The fist and rose, sometimes called the rose in the fist or fist with a rose, is an emblem used or formerly used by a number of socialist and social democraticparties around the world.
The emblem was drawn in 1969 by the French graphic artist Marc Bonnet and became popular within the Socialist Party (PS), which made it its official logo in 1971. It was later used, with slight or large alterations and adaptations, by several parties elsewhere in Europe as well as in Africa, America, and Asia, although some have retired it since the end of the 20th century.[1] In 1979, it was also taken up by the Socialist International (SI). It has often been chosen to provide an attractive visual alternative to the communist hammer and sickle, and to signal a party's affiliation to the SI and kinship with foreign left-wing parties.
History and use
France
Creation and adoption
Marc Bonnet's 1969 version of the fist and rose emblem, without his signature.
The emblem was created in France within the Socialist Party (PS), at the time of its transformation from the prior SFIO at the Alfortville Congress (May 1969) and of its enlargement to the rest of the “non-communist left” at the Épinay Congress (June 1971). The emblem of the SFIO was the Three Arrows, a 1930s anti-fascist symbol, which was falling in disuse as the party wished to modernize.[2] The Ceres, a left-leaning faction, had taken control of the PS Paris Federation and actively seek to change the party. The initiative for the emblem is frequently, although disputedly, credited to Didier Motchane, a co-founder of the Ceres, who claimed to have “invented” it in his 2010 memoirs,[3] but a role was also played by Georges Sarre, the first secretary of the Paris Federation, and Paul Calandra, its secretary for propaganda.[4][5] In late 1969, Calandra asked Yann Berriet, the founder of a communication agency, to come up with ideas expected to signal change and attract new members, especially women, with the request that they not look “too bolshevik”. Calandra and Berriet met with Marc Bonnet, a graphic designer and a former employee of Berriet's agency, who submitted three draft designs; the federation leadership chose the fist and rose (French: le poing et la rose), of which Bonnet then drew a final form. (According to Évelyn Soum, the other two submissions were a carnation and a bloom of flowers.[6] The rose symbol drew on long-standing associations with socialism.
A small signature by Bonnet was originally part of the design, along the leftmost petal of the flower, as the PS wished to display professionalism; it was later removed in order to facilitate the party's merchandising. Although Berriet was close to the PS, Bonnet was not political; Berriet paid Bonnet for his work from his own pocket.[7] Bonnet trademarked his design in 1974, and received 50,000 francs from the PS in 1975 in exchange for a transfer of rights, retroactive to 1970.[8]
The fist and rose was first displayed in January–February 1970 on a poster of the Paris Federation, widely re-used for the March 1971 municipal election. Sarre described it in a press conference in February 1970: “The fulfilment which only socialism can enable (the rose) will only be possible by fighting (the fist).”[7][9] It combined, and partly appropriated, symbolism drawn both from the traditions of French and European socialism, and from new ideas of the era. For example, the insignia of the SFIO youth organization had been an arm holding a rifle.[10] The combination also meant to pacify the historic tension between reformism and revolution in the French left. SFIO posters had long avoided explicit revolutionary references such as the raised fist, in order not to frighten voters.[11]
It was quickly picked up by the Socialist Youth Movement (MJS) and the Association of Socialist Postmen, of which Sarre was leader, and became popular with party members and other federations at the time of the Épinay Congress.[12] There was a bottom-up element to its spread: since the Paris poster included, as legally required, the name and contact information of the printing house, some federations directly called it to obtain the picture. The Ceres entered the new party leadership after the congress, with Sarre and Berriet on the Propaganda Committee; this helped the emblem gain legitimacy, while the prior leadership, drawn from the old SFIO, had been broadly indifferent to symbols and communication.[4][13] In September 1971, it became the official party emblem. As the party made massive use of modern communication techniques to signal its transformation and reach out to new voters,[11] it appeared in a matter of months on countless periodicals and brochures, but also posters, leaflets, and stickers, and in demonstrations and public meetings; it became customary for roses to be given away and held high by party leaders and members, for example at the cloture of party conventions. The monthly party bulletin took the title Le Poing et la Rose in November 1972. However, due to the new leadership's willingness to reinterpret party history and to distance itself from the post-war decades, it was more slowly accepted in areas with long-standing socialist support, for example in northern France.[14]François Mitterrand, the new PS first secretary, published a book titled La Rose au poing (The Rose in the Fist) in 1973.
Use and adaptations
The 2010–2016 logo of the PS, displayed during a 2012 demonstration.
The fist and rose remains widely associated with the rise of the PS in the 1970s and Mitterrand's victory at the 1981 presidential election. In a well-remembered gesture after his inauguration, Mitterrand walked to the Panthéon with his supporters, holding red roses in his hand, and entered the building to lay down roses on the tombs of Jean Jaurès (socialism), Jean Moulin (the Resistance), and Victor Schœlcher (abolitionism).[15]
Although the PS communication team originally discouraged colouring the leafs green,[16] some federations did so as early as in the 1980s. This did not made its way to the official party logo until 2010.[17]
The emblem's diminishing or returning visibility subsequently tended to depend on the party's wish to modernize and tone down its heritage, or to state its left leanings again. From the late 1980s, it was less frequently used on election posters, and reserved to communication aimed at party members; the rose was increasingly used and mentioned alone, avoiding the revolutionary reference of the fist, and the PS was often nicknamed “the rose party”.[18][11] It came back in favour in 1994 when the party was out of government.[19] In 2010, the party logo became a larger “PS”, “limiting the rose in the fist to a marginal visual role, like a post-ideological afterthought”,[20] positioned as in superscript. The leafs were coloured pale green, and were simplified without veins to fit the smaller size.[21] A more balanced logo was presented in 2016, with a larger fist and rose and the acronym “PS” scaled to the fist. The new version made space for ecological concerns, with the emblem and acronym superimposed on a large green leaf.[17]
The political colour of the PS is not red, although this is used on the logo, but pink (French: rose). This is historically due to the strength of the French Communist Party (PCF), which also used red, and by distinction with which the PS is commonly displayed with a paler hue on graphics, a custom which settled in the 1970s.[22][23]
The emblem was picked up by the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB/BSP) in 1973,[25] and maintained in French-speaking Belgium by the Socialist Party (PS) after the national party split on linguistic lines in 1978. A new logo with only a rose was presented in 1997, and was abandoned in 2002 under the leadership of Elio Di Rupo, to the dissatisfaction of some in the old generation of party members.[26][27]
The French-speaking PS is a member of the SI, as was the PSB/BSP. Vooruit, the present successor of the PSB/BSP in the Flemish Community, also remained SI-affiliated, but never used the fist and rose.
In Denmark, the emblem was used by the Social Democrats from the late 1970s. Marc Bonnet claimed 140,000 kroner from the party in 1978 in exchange for a transfer of rights.[28]
In Italy, the Radical Party (PR) began using the fist and rose emblem (Italian: il pugno e la rosa) in the early 1970s, after party president Marco Pannella obtained the agreement of François Mitterrand. As often gleefully retold by Pannella, Giacomo Mancini, the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) which was closer ideologically to the French PS and affiliated to the SI, was present as the same meeting and also wished to use the emblem, but lacked internal party support to remove the traditional symbols, which included the Marxist hammer and sickle. Different designs adapted by Piergiorgio Maoloni were initially used, starting on the front page of the Liberazione newspaper in September 1973. Marc Bonnet's design became the official PR logo in 1976.[8]
Bonnet sued the PR before the Rome Ordinary Tribunal in 1979 for using his design without his prior approval and infringing his intellectual property. The court sided with Bonnet, who had not been party to the political agreement between Mitterrand and the PR. The PR reached a financial settlement out of court with Bonnet to continue using it, against 60 million lire.[8]
In 1980, the PR decided to add a sign of mourning to its logo in order to pay homage to the part of humanity which was victim of hunger and war, reflecting its new internationalist platform. This took the form of a thick, diagonal black armband to lower right, obscuring part of the fist.[29]
The emblem was abandoned in 1989 when the party moved away from electoral politics and transformed into the Transnational Radical Party (TRP). Although the TRP went with a different logo, the party, and other organizations in what has been referred to as the “radical galaxy”, continued using the fist and rose emblem when running in elections, for example the Pannella List. In 1996, the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), the successor to the Italian Communist Party (PCI) but affiliated with the Socialist International, explored the possibility of taking up the fist and rose, but was forbidden to do so by the TRP leadership, who stated that their party maintained the right to use it in Italy.[29] The PR and its successor parties were never affiliated to the SI.
In 2005–2007, a short-lived alliance in the Italian left was called the Rose in the Fist (Rosa nel Pugno, RnP), and used Bonnet's emblem. The Italian Radicals, a successor to the PR and an Italian constituent member of the TRP, were part of it. Different roses still appear in their logos.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the fist and rose was used by the Labour Party (PvdA) between the mid-1970s and 1994.[30] The party was a member of the SI at the time, but left in the 2010s.
The version of the fist and rose emblem used by the PvdA.
A 1974 municipal elections campaign poster featuring an early appearance of the fist and rose imagery.
A 1978 provincial elections poster.
A 1981 general election poster featuring the fist holding symbols of various industries in order to appeal to diverse categories of workers.
Russia
In Russia, the Union of Social Democrats (SSD), a short-lived non-governmental organization founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, used the fist and rose. It was never affiliated to the SI.
Cruz Novillo, inspired by the Dutch PvdA version, used cleaner, more geometric shapes than Bonnet and more horizontal and vertical lines, expressing “order and modernity”.[31] He inverted the picture, so that a left hand would hold the rose; he later explained that this signalled a difference with communists, who usually raise their right fist.[31][33] The PvdA version was first used in 1976–1977 by the party and El Socialista newspaper, before Cruz Novillo’s version was released in time for the June 1977 general election campaign.[32]
Its became the official party symbol in December of that year at the 27th Congress.[34] The PSOE is affiliated to the SI.
PSOE-affiliated regional parties also use the emblem, sometimes with elements from the regional flag added to the design.
The 2023 version of the party logo, combining the fist and rose, the red square introduced in 2001, and the heart symbol introduced in 2019.
In 2017, the American fashion group Urban Outfitters used the Spanish version of the logo on one of its t-shirts, sparking protest from Cruz Novillo's son. The PSOE stated that it owns copyright on the picture, although it was not clear what rights the designer may have maintained. The company retired the t-shirt.[39]
In Argentina, the Socialist Party (PS) has used the emblem alongside several others, sometimes with a narrow version of the flag of Argentina added to the end of the hand as a cuff. The party was formerly affiliated to the SI.
In Brazil, the fist and rose (Portuguese: o punho e a rosa) has been used by the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) since its foundation in 1979.[40] The party was admitted as a consultative member of the SI only in 1986, and as a full member in 1989.
In the logo introduced in 2021, the leafs and stem bear the main colours of the flag of Brazil (yellow, blue and green). Party president Carlos Lupi stated that this was in response to the political use of the national flag by President Jair Bolsonaro.[41]
Canada
In Canada, the New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus, a left-wing faction in the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP), has used the Socialist International version of the fist and rose since the group's inception in 1998, though more recently it has used the same fist holding a red flag as an alternate logo.[42] The NDP was affiliated with the SI until 2018.
In Quebec, the Parti de la démocratie socialiste (PDS), until 1995 the Nouveau Parti démocratique du Québec (NPDQ) and until 1989 affiliated with the federal NDP, used the left-handed Spanish variant of the fist and rose from the late 1980s until its dissolution in 2002.[43] The most recent iteration of the NPDQ, which was re-established in 2014, does not use the fist and rose.
Chile
In Chile, the fist and rose was used by the Social Democratic Movement (MSD), formed in a secession from the Radical Party of Chile (PR) in 1979, and which eventually merged back into it in 1985.
It was then used by the Chilean Social Democracy Party (SDCH) from its legalization in 1991, and, after 1994, in a largely redrawn version, by its successor the Social Democrat Radical Party (PSRD), today the new PR, which is affiliated to the SI.
Mexico
In Mexico, the short-lived Social Democracy party (1996–2000) used a largely redrawn and recoloured version of Bonnet's original design. It was not affiliated to the SI.
Paraguay
In Paraguay, the Revolutionary Febrerista Party (PRF) uses the logo of the SI, although turned to a right hand directed left.
Peru
In Peru, the fist and rose is used by the Socialist Party (PS).
The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), one of the DSA's precursor organization, had used the classic fist and rose. The DSA, as the DSOC before it, was a member of the SI, but left it in 2017.[44]
Some branches and section of the party use altered versions of the emblem. The two hands are redrawn to make a V sign in Los Angeles (DSA-LA), where they previously shook under a palm tree. The Queer Socialists Working Group fill the flower, or sometimes just the several parts of the leafs, with the colors of the rainbow flag (LGBT). Another derived logo displays the classic rose under three raised fists of different skin colors; it is used by the Palestine Solidarity Working Group.
A version of the fist and rose derived from the 1977 Spanish variant, with the leafs coloured green.
The emblem combines two political symbols, making it “a graphic synthesis of left-wing militant commitment”:[46]
The raised fist, or clenched fist, is a long-standing rallying sign of solidarity, unity, determination, strength, and resistance, as well as a salute, popular in communist and socialist movements. It has often been used as a symbol, usually raised vertically, although the fist holding the rose is extended horizontally for graphical reasons. It was widely used by the German left in the 1920s, as well as by Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, and spread across Europe as a response to the fascist-appropriated Roman salute and the Nazi salute, and, in France, to the V sign of the Gaullist party.[47][48] It was later used in defence of a number of minority or oppressed groups.
The red rose has been a symbol of socialism since the 1880s, both in the European and the American traditions. Other red flowers were also common, such as the dog rose, especially in Belgium and France,[49] or the carnation, especially in Italy, Portugal, and Spain.[50]
In the French PS, the emblem was sometimes known as the rose in the fist or the fist with a rose, before fist and rose became the preferred designation, in order to stress the balanced association between the two elements and what they stand for.[53]
The symbolism, while evocative, is vague enough to enable varying interpretations depending on the country and on the party's political orientation. It was detailed in a 1979 communication brochure of the French PS: “It embodies both strength and sweetness, the labour world and the quality of life, dynamism and innovation, the resolution to fight and the will to change life, quantitative and qualitative concerns.”[16] SPOE politician Alfonso Guerra, in his Dictionary of the Left, tones down the symbolism of the fist as “the strength […]—of labour, of workers”, rather than as a reference to the revolution, and that of the rose to “the sensibility of culture, of thought, of beauty”.[54] The imagery inspired Ola Enstad’s controversial 4,8m public sculpture Neve med rose (Fist With Rose, 1991), located in the Lilletorget square in Oslo.[55][56]
In fact, broader and more elusive symbolism may be seen in the fist and rose. It associates manly (the fist) and feminine (the rose) imagery.[57] The red rose, which is the favourite flower of French people, is associated with passion and love in the language of flowers.[58] Bonnet's design of the flower and its leafs pointing left and right can also remind of a Christian cross. An ambiguous element of the symbolism is that clenching a rose may be bloody, since the flower has thorns.[50] A fist clenching something also appears on the arm and hammer, an ancient symbol of industry, which was used by some left-wing parties, for example the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP).
In Marc Bonnet's version, the fist is a right hand, directed left. The PvdA and PSOE versions inverted the design, with a left hand directed right; José María Cruz Novillo later explained that this was intended to signal a difference from communists, who usually raise their right fist.[31]
The original design uses bold, black lines, making the emblem simple, but strong,[59] and reminds of the style of bande dessinée comics.[10] A number of later variations use thinner lines.
Intellectual property
It was indicated in the 1979 Italian court case that Marc Bonnet trademarked his design worldwide on 14 August 1974, and was paid for its use in several countries.[29] He received 50,000 francs from the French PS on 22 May 1975 in exchange for a transfer of rights, in France or abroad, retroactive to 1970, but reserved his rights regarding the use of the emblem, without his prior authorization, by any foreign socialist party or any other party with which the PS had no affiliation. The Italian PR paid him a higher amount (60 million lire) in 1980.[8]
The fist and rose's bold and evocative symbolism lends itself to occasional parodies, caricature, or attacks against the associated parties, which is sometimes done by the parties themselves as a show of humour and self-deprecation. For example, during the 2015 Spanish local elections, the PSOE temporarily changed its logo to the Cruz Novillo fist redrawn as a thumb signal, accompanying the slogan “I say yes”.[60]
Other left-wing emblems
Many other socialist, social democratic, or labour parties, movements and organizations across the world use or have used a red rose in their logo. Centre-leaning and moderate parties tend to use a red rose alone, doing away with the revolutionary heritage of the raised fist.[61]
The fist and rose has sometimes been laid on an alternative graphic identification shared by left-wing parties in several countries, a plain red square with white text, for example in Spain (2001 to 2013; since 2023)[32][36][61] or in French-speaking Switzerland (since 2009). The plain red square first appeared in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1972 and became the official party logo in 1991;[62] it is popular with parties converted to the Third Way.[61][26]
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fist and rose.
^Motchane, Didier (2010). Voyage imaginaire à travers les mots du siècle (in French). Paris: Fayard. pp. 254–255. ISBN978-2-213-65453-9. Motchane himself writes invented in quotation marks, as in scare quotes.
^ ab"La communication politique et ses techniques". La Nouvelle Revue socialiste (in French). No. 44. Paris: Parti socialiste. January 1980 [1979]. p. 15. Cited by Cépède 1996, p. 21.
^ abCépède, Frédéric (January–March 2004). "Des symboles, des logos, des images. À la recherche de l'Europe des socialistes". Recherche socialiste (in French). Paris: Office universitaire de recherche socialiste. 26: 63–77. ISSN1283-7393.
^Cépède, Casimir (1951). "L'insigne socialiste : trois flèches ou églantine ?". Le Vétéran socialiste (in French). Vol. 5. Cited by Cépède 1996, p. 22.
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The version of the fist and rose emblem used by the PvdA.
A 1974 municipal elections campaign poster featuring an early appearance of the fist and rose imagery.
A 1978 provincial elections poster.
A 1981 general election poster featuring the fist holding symbols of various industries in order to appeal to diverse categories of workers..svg)
