The red flag and the colour red
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SocialistPunk wrote:I do think the current front could do with a makeover. I don't think it a good idea to go back to an SPGB emblazoned front though.
The shopfront in the Google image is the one which was installed in 2010. Not a very exciting one that's true and not the one which had been preferred, i.e. a aluminium framed front which would have required little or no maintenance. The planning department of the local council disallowed that option as it was claimed it would not be "in keeping" with the surrounding properties (the original terrace of which No.52 forms a part, dates back to the 1830's).So thus the hardwood option came into being; the downside is that it requires regular coats of teak oil to help preserve the timber and its appearance.The fascia sign is due for replacement when the appointed sub-committee finally makes a decision but that again will be subject to planning approval.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Thats a very poor window display, sorry to say. If it hasn't improved since the following is my opinionated opinions. Surely we can afford some proper accessories and dress it up a bit better. If i recall correctly we got actual shop-fitters as members. A few books isn't enough.It has improved since that image but probably insufficiently to satisfy you. Again it comes down to willing and able volunteers; shop-fitters aren't window dressers…
Quote:What happened to that thingy hooked up to pictures and a computer.The TV monitor's still there on the left-hand side of the window and runs a continuous slide-show between 7.00am and 11.00pm.
Quote:I can't see any of our promotional ware such as the cups displayed.You're never likely to either!
Quote:As i said many times before, we have that bracket for hanging a sign to catch the eye, too, since we cannot agree about the colour of a flag hanging out from a flag-pole, make use of it. Every crafts fair has a stand where someone burns a house name into a piece of wood…simple and basic as that…no need for an ad-hoc sub-committee and EC approval.That's what you say. It would need party and local planning department approval.
Could the door be given a few coats of paint (red perhaps, for those who think choice of colour is important) to stop it needing so much maintenance?
rodshaw wrote:Could the door be given a few coats of paint (red perhaps, for those who think choice of colour is important) to stop it needing so much maintenance?Why just the door; the entire shopfront is timber? No, it would be problematic. First, because there are those who object to the colour red; second, because the teak oil would have to be effectively removed in some way to ensure adequate adhesion of the paint and third, possible objection from the council.
rodshaw wrote:I wonder how the council ever let next door get away with that awful black.Well, some businesses (and individuals) don't seek permission and get away with it, but many others don't. There have been a number of instances in Lambeth over the past few years where new shopfronts have been fitted without planning permission being sought and the council has forced those responsible to change them.
As was once said in Forum Journal in the 1950s, we should be pleased but not satisfied. We've got the money now.
The red flag is a signal of defiance and battle, no surrender. The origin of the 'red flag' – French Revolution – Jacobins adopted it in 1791 as symbol of martyrs blood – 50 anti-royalists killed by National Guard. June 1831 Merthyr Tydfil uprising – 7,000 to 10,000 workers. Iron workers, miners strike against redundancies, wage cuts, rising prices and bailiffs. ”headquarters at this time were at Hirwain, and there two red flags were hoisted” Army sent in to quell 2,000 people in the streets, 24 killed, later trial, transportation and hanging. see http://libcom.org/library/1831-merthyr-tydfil-uprising 1848 Revolutions – Paris – painting by Henri Felix Emmanuel Philippoteaux 'Lamartine in front of the Hotel De Ville Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848' – bourgeois republicans rejecting the workers flag – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Lar9_philippo_001z.jpg 'June Days' 1848 – workers uprising – painting by Horace Vernet – red flag at 'Battle at Soufflot barricades at Rue Soufflot on 24 June 1848', – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Horace_Vernet-Barricade_rue_Soufflot.jpg 1871 Paris Commune –“The flag of the Commune is the flag of the world’s republic,” flag of the Commune is the red flag “the old world writhed in convulsions of rage at the sight of the Red Flag.” The colour red, the red flag belongs to the working class, to socialists not to leninists, labourites and reformists who hijacked it in the 20th century. Like with May Day, we need to reappropriate what was ours in the first place.
stevead1966 wrote:The colour red, the red flag belongs to the working class, to socialists not to leninists, labourites and reformists who hijacked it in the 20th century. Like with May Day, we need to reappropriate what was ours in the first place.But as you say here including:
Quote:Marx wrote in 1872: “All socialists understand this by Anarchy: once the aim of the proletarian movement, the abolition of classes has been attained, the state power which serves to keep the great productive majority under the yoke of an exploiting minority small in numbers, disappears, and the governmental functions are transformed into simple administrative functions”.emphasis mineTherefore, whilst we should rightly reappropriate the colour red we should also now appropriate the colour black…
“Certainly the SPGB is an anarchist party, in the sense that it calls for a society where there are no bosses and everything is done by voluntary co-operation, but its members differ from other anarchists in the rigidity of their thought.” (DR, in Freedom 8 Sept 1990)Bakunin: "Marx was, and still is, incomparably more advanced than I".Kropotkin: "After the Collectivist Revolution instead of saying 'twopence' worth of soap, we shall say 'five minutes' worth of soap." I am thinking of writing about Nestor Makhno.
gnome wrote:Therefore, whilst we should rightly reappropriate the colour red we should also now appropriate the colour black…We would have to do more than just dilute the red flag by adding black to it to get a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair. We'd have to abandon Clauses 6, 7 and 8 of our declaration of principles. I don't think so.
ALB wrote:gnome wrote:Therefore, whilst we should rightly reappropriate the colour red we should also now appropriate the colour black…We would have to do more than just dilute the red flag by adding black to it to get a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair. We'd have to abandon Clauses 6, 7 and 8 of our declaration of principles. I don't think so.
I don't think so either; we can manage quite nicely without a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair although individuals are free to sell our literature there and do in fact.This event, however, organised by the CWO at the Anarchist Bookfair in London next month, may well be worth a visit:
Quote:Topic: Anarchism and MarxismMarxists and anarchist have always shared the view that the antithesis to capitalism is a classless, stateless society. What they have not shared is a clear outline of how this might come about. After the statist cul de sacs of social democracy, Stalinism and Trotskyism, many marxists now recognise that the issue is not about replacing the state but destroying it. After the failure of the anarchists in Spain many anarchists recognise that revolution from below cannot just be a nice idea but has to have a deeper material basis. With capitalism now in obvious crisis is this not the time for a more fruitful exchange on revolution and the state than has been possible in the past? The Communist Workers' Organisation and the Commune have already successfully posed this in the Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair and invite you to take the discussion further. All welcome.Saturday 19 October (precise time yet to be given)The venue is Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS. See anarchistbookfair.org.uk for map and how to get there.Prompted by the 2013 ADM Agenda, I have just changed my mind about the colour red. I think it would be a mistake to try to 'reclaim' red as the workers colour as it is now so firmly entrenched as the colour of the left. The public perceives red as the colour of the left, and the public will perceive the Socialist Party as on the left if we adopt the colour. This would just add another level of confusion, along with SPEW and all the damage caused by the so called 'socialist' states and political parties. As a party that stands for the abolition of capitalism, and not its reform, we should not adopt a colour scheme that would suggest we are on the left. Just thought I'd nail my colours to the mast.
Just found while looking for something else this example of the Red Flag being sung by Party members (right at the end):http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1910s/1916/no-141-may-1916/crabbed-age-and-youth
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