September 11 Digital Archive

Re: [stopwaryouth] FW: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism,and Baggage

Title

Re: [stopwaryouth] FW: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism,and Baggage

Source

born-digital

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email

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2001-11-13

September 11 Email: Body

      -- Just a clarification that the Student caucus do not all feel negatively toward the peace symbol. Some had issues with it, and had an alternate idea, but is was not a group position. Thanks for the interesting historical info on the symbol. I'm all for carrying on the tradition!  X



>I couldn't read all the way through this message from X without

>reacting... here goes:

>

>My best advice to the kids and the grown-ups who want to hassle this is "get

>a life." The Peace Symbol is a wonderful thing... paint it green if you

>have to, use it as a global truss if that appeals to your graphic

>sensibilities, but don't drop it and here's why...

>

>The so called "Peace Symbol" pre-dates most of us (apologies to the

>septuagenarians and older folks in our membership). By the mid-1950s,

>public protests of the nuclear arms race were building. In 1955, the year in

>which Albert Einstein died, he and Bertrand Russell issued a Manifesto

>warning of the dangers of continuing the nuclear arms race. Two years later

>in 1957 the great humanitarian Albert Schweitzer made a public "Declaration

>of Conscience" in which he stated that "the end of further experiments with

>atom bombs would be like early sun rays of hope which suffering humanity is

>longing for." The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), an

>organization of private citizens seeking to alter official nuclear policies,

>was formed in 1957.

>

>One of the most widely known symbols in the world, in Britain it is

>recognised as standing for nuclear disarmament - and in particular as the

>logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the United States and

>much of the rest of the world it is known more broadly as the peace symbol.

>It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist

>and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He showed his preliminary

>sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London

>and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of several

>smaller organisations that came together to set up CND.

>

>The Direct Action Committee had already planned what was to be the first

>major anti-nuclear march, from London to Aldermaston, where British nuclear

>weapons were and still are manufactured. It was on that march, over the 1958

>Easter weekend that the symbol first appeared in public. Five hundred

>cardboard lollipops on sticks were produced. Half were black on white and

>half white on green. Just as the church's liturgical colours change over

>Easter, so the colours were to change, "from Winter to Spring, from Death to

>Life." Black and white would be displayed on Good Friday and Saturday, green

>and white on Easter Sunday and Monday.

>

>The first badges were made by Eric Austin of Kensington CND using white clay

>with the symbol painted black. Again there was a conscious symbolism . They

>were distributed with a note explaining that in the event of a nuclear war,

>these fired pottery badges would be among the few human artifacts to survive

>the nuclear inferno. These early ceramic badges can still be found and one,

>lent by CND, was included in the Imperial War Museum's 1999/2000 exhibition

>From the Bomb to the Beatles.

>

>What does it mean?

>

>Gerald Holtom, a conscientious objector who had worked on a farm in Norfolk

>during the Second World War, explained that the symbol incorporated the

>semaphore letters N(uclear) and D(isarmament). He later wrote to Hugh Brock,

>editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater, more

>personal depth:

>

>I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an

>individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards

>in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the

>drawing into a line and put a circle round it.

>

>Eric Austin added his own interpretation of the design: "the gesture of

>despair had long been associated with the death of Man and the circle with

>the unborn child."

>

>

>Gerald Holtom had originally considered using the Christian cross symbol

>within a circle as the motif for the march but various priests he had

>approached with the suggestion were not happy at the idea of using the cross

>on a protest march. Later, ironically, Christian CND were to use the symbol

>with the central stroke extended upwards to form the upright of a cross.

>This adaptation of the design was only one of many subsequently invented by

>various groups within CND and for specific occasions - with a cross below as

>a women's symbol, with a daffodil or a thistle incorporated by CND Cymru and

>Scottish CND, with little legs for a sponsored walk etc. Whether Gerald

>Holtom would have approved of some of the more light-hearted versions is

>open to doubt.

>

>The symbol almost at once crossed the Atlantic. Bayard Rustin, a close

>associate of Martin Luther King had come over from the US in order to take

>part in that first Aldermaston March. He took the symbol back to the United

>States where it was used on civil rights marches. Later it appeared on

>anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and was even seen daubed in protest on their

>helmets by American GIs. Simpler to draw than the Picasso peace dove, it

>became known, first in the US and then round the world as the peace symbol.

>It appeared on the walls of Prague when the Soviet tanks invaded in 1968, on

>the Berlin Wall, in Sarajevo and Belgrade, on the graves of the victims of

>military dictators from the Greek Colonels to the Argentinian junta, and

>most recently in East Timor.

>

>There have been claims that the symbol has older, occult or anti-Christian

>associations. In South Africa, under the apartheid regime, there was an

>official attempt to ban it. Various far-right and fundamentalist American

>groups have also spread the idea of Satanic associations or condemned it as

>a Communist sign. However the origins and the ideas behind the symbol have

>been clearly described, both in letters and in interviews, by Gerald Holtom

>and his original, first sketches are now on display as part of the

>Commonweal Collection in Bradford.

>

>Although specifically designed for the anti-nuclear movement it has quite

>deliberately never been copyrighted. No one has to pay or to seek permission

>before they use it. A symbol of freedom, it is free for all. This of course

>sometimes leads to its use, or misuse, in circumstances that CND and the

>peace movement find distasteful. It is also often exploited for commercial,

>advertising or generally fashion purposes. We can't stop this happening and

>have no intention of copyrighting it. All we can do is to ask commercial

>users if they would like to make a donation. Any money received is used for

>CND's peace education and information work.

>

>(material from the CND website)

>

>

>

>

>Here is a link to the Russell - Einstein manisfesto issued in 1955:

>http://www.nuclearfiles.org/docs/1955/550709-russel-einstein.html

>

>

>

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: X

>Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 8:51 PM

>To: discuss@madpeace.org

>Cc: stopwardisc@yahoogroups.com

>Subject: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism, and

>Baggage

>

>

>Hi all!

>

>Just a heads up that the MAPC logo will be on the agenda for Tuesday night's

>general membership meeting, and a few comments (okay, I lied - lots of

>comments) since I may not be able to attend the whole meeting.

>

>While (AFAIK) we've never voted on this, the peace sign wrapped around the

>globe has become the de facto MAPC logo. (IIRC the general membership

>referred the logo question back to the Arts & Culture WG, and they couldn't

>come up with anything better.)

>

>The Student/Youth Caucus has objected to this logo, and designed a new one,

>which will be presented on Tuesday. (As I understand it, the problem is

>that the peace sign is tied to a particular historic era, and carries

>baggage which is too hippie-ish -- as opposed to activist. There is also

>concern that the grey-scale of the logo does not reduce or reproduce well.)

>Their proposed logo has a half-globe, without peace sign, with paler images

>of the globe radiating out from it. (Lousy description, I know.)

>

>I sympathize with the S/YC's objections, but I like their proposed graphic

>even less than the one we've been using. To me, it's not particularly

>distinctive, and a globe alone just doesn't say "peace" to me. It could

>just as easily be the logo graphic for a global telecommunications

>corporation.

>

>Then again, I'm not sure that any graphic we pick to represent

>"peace/anti-war" will be acceptable to and truly representative of the whole

>Coalition. The Vietnam-era peace sign is, well, Vietnam era, and doesn't

>represent the new generation of activists. The dove has a longer history,

>but strikes me as a bit too "Pacifist" in image, as does the rifle with a

>flower in its barrel, broken rifle, broken bomb, and a few others. The

>other predominant image from the Vietnam era, the clenched fist, of course,

>has the opposite connotation. We've already been through the discussion of

>incorporating the symbolism of the American flag; some of us think "peace is

>patriotic" and others of us think U.S. nationalism is part of the problem.

>And while the globe could well be something that none of us object to, it

>really doesn't symbolize anything that distinguishes us from the other side.

>

>"Madison area" is tough to symbolize graphically. The most identifiable

>symbols are architectural (the State Capitol), and we have nothing to do

>with state government. Doing something with the outline of the state and

>highlighting the Madison area really doesn't work graphically. And I doubt

>that anyone would recognize that a satellite view of the Four Lakes was

>anything other than a Rorschach inkblot test.

>

>We could try to have a symbol for everyone, incorporating lots of different

>images in the logo, but the result would likely be an unwieldy mess.

>

>My personal opinion at this point is that we should either (1)come up with a

>graphic that is brand new -- no baggage from past movements or ideologies --

>(and I have no earthly idea what this would be); or (2) just go with a

>"words-only" logo, using a very distinctive typestyle and arrangement of the

>words in our organization name. If the typestyle and arrangement are

>distinctive enough, IMO the logo will be recognizeable and identifiable, and

>would avoid the symbolism & baggage problems inherent in selecting any

>graphic image for a diverse coalition.

>

>XX

>

>

>

>_______________________________________________

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>http://lists.OpenSoftwareServices.com/mailman/listinfo/madpeace-discuss

>

>

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September 11 Email: Date

Tuesday, November 13, 2001 8:04 AM

September 11 Email: Subject

Re: [stopwaryouth] FW: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism,and Baggage

Citation

“Re: [stopwaryouth] FW: [MAPC-discuss] MAPC Logo Design -- Graphics, Symbolism,and Baggage,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/1204.