from what i've been told, the five points of the star represent the five (inhabited) continents, suggesting a global revolution.
i don't know when it was first used though.
What's the origin and significance of the star symbol?
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The five-pointed red star (a pentagram without the inner pentagon) is a symbol of Communism and Socialism and represents the five fingers of the worker's hand, as well as the five continents (as traditionally counted).
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The origins of the Red Star are found in the Russian civil war and the end of the First World War. Those Russian troops fleeing from the Austrian and German fronts who found themselves in Moscow in 1917 mixed with the local Moscow garrison. To distinguish the Moscow troops from the influx of retreating Russians the officers gave out tin stars to the Moscow garrison soldiers, to wear on their hats. When those troops joined the Red army and the Bolsheviks they painted their tin stars red (for Communism), thus creating the original Red Star.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_star
The red and black star is just the red one, but anarchist.
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The five-pointed red star (a pentagram without the inner pentagon) is a symbol of Communism and Socialism and represents the five fingers of the worker's hand, as well as the five continents (as traditionally counted).
what about Oceania and Antarctica? I demand a seven-pointed star. Enuf of this Eurasian-African-Americas-centric tyranny.:rbstar:
Steve wrote:
The five pointed star is an ancient symbol denoting the five 'elements', earth, air, fire, water and spirit originally used as a pentagram.
The fifth one is actually heart and rather than forming a star or pentagram they are contained within five rings. When the kids combinde their five magical rings:
Which calls forth Captain Planet:
ftony wrote:
i thought it was partly also meant to represent the blood of violent insurrection.Edit: oh poo, i'm thinking of the nazis and red on the swastika as representing blood purity. so ignore me i'm talking crap
Really? I would've thought the red was from the socialism in "national socialism"? I know the Spanish fascist Falange at a late stage in their development nicked the red+black colours of the anarchists because they were so popular…
Stars are often associated with republics; the red star might then be seen as the obvious symbol for a socialist republic.
I am fairly sure that red is significant because of the blood spilled in the workers' struggle: The People's Flag is deepest red; It shrouded oft their martyred dead; And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold; Their hearts' blood dyed in every fold.....etc. etc.
It seems to me thay the star is an entirely inappropriate symbol for anarchists of any persuasion; you only have to look at the ridiculous profusion of variously coloured stars to see that a great deal of cashing in has gone on.
The circled A - although it dates back only to the 1960s I understand - is at least all our own. Black is the colour of our flag; the colour of despair; the colour of no intermediate demands. It is the negation of all the heraldry that has gone before it and demands that an end be made one way or the other.
Blacknred Ned wrote:
The circled A - although it dates back only to the 1960s I understand
Apparently there's an image of one in Spain 36. I'm also *sure* I've seen a front cover of Solidarida Obrera from the 30s with a big circled-A on it, but then if there was one surely more people would know about it, so maybe I was mistaken :?
Blacknred Ned wrote:
the negation of all the heraldry that has gone before
Blacknred Ned wrote:
you only have to look at the ridiculous profusion of variously coloured stars to see that a great deal of cashing in has gone on
yep
edit: bug report, the smilie code for pink an black star renders as 
ib:
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Blacknred Ned Said : you only have to look at the ridiculous profusion of variously coloured stars to see that a great deal of cashing in has gone on.
if i see one more "rebellious" 13-year-old with an ANARCHY 
t-shirt on, i'll be tempted to whip them with their slipknot hoodie.
i like the variously coloured stars thang anyway, it shows currents within libertarian socialist/anarchist thought that we should be proud of: feminism, gay rights, communism and (im assuming this is what the green/black one means) green eco-movements.
According to Wikpedia, from the 17th century the red flag was flown from cities or castles under siege to indicate 'No Surrender' - it was known as the flag of defiance. It began to take on a revolutionary meaning in the 18th Century, when British Navy mutineers in the Thames estuary in 1797 hoisted the red flag on several ships. It became a symbol of the 1831 Merthyr Riots (which led to the reference in the song "it shrouded oft our martyred dead", also the 1848 French revolution, and the 1871 Paris Commune.
Point taken Synth, but I still prefer the circled A to the multi-coloured stars.
Thanks for the report on the red flag tony, although if I remember the lyrics correctly The Men They Couldn't Hang maintained that the naval mutineers flew the tricolour; "Red is the colour of the new republic; blue is the colour of the sea...etc etc."
The Men They Couldn't Hang may have got it wrong. I have looked at all the references on Google to the Nore 1797 Mutiny, which all refer to the 'blood red flag of mutiny', or the flag of defiance, being raised, and an eye witness's letter mentions the ships' delegates coming ashore with a large red flag. A painting (1830) shows the red flag flying over the leading ship.
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Apparently there's an image of one in Spain 36. I'm also *sure* I've seen a front cover of Solidarida Obrera from the 30s with a big circled-A on it, but then if there was one surely more people would know about it, so maybe I was mistaken
I'm sure I've read that the the first use of a circle A was during the Italian insurrections in the late 19th century???
I think the title is pretty self-explanatory