My girlfriend thinks I'm ridiculous...

[Franz Fanonipants]

"bro what i consume and posses defines me"

your girlfriend is right

[Sun at Eight]

I think it's better, if you're into collecting left-wing stuff, to build up a collection of left-wing pamphlets and posters and whatnot from the movements happening around you, rather than branding everything with a hammer and sickle.

But that might be a bit too hipster.

[black magick hustla]

and who actually wears a Hammer and Sickle tshirt anyways

irl trolls

[Quail]

I have a couple of anarchist t-shirts, a feminist t-shirt and an antifascist one, so I don't think that wearing t-shirts that reflect your ideology is ridiculous. My living room is also decorated with anarchist posters and I have a couple of flags (flags make quite good decorations when not in use). Most people I know have political clothing/flags/posters though.

[Lyev]

I completely agree with her. Communism isn't a fashion brand. A hammer & sickle key-ring? Come on...

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Haha....I have a che shirt, a courier bag, and a necklace....nothing else though. Cool stuff, though somewhat materialist (guilty as charged I am on this front).

[Rusty Shackleford]

Thats why the black flag is the best flag: It signifies no adherence to any fixed ideas, leaders or systems. it is an anti-flag.

No, it signifies an adherence to non-adherence. and no, it is not an anti-flag. it is a flag. that is black. that symbolizes some sort of idea.




and to be on topic:

OP, you have more hammers and sickles than revleft i bet.

[Sentinel]

I have some CWI t-shirts that I mostly use when we are doing political work, like arranging/intervening in protests or selling the newspaper. Sometimes I wear them just for fun as well, in order to bring some visibility to our organisation. They don't contain hammers and sickles though.

One has, however, an awesome Trotsky quote about the nature of a Marxist party: "..we are not a party as other parties. Our ambition is to have more members, more papers, more money in the treasury, more deputies. All that is necessary, but only as a means. Our aim is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited though the socialist revolution.'

Of course one has to stand quite close to me for a while in order to read all that.

[Lunatic Concept]

I found a big hammer and sickle flag left over at the london student protests
Few political t-shirts and a load of posters on ma wall. No hammer and sickle keyrings though

[W1N5T0N]

No, it signifies an adherence to non-adherence. and no, it is not an anti-flag. it is a flag. that is black. that symbolizes some sort of idea.

an adherence to non-adherence is a contradiction.
the black flag simply is a signal of rejection of political and hierarchical sytems.
The soviet flag is today...more of a warning than some kind of advertisement for a product.

Soviet Russia: good idea, but basically after 1921 the shit hit the fan...

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

not ridiculous

[Tim Finnegan]

Well, personally, I have a few non-specifically leftie shirts, some leftie band shirts, and a couple of jackets with a few buttons and patches on them. Hopefully that's not too crass?

Thats why the black flag is the best flag: It signifies no adherence to any fixed ideas, leaders or systems. it is an anti-flag.

And the red flag signifies an iron-clad adherence to the international proletariat. Ergo, it is superior. (Of course, you can always go Voltron on them in the traditional anarcom fashion, but I have a personal affection for the pure red field. )

[Stand Your Ground]

To sum up a reply to everyone:

It's not really meant to be USSR/Soviet stuff, just commie stuff.
Yes, I am an anarcho communist and I do have an Anarchy shirt as well.
As for the key chain & mouse pad, I needed some anyway so I figured what the hell, I might as well get ones I like.
Yes I do like have the hammer & sickle clothes to somewhat troll, although I've gotten more positive comments than anything. Although one person did flip me off lol.

[W1N5T0N]

Well, personally, I have a few non-specifically leftie shirts, some leftie band shirts, and a couple of jackets with a few buttons and patches on them. Hopefully that's not too crass?


And the red flag signifies an iron-clad adherence to the international proletariat. Ergo, it is superior. (Of course, you can always go Voltron on them in the traditional anarcom fashion, but I have a personal affection for the pure red field. )

I am totally for the red flag, and what it stands for.
However, doesn't mean im gonna put on symbols of one or another form of oppression on it. Soviet Union was a hell for many. Gotta love 'em CHEKA boys...

[Stand Your Ground]

LOL Why not go for some diversity.. a mao shirt, something red/black,, cuba solidarity wear etc

I have tons more political shirts without communist symbols on them. Anti-Nazi, American flag that says fuck the system on it, fuck racism, anti homophobia etc.

yes, you seem a little too invested in your subcultural identity

Maybe. It's sooo much fun being...behind enemy lines.

[PhoenixAsh]

[s
You jelly OP? :P

Party member cards/booklets from my mother & the ones I kept for some reason.

The top stack are illegal communist papers from WWII my grandfather printed. I had the whole range from the start to the first liberation edition...but my ex spilled cola on them and they were pretty much ruined. As was the Nazi wanted poster for my grandfather...which featured a scetch which, for some reason, was really accurate....

The two open papers are party papers you may not see it immediately...but the guy in both pictures is the same guy.

And that ashtray...I bet that asthray will get you really excited Here....I made a close up:

ahhh...the top news paper is from 1947...features an article from the may celebration. It states that 12000 members of the communist party were gathered in The Hague to celebrate may day. The guy in the picture was the president of the committee and wasn't there because he was in hospital.

and some other stuff my grandfather and parents were gifted....

The yellow-black medal was a gift from a soviet dignitary who visited my grandfather....which pissed of Saul de Groot the leader of the Dutch communist party. My mother said she liked the shiny thing and he gave it to her. It features Stalin.

The grey thing on the top right is actually a phoenician coin somewhere before christ...I put it in there because for some reason I found it again in some shoe box amongst this stuff.

This is the resistance cross medal from my grandmother which she gave to me a week before she died. My grandfather had a larger one...but my parents keep that one.

After the war the Queen invited a lot of resistance members to stay at her palace to recuperate. Including communists. She was actually quite fond of them regardless of political outlook. My grandmother and my mother stayed there.

My mother actually met our current Queen in the gardens and she wanted my mother to tie her shoes for her since it was her first week with shoes with strings on My mother was three years younger than the queen and she asked the Queen, of all people, who that silly girl was that couldn't tie her own shoes My grandmother told me this story.

I have no reason to doubt the truth since there is a photograph in our family album of the four of them. And I know my grandmother was briefly detained during the war because, when travelling by train, my mother who was three at the time siad to an officer of the Wehrmacht : "rood front" which was somewhat of an illegal greeting of comrades. My mother still has the tendency to say silly things....I think I have inherrited that wonderful trait of her

O....and when I visited the USSR in 1994 I bought a giant bronze head statute of Lenin. I traded it for my sneakers....and nearly got arrested for trying to get it through customs. THey wanted to see if I smuggled things in it. Unfortunately the thing melted when my room burned down. I'll see if I can find a picture of it somehwere....

[Tim Finnegan]

I am totally for the red flag, and what it stands for.
However, doesn't mean im gonna put on symbols of one or another form of oppression on it. Soviet Union was a hell for many. Gotta love 'em CHEKA boys...

Well, that's fair enough for the hammer & sickle, but I don't think that a plain red flag is strongly associated with the Soviet Union or Marxism-Leninism, at least outside of North America. In the UK, at least, it's probably more closely associated with militant trade unionism than with any particular Marxist tendency.

[Sam_b]

I have a couple of anarchist t-shirts, a feminist t-shirt and an antifascist one, so I don't think that wearing t-shirts that reflect your ideology is ridiculous.

The point is that it isn't really his ideology.

[Susurrus]

I prefer hats myself. Got a Chinese communist hat, a Che beret I picked up in Cuba, an East German winter hat, a Soviet cap w/sideflaps from the Afghan war, and, of course, a Soviet ushanka.

Pins are also a good and cheap way to show one's political affiliation.

I also have a soviet flag. I think the reason hammer and sickle flags outnumber black and red and black flags is because of their availability, and the fact that people will recognize them. Plus it's great for trolling Teabaggers, and reenacting Raising the Flag Over the Reichstag.

[W1N5T0N]

Well, that's fair enough for the hammer & sickle, but I don't think that a plain red flag is strongly associated with the Soviet Union or Marxism-Leninism, at least outside of North America. In the UK, at least, it's probably more closely associated with militant trade unionism than with any particular Marxist tendency.

As i stated earlier, the virgin red flag is very different from the soviet one, and i embrace it.