more for several decades. Often mentioned is the AOA (Alliance Ouvriθre Anarchiste), founded in Brussels in 1956. They supposedly had used the symbol and every source cites this without question.[11] Though proof that they had been using this since 1956 are nowhere to be found. Raymond Beaulaton, secretary of the AOA said it was used in their correspondence. Used as a monogram for their groups name. What is for sure is that they had published the symbol in l’Anarchie from 1968 on.[12] Most likely imitating the French group Jeunesse Libertaire which was founded in 1964. After that the group Circolo Sacco e Vanzetti from Milan copied the symbol and started spreading it throughout Italy. From them I cannot find any proof of them using this symbol, though I can from another group, also from Milan, Gioventu Anarchica, as pictured below.[13] This group had, most likely, used this symbol to represent Proudhons statement ‘Anarchy is order without power’, taken from Confessions of a Revolutionary.[14] As mentioned before, the ‘circle A’ earned it’s widespread popularity thanks too the punks. The Sex Pistols noticed the symbol in France. Their first single from 1976 was called ‘Anarchy in the UK’. Partly due to them the anarchy symbol was uncorporated in punk methaphorics. A nice batch of anarchism with the Sex Pistols so to say. Sadly enough, they weren’t very serious about their anarchist ideas. The pistols flirtations with anarchism were at most a sensational marketing strategy, associating anarchism with chaos and rebellion, fully complying to the mainstream ideas about anarchism. Punkbands such as Crass and the Poison Girls were the first to seriously set forth on the notion of anarchism. [15] After the flirtations from the punks with the ‘circle A’ symbol it has become a common symbol for anarchism. Partly due to the punks that were in fact seriously involved with anarchism. From kabbalist symbol to freemason lodges, trough Italian anarchist to the Sex pistols and then back to organized anarchist who still use the ‘circle A’. The key to the ‘circle A’s succes lies in it’s simplicity and immidiacy. What also contributes to this is the fact that, in most languages, anarchy starts with an A and therefore becomes internationally recognizable. Where most populist ideas still associate anarchism with chaos and disorder, we know beter. Anarchy is Order. Grap your spraycan and make the city a little more beautiful.
Notes: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ AGLA. [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Anarchist_symbolism. [3] http://www.vrijmetselarij.nl/ Default.aspx?tabid=4115. [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_Freemasons, http://www. anarchymag.org/index.php/currentissue/ 39-latest-issue/79-reviewbakuninthe-creative-passion, http://anarchism.pageabode.com/ andrewnflood/micheal-bakuninbiographycontribution-modelsanarchistorganization. [5] ‘Bakunin’s idea of revolution & revolutionary organisation’, Red & Black Revolution, (Nr. 6, Winter 2002), http://flag.blackened.net/ revolt/rbr/rbr6/bakunin.html. [6] http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Bakoenin. [7] T.R. Ravindranathan, Bakunin & the Italians (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press,
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1988) 24-26: ‘In 1845 Bakunin became a freemason, taking membership of the Scottish lodge of the Grand Orient of Paris.’ [8] ‘Bakunin’s idea of revolution & revolutionary organisation’, Red & Black Revolution, (Nr. 6, Winter 2002), http://flag.blackened.net/ revolt/rbr/rbr6/bakunin.html. [9] Ravindranathan, 26, citeert: Dragomanov, eds., Pis’ma M.A. Bakunina, 271. [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ International_Workers_ Association#IWA_Today. [11] http://recollectionbooks.com/ bleed/Encyclopedia/CircleA.htm. [12] http://www.alasbarricadas.org/ forums/viewtopic. php?f=19&t=1167&start=0. [13] Iain McKay, The Anarchist FAQ, (13/17), 2009, 25. [14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon. [15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Anarcho-punk.