Forum Post: The Resistance Fist Icon is Counterproductive
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 7, 2011, 5:30 p.m. EST by soulipsis
(14)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I question association of the Fist icon with the name of our movement, OccupyWallSt. While the fist is a long established symbol of resistance, it is also a meme, and memes have a habit of self-propagating on both sides of an oppositional divide. I don’t think the fist is a good idea for us, especially since theirs is so much technologically bigger than ours.
I more favor a turtle. Turtles are Eaarthen; they endure, and they occupy. They occupy their shells, they occupy our waters, they occupy our minds…. in our shells. And they move slowly. They move slowly, yet they endure and challenge by advancing without threatening. I think speed, bad speed, is one of the defining characteristics of greed. Among other things, greed is a desire to harvest faster than the Earth can grow, ripping plants out to check the roots before their time, eating seed stock. This causes pain and deprivation. I think one of the messages of our movement is, slow. Slow down, buddy. Give us our time. Give the Earth Hers. Take yours. Harvest, rest, enjoy, clear, work, plant, grow, rest, work, rest. Slow. Slow food, slow money, slow time. Be. Slow.
Sustain, like the Turtle, and the cool green leaves she eats.
I don’t like the Fist, and the hot blood Red symbology of aggression.
Love, Wat
Yes, and the fist has the connotation of being associated with communism, the worker's party, the labor movement, the unions, etcetera.
The unions and labor are spending huge sums of money to mobilize alongside OWS. Do you find it ironic the OWS symbol is a fist?
The Fist is suicidal. We are confronting the people who killed the occupants of the World Trade Center, who killed 1.5 million in Iraq, 3 million in Vietnam, and horrible torture around the world never reported. We are confronting them in their lair, where they will be most vicious. Violent iconography is not in our interest.
I agree. Any violence on the part of the protestors will only give the government its invitation to usher in martial law.
This is why the police have been using provacateur tactics: the women who were penned in and pepper sprayed were "kettled". This tactic is being used in the U.K. to provoke violence among protestors.
Oh, it's just those dirty rotten police plotting against you, huh. lmao!!!!!!!
I agree about getting rid of the fist. +1
thank you!
Maybe you guys aren't involved in enough meaningful work, with all the hash you've made of this thread.
Hey what about a turtle's fist? Now isn't EVERYONE happy?
Way to mediate. I like it. We need more people like you! :)
Some sensitivity here over small criticisms. When a logo is well chosen it doesnt require followup interpretation. Its self explanatory. Poignant. 100% universally branded. Unique. Distinct not coopted.
I find a clenched fist symbol isnt either clarifying our nonviolent intent or accurately portray the diversity of the political leanings inspired by ows worldwide.
A fist should be seen as a universal symbol of power! Power is much more then physical strength. Power is the ability to look violence and opposition in the face (aka riot police?..) and stand proud and peaceful. Power is freedom. Empower yourselves. Peace.
Huh???
The fist is not a symbol of aggression depicted upraised and palm out- it's a symbol of solidarity.
The turtle thing- c'mon, seriously? Slow and steady has been the course for the last 40 years- where are we at, as the middle class, in the race? If the turtle was pacing himself it was out of sustainability- not to imply his efforts were in the interest of time.
There's nothing wrong with purposefully utilitzing the potential of memes if you put in the time to anticipate where those iconographic symbols are going to be focused and to what end- marketing is a valuable tool regardless of what side of the camp uses it.
agreed.
Agreed.
The Fist is suicidal. We are confronting the people who killed the occupants of the World Trade Center, who killed 1.5 million in Iraq, 3 million in Vietnam, and horrible torture around the world never reported. We are confronting them in their lair, where they will be most vicious. Violent iconography is not in our interest.
All that you are saying is that you perceive it as "violent" and therefore that is how everyone else perceives it as well. I'm sorry, but you have nothing to support that argument. I certainly don't perceive it that way and neither does anyone else that I know.
The fist has been around for at least 100 years and has been used UNIVERSALLY in almost every explicitly non-violent, direct resistance action, by over over 100 expressly non-violent people's movements including:
The Feminist Movement
The Antiwar movement (hello!)
Various Labor Organizations
Otpor
The Arab Spring
The Socialist International
...And a whole long drawn-out list of others that is outside of the scope of this thread...
Telling other people that the fist objectively is violent, simply because you perceive it that way out of your own lack of historical education or exposure to resistance movements, does not constitute a sound or logical reason to challenge a universal, globally accepted symbol of peaceful, non-violent resistance, solidarity and camaraderie.
How about if we extend the fingers from the fist, kinda like the NAZI salute
but your movement is based on agrression...OCCUPY is an aggressive term...and when people ignore you, you OCCUPY more, rabble rouse more....you are an aggressive movement, look in the mirror...own who you are..
Yeah . .that middle finger needs to up in the air
Oh my god stop worrying about the fist. Make your own symbol then.