Are there communists that don't fashion the red star and hammer/sickle?

[☭World Views]

Are there legitimate reasons to not like the red star and hammer/sickle?

[Misanthrope]

Symbols don't matter, it's the theory and that theory in practice. I don't know any group that rejects the hammer and sickle or red star.

[Black Sheep]

Some could reject it because it is 'too USSR'.But that would be a stupid reason,symbols and ideas are often hijacked.

Flying around the star+hs flag means you support and fight for what the symbol represents.

Also,of course you could reject it because you are not a communist but a mutualist,collectivist, primitivist, etc

[chimx]

Are there legitimate reasons to not like the red star and hammer/sickle?

Yes. I think they are anachronistic, backwards-looking, and often times a hindrance to the development of class consciousness.

[scarletghoul]

Hammer and sickle isn't that common among anarcho-communists. The SWP and some other trot groups don't seem to use it much (the same way they tend to call themselves socialist instead of communist)

[Manzil]

I'd prefer to see the checkout till represented. ;)

[Nwoye]

i just don't really like them.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Drop the sickle and adopt something else for another segment of the working class, like office workers and retail workers. Besides, employed farm labour doesn't use sickles, but tractors and the like (used as symbols in the East German and/or North Korean coat of arms, if I'm not mistaken).

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

Aesthetically speaking, I like it. Otherwise, no...I don't like it because of it's association with the USSR. I'd prefer something like my avatar or the symbol of the TKP.

[Communist Theory]

What about them National Bolsheviks?
They are my idols.
:lol:

[Revy]

I quite like the red star and the red flag.

The hammer and sickle is overrated.

[ArrowLance]

Symbols don't matter, it's the theory and that theory in practice. I don't know any group that rejects the hammer and sickle or red star.

Symbols matter a great deal. They can imply values without words and are great for identification. Symbols unite us.

[Glenn Beck]

I like the H&S but it lacks efficacy as a symbol for people in my society. In a society consisting mostly of peasants and industrial workers a typical person would see the hammer and sickle and say "That's me.". In many societies in the world today, even in less developed nations that is no longer the case. Its association with the USSR has also made it look 'foreign' to many, while I don' t have so much of a problem with the USSR per se a symbol the masses do not identify with themselves but with something distant is useless.

[Hit The North]

Obviously the hammer and sickle was meant to represent the unity of the workers and peasants of the USSR. In a society like the UK of the USA were there is no peasantry and only 2% of the working population is involved in agriculture, it is, as Chimx points out, anachronistic. The red star and the red flag, however, retain their relevance. I also like the red clenched fist used by the SWP.

The hammer and sickle, which was originally a hammer crossed with a plough, has been adapted to meet the needs of different communist organisations. Comrades can find a selection of them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle

[revolution inaction]

the hammer and sickle is well out of date, who uses a sickle now? we should change to a a symbol that better represents modern workers, like the spatular and headset

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3167/spatulaheadsetkt7.gif

(I didn't make this it was some one on libcom)

[Forward Union]

Are there legitimate reasons to not like the red star and hammer/sickle?

It's personal taste isn't it, I personally dislike a lot of Communist symbolism. But it's nor really important.

[New Tet]

To me the arm and hammer symbolizes the working class firmly in possession of the means of production, the basic objective of communism.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/SLP_logo_wiki.png

[Q]

http://marchetting.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/aeroflot_logo.jpg

Aeroflot's logo kicks ass :lol:

But otherwise I agree with the many posters who find it out of date. The CWI for example uses a cogwheel to symbolise the working class and a globe for internationalism:

http://i27.tinypic.com/ixxu7q.jpg

Or even the logo of our own section, which features a cogwheel and a star (we rarely use it as a single "O" though and normally use the whole logo, like you can see on our website (http://offensief.nl)):

http://i26.tinypic.com/30sytqs.jpg

[Philosophical Materialist]

I find the GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) coat of arms to be aesthetically pleasing, and very appropriate of a modern industrial state.