World's best-known protest symbol turns 50
It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised. [!-- S IIMA --] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"] [tbody][tr][td] [img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44497000/gif/_44497910_cnd_logo_203.gif" alt="CND logo" border="0" height="160" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"] [/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IIMA --] It had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston. [/p]The demonstration had been organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined in. [/p] [!-- S IBOX --] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="208"] [tbody][tr] [td width="5"][img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif" alt="" border="0" height="1" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="5"][/td] [td class="sibtbg"] [div] [div class="mva"] [img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif" alt="" border="0" height="13" width="24"] I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad [img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif" alt="" align="right" border="0" height="13" vspace="0" width="23"][br clear="all"] [/div] [/div] [div class="mva"] [div]Gerald Holtom[/div] [/div] [/td] [/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IBOX --] Gerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from West London, persuaded DAC that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The "Ban the Bomb" symbol was born. [/p]He considered using a Christian cross motif but, instead, settled on using letters from the semaphore - or flag-signalling - alphabet, super-imposing N (uclear) on D (isarmament) and placing them within a circle symbolising Earth. [/p]The sign was quickly adopted by CND. [/p]Holtom later explained that the design was "to mean a human being in despair" with arms outstretched downwards. [/p]US peace symbol [/p]American pacifist Ken Kolsbun, who corresponded with Mr Holtom until his death in 1985, says the designer came to regret the connotation of despair and had wanted the sign inverted. [/p] [!-- S IIMA --] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"] [tbody][tr][td] [div] [img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44504000/jpg/_44504056_203b_1598645.jpg" alt="New York rally 1967" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"] [div class="cap"]Anti-Vietnam protesters at a rally in New York[/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IIMA --] "He thought peace was something that should be celebrated," says Mr Kolsbun, who has spent decades documenting the use of the sign. "In fact, the semaphore sign for U in 'unilateral' depicts flags pointing upwards. Mr Holtom was all for unilateral disarmament." [/p]In a book to commemorate the symbol's 50th birthday, Mr Kolsbun charts how it was transported across the Atlantic and took on additional meanings for the Civil Rights movement, the counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s including the anti-Vietnam protests, and the environmental, women's and gay rights movements. [/p]He also argues that groups opposed to those tendencies tried to use the symbol against them by distorting its message. [/p]How the sign migrated to the US is explained in various ways. Some say it was brought back from the Aldermaston protest by civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a black pacifist who had studied Gandhi's techniques of non-violence.
[/p]continue reading at..[/p][a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7292252.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7292252.stm[/a]
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Pffft! Hippies!!!
kidding...(http://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Teasing/1.gif)
Interesting.....50 you say !!
Didn't Michel say he invented the peace sign ? [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/frech/c010.gif" border=0]
lol lol
Pretty clever I must say, how they developed the symbol.
i don't know if coloured flags can be seen as a protest symbol. hmm
ROFL You'll pay for that...
Let's just say we're even now. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c018.gif" border=0]
yeah true. I don't know, I don't get protesting anymore, too cynical. I go to protests then tell everybody there's no point in being here. lol
i dunno everytime I see protests I think of a foxnews headline I've seen when they show protesting. The tens of thousands of immigrants in L.A. the ticker said "60,000 illegals, arrest them all and send them back to Mexico?"
or when thousands protested '04 Republican Convention one of their scrolls said "10,000 traitors"
sometimes I feel like 10,000 people should just storm the white house.... just end this madness.
Michel wrote:
[SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic"]World's best-known protest symbol turns 50[/SPAN]
huh... Anglo-Saxon world best-known protest symbol maybe...
The guillotine was quite an effective protest symbol in its time.
Michel wrote:
The guillotine was more a tool than a symbol. The symbols by excellence were the bonnet phrygien and the cocarde of the Sans-Culottes.
What was the cocarde of the Sans-Culottes?
That is very interesting, Michel. I thought that was the meaning of Sans-Culotte, but I couldn't understand why without knowing the relevance to the Revolution.
hahahahaha
Actually, when I read the term "san-Culottes", I immediately visualized the peasantry running around clothed only from the waist up. Of course that would be rather revolting!