The Red Ant Army (RAA)

[The Vegan Marxist]

This was a design that I started thinking of ever since I watched a video where a bunch of red worker ants rising up together & killing the queen ant. I couldn't help but see this as a perfect metaphor towards how us, communists, feel & what we represent. I was thinking of starting a small group as well with this symbol in my town, called the RALA (Red Ant Liberation Army), so that I could gather up all the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-Anarchists that are in my town. Let me know what you think.

http://i48.tinypic.com/qznqj6.jpg

[Mälli]

Aint it kida hard to find Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-Anarchists? What ever its a good thing you made this happen. I wish you luck comrade!

[The Vegan Marxist]

Aint it kida hard to find Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-Anarchists? What ever its a good thing you made this happen. I wish you luck comrade!

As in, anyone who is either a Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, Anarchist, etc. We've got a good number down here, mainly due to how the vast majority of NC is working class. The only thing that's practically an enemy to us here is the red necks who choose ignorance over education. But thanks comrade. Much appreciated.

[¿Que?]

Looks nice. Makes me think of the anticon logo though.

[bcbm]

shouldn't this be in plastic and graphic arts?

anyway, some black power groups have used a similar logo

http://image.spreadshirt.net/image-server/image/composition/6890611/view/1/producttypecolor/2/type/png/width/280/height/280

[Dermezel]

Why are you comparing the proletariat to ants? That is dehumanizing and concedes the point of individualism to the bourgeoisie. The Communists are the true individualists, AND true collectivists. It is not a "trade off"- that is bourgeoisie logic- it is progressive meaning better in every way.



Why does not bourgeois society fulfil the wants of its members? Because it does not understand the laws of economic production – it is unorganised and unplanned. It is unconscious of the necessities of economic production, and, because of that, cannot make economic production fulfil its desires. Why is it unconscious of the necessities of economic production? Because, for historical reasons, it believes that economic production is best when each man is left free to produce for himself what seems to him most profitable to produce. In other words, it believes that freedom is secured by the lack of social organisation of the individual in the function of society, economic production. As we saw, this individual freedom through unconsciousness is a delusion. Unconscious, deluded bourgeois society is therefore unfree. Even Russell is unfree; and in the next war, as in the last, will be put in gaol.


This very unfreedom – expressed as individualism – in the basic function of society, ultimately generates every form of external constraint. The bourgeois revolutionary asserted a fallacious liberty – that man was born good and was everywhere in chains, that institutions made him bad. It turned out that this liberty he claimed was individualism in private production. This revealed its fallacious nature as a freedom by appearing at once as a restraint. For it could only be secured, itwas only a name, for unrestricted right to own the means of production, which is in itself a restriction on those who are thus alienated from their livelihood. Obviously, what I own absolutely my neighbour is restricted from touching.


All social relations based on duty and privilege were changed by the bourgeois revolution into exclusive and forcible rights to ownership of cash. I produce for my individual self, for profit. Necessarily, therefore, I produce for the market, not for use. I work for cash, not from duty to my lord or retainer. My duties to the State could all now be compounded for cash. All my obligations of contract, whether of marriage or social organisation, could be compounded for cash. Cash appeared as the only obligation between men and men, who were otherwise apparently completely free – free master, free labourer, free producer, free consumer, free markets, free trade, free entrepreneur, the free flow of capital from hand to hand and land to land. And even man’s obligations to cash appeared an obligation of cash to him, to be absolutely owned by him.


This dissolution of social obligations could be justified if man was free in himself, and if, doing what seemed best for him, for his own good and profit, he would in fact get what he desired, and so secure freedom. It was a return to the apparent liberty of the jungle, where each beast struggles only for himself, and owes no obligations to anyone. But this liberty, as we saw, is an illusion. The beast is less free than man. The desires of the jungle cancel each other, and no one gets exactly what he wants. No beast is free.


This fallacy at once revealed itself a fallacy in the following way. Complete freedom to own property meant that society found itself divided into haves and have-nots, like the beasts in the jungle. The have-nots, each trying to do what was best for him in the given circumstances, according to the bourgeois doctrine of liberty, would have forcibly seized the property from the haves. But this would have been complete anarchy, and though anarchy, according to bourgeois theory, is complete liberty, in practice the bourgeois speedily sees that to live in the jungle is not to be free. Property is the basis of his mode of living. In such circumstances social production could not be carried on, and society would dissolve, man return to savagery, and freedom altogether perish. Thus the bourgeois contradicted his theory in practice from the start. The State took its distinctive modern form as the enforcement of bourgeois rights by coercion. Police, standing army and laws were all brought into being to protect the haves from the ‘free’ desires of the have-nots. Bourgeois liberty at once gives rise to bourgeois coercion, to prisons, armies, contracts, to all the sticky and restraining apparatus of the law, to all the ideology and education centred round the sanctity of private property, to all the bourgeois commandments. Thus bourgeois liberty was built on a lie, bound to reveal in time its contradictions.


Among the have-nots, bourgeois freedom gave rise to fresh coercions. The free labourer, owning nothing, was free to sell his labour in any market. But this became a form of slavery worse, in its unrestricted form, than chattel slavery, a horror that Government Blue Books describing pre-Factory Act conditions make vivid for all their arid phraseology. They show how unrestricted factory industrialisation made beasts of men, women, and children, how they died of old age in their thirties, how they rose early in the morning exhausted to work and knocked off late at night only to sink exhausted to sleep, how the children were aged by work before they had ceased to be infants. Made worse than a slave – for he was still free to be unemployed – the labourer fought for freedom by enforcing social restraints on his employers. Banding with others in trade unions, he began the long fight that gave rise to the various Factory Acts, wage agreements, and all the elaborate social legislation which to-day coerces the bourgeois employer.


And, after all this, even the bourgeois himself is not free. The unrestricted following of his illusion of liberty enslaves him. His creed demands unrestricted competition, and this, because it is unrestricted, works as wildly and blindly as the weather. It makes him as unfree, as much at the mercy of a not understood chance, as a cork bobbing on the waves. So he too seeks freedom in restraint – industry is increasingly sheltered by amalgamations, rings, tariffs, price agreements, ‘unfair competition’ clauses, subsidies, and Government protection for the exploitation of colonial areas. Bourgeois liberty makes overt its self-contradictions by becoming monopoly.


http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/1938/liberty.htm


Do not concede anything to the bourgeoisie. Especially not claims of individuality and potential and liberty:



That is why all lovers of liberty, who have understood the nature of freedom, and escaped from the ignorant categories of bourgeois thought, turn to Communism. For that is simply what Communism is, the attainment of more liberty than bourgeois society can reach. Communism has as its basis the understanding of the causality of society, so that all the unfreedom involved in bourgeois society, the enslavement of the have-nots by the haves, and the slavery of both haves and have-nots to wars, slumps, depression and superstition, may be ended. To be conscious of the laws of dead matter: that is something; but it is not enough. Communism seizes hold of a higher degree of self-determination, to rescue man from war, starvation, hate, and coercion, by becoming conscious of the causality of society. It is Communism that makes free will real to man, by making society conscious of itself. To change reality we must understand its laws. If we wish to move a stone, we must apply the leverage in the proper place. If we wish to change bourgeois social relations into communist, we must follow a certain path. The have-nots, the proletariat, must take over the means of production from the haves, the bourgeoisie, and since, as we saw, these two freedoms are incompatible, restraint, in the form of the coercive State, must remain in being as long as the bourgeoisie try to get back their former property. But unlike the former situation, this stage is only temporary. This stage is what is known as the dictatorship of the proletariat, the necessary step from the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie – which is what the bourgeois State is – to the classless State, which is what Communism is. And as Russia shows, even in the dictatorship of the proletariat, before the classless State has come into being, man is already freer. He can avoid unemployment, and competition with his fellows, and poverty. He can marry and beget children, and achieve the decencies of life. He is not asked to oppress his fellows.



This good, liberty, contains all good. Not only at the simple level of current material wants, but where all men’s aspirations bud, freedom is the same goal, pursued in the same way. Science is the means by which man learns what he can do, and therefore it explores the necessity of outer reality. Art is the means by which man learns what he wants to do, and therefore it explores the essence of the human heart. And bourgeoisdom, shutting its eyes to beauty, turning its back on science, only follows its stupidity to the end. It crucifies liberty upon a cross of gold, and if you ask in whose name it does this, it replies, ‘In the name of personal freedom’.


The bourgeoisie system negates liberty and individuality for all.

[The Vegan Marxist]

lmao, you take metaphors way too seriously, my friend. It's not a symbol of being an individual, rather a metaphor given that ants are a workers species & are controlled by the queen ant. And so, through this video that I watched where all the red worker ants rised up together & killed the queen ant, it was perfect of how us workers think. So stop attacking a simple metaphor with semantics.

[Dermezel]

lmao, you take metaphors way too seriously, my friend. It's not a symbol of being an individual, rather a metaphor given that ants are a workers species & are controlled by the queen ant. And so, through this video that I watched where all the red worker ants rised up together & killed the queen ant, it was perfect of how us workers think. So stop attacking a simple metaphor with semantics.

I myself would prefer the Painted Wolf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Wild_Dog) as our symbol. It is an extremely communal (group minded and raises the young communally as a single litter regardless of lineage), intelligent animal and the most successful super-predator on the Savannah due to its use of complex hunting tactics.


The African Wild Dog hunts in packs. Like most members of the dog family, it is a cursorial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursorial) hunter, meaning that it pursues its prey in a long, open chase. Nearly 80% of all hunts end in a kill.

Compare this to the Lion and other large predators which have a 25% kill rate.


Hunting larger prey requires a closely coordinated attack, beginning with a rapid charge to stampede the herd. One African Wild Dog then grabs the victim's tail, while another attacks the upper lip, and the remainder disembowel the animal while it is immobilised. This behaviour is also used on other large dangerous prey, such as the African Buffalo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Buffalo), giraffe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe) calves, and large antelope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope)—even the one-ton Giant Eland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Eland).

Remarkably, this large-animal hunting tactic appears to be a learned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning) behavior, passed on from generation to generation within specific hunting packs, rather than an instinctive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instinct) behaviour found commonly within the species.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I myself would prefer the Painted Wolf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Wild_Dog) as our symbol. It is an extremely communal (group minded and raises the young communally as a single litter regardless of lineage), intelligent animal and the most successful super-predator on the Savannah due to its use of complex hunting tactics.



Compare this to the Lion and other large predators which have a 25% kill rate.

Maybe as a symbol for all communists, but the ant symbol is simply one that'll be used for hopefully the group I'm trying to get organized over here.

[bailey_187]

"When its on we be swarming like ants advancing" - Dead Prez

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuYoi54JL30

[Sasha]

shouldn't this be in plastic and graphic arts?

anyway, some black power groups have used a similar logo

http://image.spreadshirt.net/image-server/image/composition/6890611/view/1/producttypecolor/2/type/png/width/280/height/280

yup, here in amsterdam some freinds of mine have an revolutionary but gangsta hiphop collective with the same logo: http://gaafcrew.hyves.nl/

[bayano]

Am I the only want that just wants to watch the original clip? About the ants overturning their queen. Any links? No, seriously, I wanna watch it.

Otherwise, I don't think it's so dehumanizing. People have used animal imagery for eons. In Masaya, Nicaragua every year they have a festival where they wear masks- either white conquistadors with bullets in their foreheads; or black horses that represent the indigenous. in this recreation, the indigenous win. some communist parties have the rooster as a symbol. the capitalists have their eagles and other symbols, but the concept of the ants together overturning the elephants is pretty cool.

[Dimentio]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6XrKN16cuc

[ls]

Oh well, I don't think RAA/RALA or whichever would be any worse than a Trot grouping so best of luck.

[bailey_187]

Dont be called the RALA - that would mean u advocate liberating ants. RAA is better name.

[Rusty Shackleford]

may i propose coloring in the left half of the ant black. it would help proportion it better imo because there is only that half circle of black.

if you are holding off on the use of black to represent a more communist feel rather than an even mix of anarchism and communism then i can understand.

[Invincible Summer]

lmao, you take metaphors way too seriously, my friend. It's not a symbol of being an individual, rather a metaphor given that ants are a workers species & are controlled by the queen ant. And so, through this video that I watched where all the red worker ants rised up together & killed the queen ant, it was perfect of how us workers think. So stop attacking a simple metaphor with semantics.

What I thought Dermezel was saying is that the bourgeoisie would use the ant metaphor as anti-communist propaganda - "Commies are nothing but ants who are bound to the collective hive mind" sort of thing.

I get where you're coming from, and I wholly support your idea and would join up if I were in your area, but the ant-hive-mind thing is always used as an argument against collective action and the like.

[Dermezel]

Maybe as a symbol for all communists,

Heh Communists=Painted Wolves, the smartest pack hunters who ever existed. Because in the end that's all we commies have to fall back on- not our "hard work" or brute force or numbers, but our smarts. Our smarts are what will lead to victory, the ability to out Bugs Bunny the bourgeoisie. We are smarter then them, because we have to be to survive.

Like I always say, the greatest asset of a Prole is his or her brain. The brain is more advanced then a super-computer. One on one we are weaker then any animal or machine. Currently it is our brains that sets us apart. The fact that the most talented people ever born, the greatest of geniuses, was in all probability born proletariat (a logical conclusion, seeing as only 1% of people are born bourgeoisie, and presuming genes can influence intellect, and that our harsher conditions makes us smarter).

The bourgeoisie are a lot stronger, despite fewer numbers, because they control the means of production. But we are a lot smarter.

[Q]

I like the symbology of the red ant. Their strength is in their numbers, when organised they can tackle much bigger animals and build structures that are simply amazing. The only downside is the queen, but apparently they kill those too every once in a while, perfect :lol:

I wish your group best of luck :)

[The Vegan Marxist]

I like the symbology of the red ant. Their strength is in their numbers, when organised they can tackle much bigger animals and build structures that are simply amazing. The only downside is the queen, but apparently they kill those too every once in a while, perfect :lol:

I wish your group best of luck :)

Exactly! We're not powerful due to strength in arms, but rather strength in numbers, in which is how ants are a powerful symbol of how we, communists, are.

[StalinFanboy]

Heh Communists=Painted Wolves, the smartest pack hunters who ever existed. Because in the end that's all we commies have to fall back on- not our "hard work" or brute force or numbers, but our smarts. Our smarts are what will lead to victory, the ability to out Bugs Bunny the bourgeoisie. We are smarter then them, because we have to be to survive.

Like I always say, the greatest asset of a Prole is his or her brain. The brain is more advanced then a super-computer. One on one we are weaker then any animal or machine. Currently it is our brains that sets us apart. The fact that the most talented people ever born, the greatest of geniuses, was in all probability born proletariat (a logical conclusion, seeing as only 1% of people are born bourgeoisie, and presuming genes can influence intellect, and that our harsher conditions makes us smarter).

The bourgeoisie are a lot stronger, despite fewer numbers, because they control the means of production. But we are a lot smarter.

I would say that our greatest asset is the fact that we run the means of production.


But whatevs.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Dont be called the RALA - that would mean u advocate liberating ants. RAA is better name.

That's the point. As workers, we're here to liberate ourselves along with our fellow working class. Which is the symbol being represented within RALA.

Also, since it's hard to form up a group right now in my area, I've decided to use RALA as a news source for communists & like-minded thinkers, which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/RedAntLiberationArmy?feature=mhw4

So if anyone wants to branch RALA in other sections, which I've been asked by others, then much would be appreciated.

http://i40.tinypic.com/4ieavs.jpg

[Revy]

I like the metaphor of the ants because it represents how tiny and insignificant we all seem individually, but when we unite the true strength of our collective power.

[<Insert Username Here>]

I like the logo but I'm not sure how you're going to get the Anarchists to work with the Leninists

[Rusty Shackleford]

I like the logo but I'm not sure how you're going to get the Anarchists to work with the Leninists
by just focusing on revolution FIRST then talking politics afterwards.

[bricolage]

by just focusing on revolution FIRST then talking politics afterwards.

Tends to end up a with a bunch of us dead in ditches.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Tends to end up a with a bunch of us dead in ditches.

It's to find common grounds between us all. Besides, solidarity upon each other is a necessary must. Whether it's one group, or a world-wide effort of groups. Anarchists & Leninists will have problems with one another, but it's going to have to be done sooner or later. I use to be an Anarchist, & yet saw what happened during Lenin's time as justifiable due to the times everyone was going through. If the anarchists had overthrown what was gained then, then I fear for my fellow anarchists what problems they would've brought.

Besides, I'd rather die trying to gain freedom, rather than hope for someone to do it first.

[OldMoney]

I apllaud you on your devotion to the cause. More groups spreading the message is good, the unity of the left is good, but why ants? I understand that the imagrey in the video u saw was a good example of the workers overthrowing the rulling power, but in most ant collonies thats not the case. Worker ants are slaves to the queens will n dont really think for themselves. From my perception an ant collony is more a metaphor of Imperialism, where the workers toil for the bourgeois kings and queens. Uneducated and completley ignorant of thier own slavery. Either way good luck Comrade.

[Q]

I apllaud you on your devotion to the cause. More groups spreading the message is good, the unity of the left is good, but why ants? I understand that the imagrey in the video u saw was a good example of the workers overthrowing the rulling power, but in most ant collonies thats not the case. Worker ants are slaves to the queens will n dont really think for themselves. From my perception an ant collony is more a metaphor of Imperialism, where the workers toil for the bourgeois kings and queens. Uneducated and completley ignorant of thier own slavery. Either way good luck Comrade.

An analogy goes only so far of course. But you're quite wrong on the function of the ant queen. It isn't an absolute monarch in the sense we humans understand monarchies. Ant queens are the vital "life node" of the colony, it lays all the eggs, without the queen the colony dies.

[red cat]

An analogy goes only so far of course. But you're quite wrong on the function of the ant queen. It isn't an absolute monarch in the sense we humans understand monarchies. Ant queens are the vital "life node" of the colony, it lays all the eggs, without the queen the colony dies.

I am not sure about this but in some species of ants some kind of chemical warfare between the queen and the common worker ants ( the queen's wingless daughters) goes on that prevents them from reproducing.

[<Insert Username Here>]

I think everyone is putting way too much thought into what we call our revolutionary groups, bit pretentious.

[Broletariat]

VeganMarxist I sent you a PM, check your inbox please.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

I really love the symbolism of the ant logo. Very good idea, good luck with your group.

[Q]

A variation on the logo you might like:

http://94.100.121.22/466400001-466450000/466404901-466405000/466404954_5_g8Nk.jpeg

[InuyashaKnight]

Ants are the best Communists!

[Ztrain]

Thats pretty awesome...I would say the ants will revolt soon...sadly the queen aristocracy is well guarded so despite all their rage they are still just a rat in a cage!:laugh:

[Glenn Beck]

Ants are far from mindless, ants are probably the most successful creatures in the animal kingdom and they have awesome and complex societies. They've been around for fucking ages, and by themselves they represent almost a quarter of the Earth's animal biomass, more than every vertebrate (including us) combined.

Ants fucking rule.

[Revy]

A variation on the logo you might like:

http://94.100.121.22/466400001-466450000/466404901-466405000/466404954_5_g8Nk.jpeg

I like how they used Arabic letters to make some of the letters. reminds me of when Cyrillic letters like backwards R are used.


Ants are far from mindless, ants are probably the most successful creatures in the animal kingdom and they have awesome and complex societies. They've been around for fucking ages, and by themselves they represent almost a quarter of the Earth's animal biomass, more than every vertebrate (including us) combined.

Ants fucking rule. Although I generally have no mercy for other bugs, I don't hurt ants at all if they're in my house...although many have died due to my pest control methods (boric acid...), there are still some roaming about. they are so tiny, they don't bother me...if they were huge it would be a different story. some species of ant are big and dangerous to humans though...

[The Vegan Marxist]

A variation on the logo you might like:

http://94.100.121.22/466400001-466450000/466404901-466405000/466404954_5_g8Nk.jpeg

I agree with the Human Condition. This is really cool. I do love how they used Arabic letters to make up the word "Revolution". Really cool!

[RED DAVE]

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT ANTS, THE CLASS STRUGGLE AND OTHER STUFF:

(Quotes from the movie "Antz." Z is your archtypical, but nervous, ant worker.)


Z: So, these... these termites, they're... they're, they're... these guys aren't going to put up much of a fight, right? I mean, we're talking about pushovers, right?
Barbatus: Not really, kid. They're five times our size and spit acid from their foreheads.

__________

Z: Why'd I have to be born a worker? You soldiers get all the glory. Plus, you get to go out in the world. You know, you meet interesting insects; you get to kill them.
Weaver: Yeah, but you get to spend all day with those beautiful worker girls.
Z: Weaver, they're CAREER girls. They're obsessed with digging.

__________

Azteca: Come on, Z. Help us build a bigger, stronger colony, and for crying out loud, try to be happy about it.
Z: Sure, why not?
[nervous chuckle]
Z: Why should I be unhappy being a piece of construction equipment?

__________

Weaver: What are you *****ing about? in case you haven't noticed, we ants are running the show. We're the Lords of the Earth.
Z: Hey, don't talk to me about earth, okay, because I just spent all day hauling it around.

__________

Z: There you have it: your average boy-meets-girl, boy-likes-girl, boy-changes-the-underlying-social-order story.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120587/quotes

RED DAVE

[The Vegan Marxist]

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT ANTS, THE CLASS STRUGGLE AND OTHER STUFF:

(Quotes from the movie "Antz." Z is your archtypical, but nervous, ant worker.)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120587/quotes

RED DAVE

Well that just confused the shit out of me...:confused: