A-Infos (en) France, SOCIALISME LIBERTAIRE: THE BLACK FLAG VERSUS THE TRICOLOR FLAG (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"On the evening of July 13, 1968, red and black flags appeared in the 
Place de la Bastille. On July 15, the black flag was here in Douarnenez 
and Annemasse. On the morning of July 16, the black flag was flying 
again in Douarnenez. During the May events, the black flag traveled 
through Paris, side by side with its brother, the red flag. It flew 
during the strikes at some factories, in the Paris region and in the 
provinces. ---- A representative of the reactionary Gaullist majority 
declared during the election campaign that all French people, without 
exception, could claim the national tricolor flag, 'except those who 
wave the black flag.' With this story about the flag, to which some 
would have a right, and on the other hand, this parliamentarian has, I 
hope, made a fool of himself in the eyes of the voters." The social and 
economic problems that motivate the current protest movement cannot be 
reduced to a question of flags.

But since we're on the subject, let's talk about them. In 1789, the 
tricolor flag flew through Paris and was substituted for the emblems of 
the absolute monarchy by a rebellious class, just as black and red flags 
sometimes flew in Paris in May 1968 instead of the tricolor. Like the 
tricolor flag today, the fleur-de-lis flag of the monarchy was, in 1789, 
the national emblem. Yet, it was not retained, precisely because a flag 
is a symbol, and when you want to change the existing order, it is also 
necessary, for the sake of clarity, to change the symbols. That is why 
we have a flag, although it is not the flag itself that is important, 
but the ideas it symbolizes.

We don't have the right to the tricolor flag, to the national emblem? We 
can do just fine without it. Because the national flag always represents 
"the general interest." But it's clear that in a class society, what is 
called "the general interest" is the interest of the ruling class, the 
exploiters. That's why the national emblem becomes the reactionary 
bourgeois emblem that symbolically represents the privileges of the 
leaders. Moreover, the black flag and the red flag are in the streets 
and accompany workers' demonstrations, while a profusion of tricolor 
flags fly over banks, insurance companies, the headquarters of large 
corporations, and over ministries, prefectures, etc. In short, over the 
buildings that are the instruments of economic oppression on the one 
hand, and political oppression on the other.

In a class society founded on the exploitation of man by man, the 
national flag is also the flag of nationalism in all its forms (war, 
colonialism, etc.). Capitalists, to escape economic deadlocks, need 
armed conflict, and the national flag then becomes the emblem of an 
exacerbated patriotism in whose name people are pitted against one 
another while arms dealers and other speculators amass profits.

As for the black flag, it represents no one's interests. It flies in 
every country whenever the oppressed rise up against any form of 
oppression. It is a symbol of struggle and hope that dates back to the 
first workers' revolts. It is the emblem of anarchists because 
anarchists were the catalyst for the first workers' struggles. It was 
born in and from misery. Its origins are of little importance now that 
it has become the symbol of revolutionary struggle, the complete 
challenge to bourgeois society in the face of the reformists and 
opportunists of every stripe who hide behind the folds of the tricolor flag.

"The black flag is the flag of the Revolution."

Le Combat Syndicaliste CNT-AIT, July 25, 1968, issue 515

SOURCE: Actualité de l'Anarchosyndicalisme

https://www.socialisme-libertaire.fr/2025/12/le-drapeau-noir-contre-le-drapeau-tricolore.html
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