Raised fist

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Nelson Mandela walks free from prison in 1990 with a raised fist

The raised fist (also other names, including clenched fist) is a symbol and salute most often used by communists, anarchists, socialists, leftists, pacifists, trade unionists and others in opposition to oppressive regimes. Generally the fist is used as an expression of solidarity or defiance.

[edit] Other names

The salute has also been known as the clenched fist or closed fist. Additionally, different movements sometimes use different terms to describe the raised fist salute: amongst communists and socialists it is sometimes called the red salute, whereas amongst black rights activists, especially in the United States of America it has been called the black power salute. During the Spanish Civil War, it was sometimes known as the anti-fascist salute.

[edit] Symbol

The fist may represent union, as "many weak fingers can come together to create a strong fist", and is also used to express solidarity, generally with oppressed peoples. This symbolism may have sprung from usage by unions.

Stencilled symbol of the autonomist movement Autonome

[edit] Groups that have used the symbol

Groups that have used some form of the raised fist as a symbol:

• American Indian Movement
• Anarchist Black Cross, a political prisoner and prison abolitionist organization
• Black Panther Party
• Earth First!, the eco-defense organization
• Food Not Bombs, an anti-capitalist free-food sharing organization
• International Socialist Organization, US-based socialist movement
• Otpor youth movement
• United Farm Workers of America
• Weatherman or Weather Underground
• Women's Liberation

Additionally, the fist with a red rose (e.g., as used by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) is a symbol of social democracy.

Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right) showing the Black Power salute in the 1968 Summer Olympics while Silver medalist Peter Norman (left) wears an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to show his support for the two Americans.

[edit] Salute

The salute consists of raising the arm with a clenched fist, at an angle greater than 90 degrees. There is no formal agreement as to which arm should be raised; usually, anarchists use the right arm while Marxists use the left arm,^{[citation needed]} but this rule is not adhered to very strictly. It contrasts with the Roman Salute, used by fascists in the 20th century, in which the arm is held at a similar angle but the palm is flat.

The clenched fist gesture is sometimes thought to have originated in the Spanish Civil War. A letter from the Spanish Civil War explained,

The raised fist was used as the salute of the Black Panther Party. At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, medal winners John Carlos and Tommie Smith gave the raised fist salute during the American national anthem as a sign of black power and protest on behalf of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. For this, they were barred from further Olympic activities.

Loyalists in Northern Ireland often use a clenched fist on murals depicting the Red Hand of Ulster.

[edit] See also

1968 Olympics Black Power Salute

[edit] References

• Cushing, Lincoln (January 25, 2006). A brief history of the 'clenched fist' image. Docs Populi. Retrieved on 2006-03-22.
• Dilbeck, Steve. "Bitter price of Olympics' iconic image", Los Angeles Daily News, October 17, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-03-24.
• McGivering, Jill. "India Faces Maoist 'Red Salute'", BBC World News, June 21, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Rolfe, Mary. Letter to Leo Hurwitz and Janey Dudley, 25 November 1938. Reprinted in Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks, eds. "Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil War," Routledge: 1996. Reprinted online [1]