The anrachy "A"

[bluerev002]

Ive seen two Anarchy "A"s. But Ive noticed that one of them is used by punk (Im using the term loosly here) bands. This one:

http://together.net/~wbaker/anarchy.jpg
Is that the original Anarchy sign or is it just an altered version of this one:

http://www.posterville.com/music/anarchy.jpg

[commie kg]

I think that symbol was first used by Spanish anarchists during the revolution.

The standard symbol is just a black flag, I assume.

[Blackberry]

The top one.



Where does the circled-A come from?

The circled-A is even more famous than the Black and Red-and-Black flags as an anarchist symbol (probably because it lends itself so well to graffiti). According to Peter Marshall the "circled-A" represents Proudhon's maxim "Anarchy is Order." [Demanding the Impossible p. 558] Peter Peterson also adds that the circle is "a symbol of unity and determination" which "lends support to the off-proclaimed idea of international anarchist solidarity." ["Flag, Torch, and Fist: The Symbols of Anarchism", Freedom, vol. 48, No. 11, pp. 8]

However, the origin of the "circled-A" as an anarchist symbol is less clear. Many think that it started in the 1970s punk movement, but it goes back to a much earlier period. According to Peter Marshall, "[i]n 1964 a French group, Jeunesse Libertaire, gave new impetus to Proudhon's slogan 'Anarchy is Order' by creating the circled-A a symbol which quickly proliferated throughout the world." [Op. Cit., p. 445] This is not the earliest sighting of this symbol. On November 25 1956, at its foundation in Brussels, the Alliance Ouvriere Anarchiste (AOA) adopted this symbol. Going even further, a BBC documentary on the Spanish Civil War shows an anarchist militia member with a "circled-A" clearly on the back of his helmet. Other than this, there is little know about the "circled-A"s origin.

Today the circled-A is one of the most successful images in the whole field of political symbolising. Its "incredible simplicity and directness led [it] to become the accepted symbol of the restrengthened anarchist movement after the revolt of 1968" particularly as in many, if not most, of the world's languages the word for anarchy begins with the letter A. [Peter Peterson, Op. Cit., p. 8]

Source: http://www.anarchist-action.org/sections/a...2.html#circledA (http://www.anarchist-action.org/sections/anarchism/anarchistfaq/append2.html#circledA)

[The Feral Underclass]

Hey dude...this website might be able to help you

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/anarc.html

[bluerev002]

http://together.net/~wbaker/anarchy.jpg

Arg...the top one got messed up. So, they are both correct? I always thought that the messy one was just and altered version of the neat looking one.

[Blackberry]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2003, 12:17 PM
http://together.net/~wbaker/anarchy.jpg

Arg...the top one got messed up. So, they are both correct? I always thought that the messy one was just and altered version of the neat looking one.
The bottom one is incorrect. The horizontal line isn't extending far enough.