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Why Is France’s Communist Party Dropping the Hammer and Sickle as Their Symbol?

Feb. 10, 2013 8:05pm Erica Ritz

Frances Communist Party Drops the Hammer and Sickle in Favor of Five Pointed Star

A man flashes the victory sign as he listens to the final speech of the ‘Fete de l’Humanité’, a political event organized by French communist party (PCF) on September 18, 2011 in La Courneuve, outside Paris. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Communists in France have decided to drop the hammer and sickle from their membership cards in favor of a symbol they believe will have a greater appeal for new generations, according to French media. The well-known emblem will reportedly be replaced with a five-pointed star representing the European Left, a loose coalition of far-left parties.

But as the International Herald Tribune (the global edition of the New York Times) writes, the leadership may have “sparked a revolution among the comrades” with the change.

They explain:

What was billed by the party leadership as a forward-looking move was denounced by others as revisionist backsliding and part of a conspiracy to abandon the movement to the embrace of social democracy.

Emmanuel Dang Tran, secretary of the party’s Paris section, told France Info radio that members were shocked at the abandoning of “what represents, for the working class of this country, a historic element in resistance against the politics of capitalism.”

An anonymous commenter on the radio’s website suggested wryly: “It’s natural that they’ve abandoned their tools. There’s no work anymore!”

[...]

[Tran] said the leadership was trying to create a social democracy…alongside “Greens, socialists, Trotskyists and I don’t know who else.”

But the party’s national secretary Pierre Laurent, while respectful of the symbol’s history, thinks it’s no longer representative of the majority of party members.

“It’s an established and revered symbol that continues to be used in all our demonstrations,” he told LCI radio. “But it does not illustrate the reality of who we are today; it isn’t so relevant to a new generation of communists.”

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Comments (58)

RLTW
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:20pm
No political ideology has debased the individual human being more then communism, that’s a hard stench to rebrand from, but they can try.

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:34pm
  And, even less doubt from where it came. This man was in a position to know.
  
  http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zionism_versus_Bolshevism
  
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- RANGER1965
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 11:08pm
  It’s the ultimate pyramid scam. The cruel, the ambitious, the amoral rise to the top in such a system.
  
  They become the masters of the rest of us. It brings out the pinnacle of human evil, and elevates it as the highest virtue.
  
  The real driver of this system isn’t a desire for equality, or fairness. Instead it’s nothing more than a desire for power in a system where you don’t have to work, don’t have to be smart, don’t have to have a single true virtue. Just be a little more cruel, a little more clever than the next guy.
  
  A system where a spiteful, hateful, little weasel can be King.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 1:08am
  @Jerk
  Still not reading your sources? Your source specifically lists Zionism and Communism as separate ideologies. Or, to quote your source directly:
  
  “Zionism offers the third sphere to the political conceptions of the Jewish race. In violent contrast to international communism, it presents to the Jew a national idea of a commanding character.”
  
  “Zionism has already become a factor in the political convulsions of Russia, as a powerful competing influence in Bolshevik circles with the international communistic system. Nothing could be more significant than the fury with which Trotsky has attacked the Zionists generally, and Dr. Weissmann in particular.”
  
  “The struggle which is now beginning between the Zionist and Bolshevik Jews is little less than a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people.”
  
  To summarize, Zionism is a movement in direct opposition to Bolshevism. Yet you cited this source likely in the attempt to equate the two. In fact this source is so favorable to my side of the argument that I may even have to start using this source myself. I really should thank you Jerk. Not that this is the first time you’ve provided the very information necessary to counter your position.
  
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- poorrichard09
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 8:06am
  The hammer and sickle represent (supposedly) industry and agriculture, ie: WORK.
  The new symbol-in the US anyway-should be a SNAP card and 0bamaphone, ie: NO WORK.
  
  The guy in the article was spot on when he said “there is no work.” socialist utopia.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 11:18am
  Tzion, you are confabulating Zionism and cultural Jewishness. Churchill was in a position to know who the prime movers of communism were, in the international communist movement. He had the intel and sources. He knew who brought communism to Russia. He knew who overthrew the Tzar. He tells us that the international Jew played a pivotal, major, role.
  
  His solution was to take the international Jew and make him/her a national Jew. He thought that Zionism was a nationalizing force, that would coalesce the international Jew… Jews, who were the kibbutz-like commune cultures, living throughout the world pushing their kibbutz culture, commune-ism, upon other cultures.
  
  That was his solution to an international threat. Correct diagnosis, wrong solution; sort of like some pediatric brain tumors. Everyone knows what the diagnosis is, but many disagree on how to approach the cure.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 2:17pm
  @jerk
  Churchill didn’t creat Zionism. And as pointed out by Churchill, the Bolsheviks opposed Zionsim. From your source:
  
  “Zionism has already become a factor in the political convulsions of Russia, as a powerful competing influence in Bolshevik circles with the international communistic system. Nothing could be more significant than the fury with which Trotsky has attacked the Zionists generally, and Dr. Weissmann in particular.”
  
  Report this comment
- G-WHIZ
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 2:47pm
  And the NEW COMMIE-RED….IS… G R E E N ! !
  
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- Obama_In_PeePee_Is_Becks_Art
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 5:19pm
  “Why Is France’s Communist Party Dropping the Hammer and Sickle as Their Symbol?”
  
  Funny how memory works … it makes one actually remember what happens under that symbol:
  “Obama & Democrats (Revolutionaries) CAUGHT ON VIDEO !! GLENN BECK ALERTS”
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a66XGQKOKvg
  
  Report this comment
katzkiner
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:19pm
I hears the new flag was a gold a$$ on a blue background. Eee-honk!

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- TH30PH1LUS
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 11:20pm
  They’re making it “relevant” to the next-gen commies by having a marijuana joint and an aborted fetus on their flag.
  
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truthnstuff
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:13pm
I believe it is because the POSOTUS told them he now has exclusive rights to it and soon as he has a little more flexibility it will be on the new U.S.of C. flag.

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DefyTYRANNY
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:12pm
This is called Re-branding.

If they change the symbol maybe people will forget the purges and the millions murdered under Communism right?

Maybe they learned a lesson from our Communist… oh sorry, I mean “Re-branded Democrat” party.

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- Gonzo
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 7:48am
  The Nazis dropped the swastika, the commies are just trying to keep up with their competition.
  
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HOOT_OWL
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:05pm
Done in my best Maxwell Smart voice.

The old commie dropping the radical pose trick..

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- MohammadShapiro
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:34pm
  Missed it by THAT much!
  
  Report this comment
- SUNTZU
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 10:49pm
  69 69 Lower the condom
  of silence…
  
  Report this comment
HOOT_OWL
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:05pm
Add your comments

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- Mrstirfry99
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:27pm
  dude, don’t phish for comments, it’s just sad.
  
  Report this comment
WaterTheTree
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:00pm
Dang, and I was just about to adopt the five pointed star as a symbol of freedom. Maybe I’ll have to settle for some lefover symbol discarded by the Hitttites or Thules.

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Clownzilla
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:59pm
A Commie is a Commie and no symbol change will change who they are.

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KeystoneState
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:54pm
Beck is lost again, he made sense up untill he lost his principles, backed Romney, started trashing Ron Paul and was let go from FOX News. Has there been anything on the Blaze that has been relavent in the past week?

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AUsername
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:53pm
they can replace with with a picture of rommie the commie.

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SyndicationNetwork
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:53pm
Because the symbol is as evil as the swastika.
http://politicalsyn.blogspot.com/

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UNALIEN
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:51pm
interesting, now a five pointed star or a single point for every 20,000,000 killed by Communism

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ginger100
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:50pm
They should use the guillotine and a cake as their symbol . That is more recognizable.

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Beachmastermax
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:42pm
Why are they dropping the hammer and sickel?

What is the first thing you think when you see that symbol?

Been there done that. Proven failure. That flag does not fly anymore.

That is why.

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N37BU6
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:41pm
All they are doing here is running away from their own history. They are changing the imagery, but not the ideology… that speaks volumes.

I don’t see any change in the symbology of liberty and freedom.

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Micmac
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:37pm
What I found interesting is that in Europe the “Green” movement is accepted as common knowledge to be communistic.

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- N37BU6
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:45pm
  Green is the new red.
  
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gyro
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:37pm
qyestion=Why Is France’s Communist Party Dropping the Hammer and Sickle as Their Symbol?
answer=Obama’s picture looks beter

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vic138
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:35pm
So basically they are trying to merge with the progressives. They’re work is done here.

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Seagal45
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:31pm
Perhaps they are taking ideas from US school children’s homework. Makes me sick.

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Shamrock241
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:22pm
He has a point the symbol represents the workers party, ha ha NO one works for their government hand outs anymore .

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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:21pm
.
I bet they go to a Anal Plug & Cork Screw…….

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- TheCalmOne
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:56pm
  Why would they do that, Spankdamonkey?
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:21pm
You put lipstick on a communist pig it’s still a communist pig. Use whatever symbol you want you communist heathen you’re still vermin.

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- CathyvanDyke
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:25pm
  There is a Socialist/Marxist sitting in the WH who deceptively ran in two elections under the Democratic Banner.
  
  Ronald Reagan – 40th President of the USA (1981-1989)
  “Back in 1927, an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for President on the Socialist Party ticket, said that the American people would never vote for socialism but he said under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program
  
  Report this comment
- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:41pm
  @Progressive:
  
  Exactly, it may look, talk and walk like something else, but a communist is still a communist like the one we have in the White House.
  
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UNALIEN
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:17pm
lemme guess, they are changing their name to the peace and social justice party

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The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:12pm
In other words, some US government agency offered them money if they became more democratic…like they did in Libya, Egypt & Syria.

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- gyro
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:37pm
  and free cell phones
  
  Report this comment
civilwarcometh
Posted on February 10, 2013 at 8:10pm
You get a new car? Nope same car just a new paint job.. Oh i see nice…

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