closet-keys:

it’s feels weird to me, sometimes, that the raised fist is now used as a super general protest gesture that even centrist liberals will use, and it’ll be in like kid’s  movies and stuff

because it was created as a pretty explicitly communist symbol

and was used as an ‘antifascist salute’ to counter fascist salutes 

not to mention frequently used in leftist iconography 

and in IWW and other socialist organizations in the 20th century

and was used by the Black Panther Party (a socialist group) and other radical,  black activists as a symbol of anti-capitalist solidarity and action 

the raised fist has such a powerful history in radical anti-fascist and anti-capitalist protest. 

I think all activists should learn about it and foster a respect in its complex history. it’s humbling, and also can remind us of the radical roots of different movements which have now been co-opted by liberals and branded by capital. 

no matter how many t shirts it’s printed on or politicians using it there are, it has radical roots, and it will always hold that history for leftists to reclaim