grand demonstration ‘Riah Witty met the chief constable, and she exclaimed, “Now, thou didna find that cap o’ liberty, did tha?” “No”, he said, “I didna ‘Riah, where was it?” She said “I knew thou couldna find it; it were where thou duratna go for it”…

       From the recollections of William Aitken, weaver and life-long radical. Published in the Ashton Reporter, 30th. January, 1869. 

 Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

The First Black Flag.

        The Black Flag has been associated with anarchism from around the 1880's, though it was also flown in the 1840s during hunger riots, as a symbol of the desperation of the starving urban poor.

        However I have no doubt the thoughts and ideas behind the Black Flag stretch well back into the annuls of time. Long before the word anarchism was in use, long before it was nailed to a pole, its ideas were in the minds of individuals. Deep in every heart there has always been the desire to be in charge of your own life, to be free, to question injustice, to challenge a wrong, to work in co-operation on equal terms.

      Victor Hugo tries to capture that spirit of the first "Black Flag" in his poem of that name. Though I think the poems stands on its own without the reference to Job.

The First Black Flag.

JOB. Hast thou ne'er heard men say
That, in the Black Wood, 'twixt Cologne and Spire,
Upon a rock flanked by the towering mountains,
A castle stands, renowned among all castles?
And in this fort, on piles of lava built,
A burgrave dwells, among all burgraves famed?
Hast heard of this wild man who laughs at laws--
Charged with a thousand crimes--for warlike deeds
Renowned--and placed under the Empire's ban
By the Diet of Frankfort; by the Council
Of Pisa banished from the Holy Church;
Reprobate, isolated, cursed--yet still
Unconquered 'mid his mountains and in will;
The bitter foe of the Count Palatine
And Treves' proud archbishop; who has spurned
For sixty years the ladder which the Empire
Upreared to scale his walls? Hast heard that he
Shelters the brave--the flaunting rich man strips--
Of master makes a slave? That here, above
All dukes, aye, kings, eke emperors--in the eyes
Of Germany to their fierce strife a prey,
He rears upon his tower, in stern defiance,
A signal of appeal to the crushed people,
A banner vast, of Sorrow's sable hue,
Snapped by the tempest in its whirlwind wrath,
So that kings quiver as the jades at whips?
Hast heard, he touches now his hundredth year--
And that, defying fate, in face of heaven,
On his invincible peak, no force of war
Uprooting other holds--nor powerful Caesar--
Nor Rome--nor age, that bows the pride of man--
Nor aught on earth--hath vanquished, or subdued,
Or bent this ancient Titan of the Rhine,
The excommunicated Job?

Victor Hugo.

 From An Anarchist FAQ: 

         "Why is our flag black? Black is a shade of negation. The black flag is the negation of all flags. It is a negation of nationhood which puts the human race against itself and denies the unity of all humankind. Black is a mood of anger and outrage at all the hideous crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of allegiance to one state or another. It is anger and outrage at the insult to human intelligence implied in the pretences, hypocrisies, and cheap chicaneries of governments . . . Black is also a colour of mourning; the black flag which cancels out the nation also mourns its victims the countless millions murdered in wars, external and internal, to the greater glory and stability of some bloody state. It mourns for those whose labour is robbed (taxed) to pay for the slaughter and oppression of other human beings. It mourns not only the death of the body but the crippling of the spirit under authoritarian and hierarchic systems; it mourns the millions of brain cells blacked out with never a chance to light up the world. It is a colour of inconsolable grief.

         "But black is also beautiful. It is a colour of determination, of resolve, of strength, a colour by which all others are clarified and defined. Black is the mysterious surrounding of germination, of fertility, the breeding ground of new life which always evolves, renews, refreshes, and reproduces itself in darkness. The seed hidden in the earth, the strange journey of the sperm, the secret growth of the embryo in the womb all these the blackness surrounds and protects.

         "So black is negation, is anger, is outrage, is mourning, is beauty, is hope, is the fostering and sheltering of new forms of human life and relationship on and with this earth. The black flag means all these things. We are proud to carry it, sorry we have to, and look forward to the day when such a symbol will no longer be necessary." ["Why the Black Flag?", Howard Ehrlich (ed.), Reinventing Anarchy, Again, pp. 31-2]

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk