Glenn Beck's '9-12' logo based on communist and socialist designs

Ever since Glenn Beck took to the Fox television airwaves recently to offer a bizarre reading of the art commissioned 70 years ago for New York's Rockefeller Center, I've been puzzled by the graphic design element of his 9-12 Project. The logo (pictured) for his affiliated groups' rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend derives from century-old communist, socialist and other left-wing designs.

Those were the motifs he railed against in his Rockefeller rant.

For the logo, three raised and clenched red fists are superimposed over the U.S. Capitol. Obviously the bloody fist represents the tea-baggers' themes of unity and resistance.

But do Beck; the corporate-sponsored astro-turf group, FreedomWorks, headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas); the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights; the private-property group, the National Assn. of Rural Landowners; and the rest of the march sponsors know the symbol's origins?

Unity and resistance are what the fist represented in 1917, when it was first employed by the Industrial Workers of the World, a union organization founded by socialists. And in the 1940s, when it stood  for various nations' communist party organizations.

That's also what it meant when it was revived in the 1960s, appearing as a symbol for the SDS, as well as anti-war and feminist movements. It was the basis for the black-power salute given by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. And today, it's the symbol for the Progressive Labor Party (pictured), a political outfit whose website says it "fights to smash capitalism."

Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust; 30,000 protesters signed up in advance (MSNBC reporter David Shuster tweeted that D.C. park police called that figure "generous"). But even if three times that many actually showed up, the number would fall far short of the hundreds of thousands (and even millions) claimed to be planning to attend. Even in that reduced crowd, however, surely someone recognized how odd the right-wing gathering's left-wing logo was.

Maybe Beck will explain. Sort of.

-- Christopher Knight

Credits: 912dc.org; Progressive Labor Party

Comments

[Karen]

In the old days, the gullible public believed the trash put in their newspapers by the liberals in the media. Now, we have YouTube and bloggers who have proof of their lies. The media keeps lying, and we keep factchecking their lies. The MSM -- MSNBC, NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post - are no longer respected or believed. When they continue to spew mistruths that are verfiably wrong --- more people cancel subscriptions, complain to advertisers, etc.

The LA Times buildup of Van Jones, and the unmasking of his instability and unAmerican ties, hurts only the LA Times. People no longer consider the LA Times a credible source of unbias news. The blatant act of censorship and their propaganda for democrats is a nail in the coffin of their relevancy.

[sharinlite]

Gee, Christopher, with the entire world already in a handbasket hell because of authoritarian or totalitarian forces, you worry about a symbol that was usurped by Beck. Better, spend your ink and time to describe to your "audience", small though it may be, just why you think that this is more important than Obamacare and its destruction of old people. Don't tell me about "old people" I am one and Obama has specifically said he will cut out Senior Advantage programs which have been so successful for old people's health. Our costs will increase at a time when a good portion of us cannot afford it!

[Spiritk9]

LOL. How moronic.

So then what does it mean when black people show up at Obama speeches and rallys and pump their fists in the air? Does that automatically make them black panther anarchist communists?

Can we take STUPID to a new extreme please?

[BKeyser]

Geeze, I hope the MMA or some Boxing group doesn't use a fist in their logo, the LAT will accuse them of either plagiarism or being pinkos. Was a juvenile post this is. Don't you have homework to do Christopher?

[Shauna]

Ha Ha nice joke! The human hand is now the sole property of the communists. You wish.

I guess a common gesture of anger can be trademarked?

[EC]

Dangerous ideas, James? Such as the following:

1. Supporting the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
2. Demanding fiscal responsibility so that you and your generation don't spend the rest of your lives paying off Obama's deficits.
3. Demanding that Congress listen to the people who sent the representatives there.
4. Peacefully exercising rights granted by the US Constitution.
5. Opposing marxism.

If you think those ideas are dangerous, James, then YOU'RE dangerous.

[lulu]

If you're going to comment on a "communist" logo design being used by Glenn Beck's 9-12 project, then why don't you also comment on Obama being mentored by a real communist in his younger days. That communist went by the name of Frank Marshall Davis.

Also, you can downplay the crowd size all you want. The fact of the matter is the State Run Media has been rendered useless and has been replaced by the new media...the internet. We know the real truth...you saw it Saturday on FOX News.

[J Taj Bozeman]

You're kidding with this, right? The fist looks very little like the communist poster fist you post. If anything, you're saying that ANYTIME anyone uses a red fist in any shape, size, whatever, that they're clearly copying the communist logo?

And how did you get bloody fists? I see red, white, and blue- the colors of the American flag. How is that obvious fact lost on an arts writer?!

And the fists represent unity and resistance? How about a more obivious "we're pissed off?"

I don't see how anyone could possibly connect the two symbols.

[kathy]

Are you nuts, did you see the live feed of Washington with streaming poeple, numbering in the 100's of thousands?

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/12/how-big-was-the-crowd-in-dc-today

With this kind of reporting, and following, you'll be broke before you know it LA Times - Good Riddance!

[Derrick]

This is the best you can do? LOL

Now to the truth.

Obama....

The constant lying.
The staggering arrogance.
The dangerous narcissism.
The astounding incompetence.

The Obama Buffoon wants to put as much of the private economy under government control as possible to create his nanny state utopia where he is the boy king.

Let's continue to stand strong against Obama in every way and get Congress out of the hand of Pelosi and Reid in 2010.

Obama is a smug, smirking con man. Nothing more. Obama is bad, bad news for America.

[drjohn]

Oh, someone call the wahmbulance. Does your paper have completely vanish before you profess the same umbrage for the malfeasance as you do for its discovery?

[n]

wow, how obvious communism is when it's on the right? don't see any communism on the left there, huh, genius? maybe instead of clenched fists, a few middle fingers would have suited this idiot better? and i am amazed that he is so concerned about communist visual tools and not the implementation of it by the buffoon-in-chief.

[Lightduty]

Common seriously you think Beck has the slightest grasp on history? He can barley keep straight what comes out of his mouth from show to show much less place in historical context the designs that some intern runs by him.

Posted by: DJ | September 13, 2009 at 11:12 AM

------------

Don't watch the show much, do you? He's actually quite the history buff. He was the first person I know of who mentioned that our current employer-based insurance was an unintended consequence of FDR's wage controls. Businesses began to use insurance to entice better employees, since they couldn't pay them more in wages.

[SueG]

30,000! Typical liberal lies!! So 30,000 signed up on line How about the hundreds of thousands that didn't bother to sign up but got in their cars and came to the great rally? Or rode a bus? And we are saying NO to socialism as it seems this President is hell bent on turning us into a socialist state-LA Times seems to right on board!

[Artist in East LA]

Don`t you get it, it is satire on all the lefty and Obama graphics.

LA Times has never done an article about how the left`s graphics are based on communist or socialist designs, so now that Glenn Beck uses them in satire, the liberal press jumps on to accuse the right of what was always okay for the left to use.
So in effect you are finally admitting that the left`s graphics are based on communist or socialist designs.
Funny.

[Fred]

Your alleged correlations b/n the 9/12 clipart and communist symbolism are weak.

On the other hand, the bas relief figures to each side of the door at 30 Rock holding a HAMMER and SICKLE are there with a specific intent.

Yoda says, 'Grasping at straws, you are.'

[Jackie]

A bust? Really? Do you live in a cave?

I'm just asking...

And I promise - the people you listed above are smart enough to know the symbolism they use. By writing a post that suggests they don't, you, in turn, suggest that you are the only person in the world who could have possibly made the connection. Surely, Beck, FreedomWorks, the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, the National Association of Rural Landowners, and all the other groups that put together the logo are just as smart as you.

[Alinsky]

See the latest subversion of my rules for radicals re: the ACORN undercover actions for a clue, LA Behind-the-Times.

[J Taj Bozeman]

By the way, can you explain why you felt the need to add an entire paragraph discussing how the turnout might not have matched the number of people who said they would attend?

A few points. 1. The DC Fire Dept is saying over 70, 000 people. 2. From what I can tell, that would be around the number of people who signed up to attend. 3. This is one city- they had marches across the country. 4. Who cares? It's inherent with ANY event that many more people sign up that never actually attend. 5. What the heck does this fact have to do with the article or arts and culture at all? It's sort of tossed in, seemingly as a snide attack. It does nothing to support or undo your argument that the red fists (that are clearly the red of the red, white, and blue flag colors) are somehow taken from communist logos.

[Herbert Dyson]

That's it ... how much do you get paid for such a piece of drivel. The 9/12 logo has a clenched fist so it's derived from communist themes. Good gracious this is lame. Quoting Shuster ... that's original...what Van Jones wasn't available for a quote to include? Michael Moore still at some European film festival? (I wonder what the carbon footprint was to lug his fat a$$ across the Atlantic).