Hammers, Sickles, Stars and Doves

Following last Saturday's AGM (thanks to everyone who came by the way) I've been slowly putting together a report of what went on. Not that I've got stuck on page one - call it more of a distraction - but I don't know what to put on the front cover.

That might sound silly. It's the Communist Party stupid. I suppose I need to explain.

The Communist Party of Britain is the communist party of the UK. Yes there are innumerable parties who are called the . . . (insert Revolutionary, New, etc etc) communist party of . . . (various forms of Britain, Great Britain) and then random assortments of Marxist, Leninist, Provisional Central Committee . . . it's like some bizarre game of Scrabble. But the Communist Party of Britain is the only party in the country allowed to call itself "The Communist Party". It is also the only one of the modern parties able to proudly (through its links to the Morning Star and directly through its membership) trace its roots back to the original Communist Party of Great Britain founded in 1920. What's more (sorry if I've got this wrong) it is the only party to stand election candidates independently from broader alliances.



Linked to elections comes the question of symbols, and the point of this article. For all its negative connotations, the Communist Party of Britain is the ONLY party allowed to use a stand alone hammer and sickle on election materials (others have registered the symbol within a star etc). But to confuse things, the party also has the use of the hammer and dove symbol (like the one on my blog title).

The Hammer and Dove was designed in 1988 by Michal Boncza and the CPB at it's 1994 Congress reaffirmed the symbol as the official emblem for the party (thanks Wikipedia). At the moment the party uses the hammer and sickle with the hammer and dove positioned to the top right of it. You can see it on all publications.

So what should I do? Be proud of the hammer and sickle and not be scared of Soviet, "you're purged" connotations? Our party is the only one that can use it, so we should. Or the hammer and dove? More modern, a break from the past, designed just for us? We all like doves, don't we?

Maybe I should just wack on both of them and have done with it. Mind you, I have always been fond of red stars though. . . . . . .