Frontline volume 2, issue 1.

Pirates, Communards and Republicans. The Story of the Red Flag.

In our regular series on the songs of the socialist movement, Bill Scott talks about the classic Bandiera Rossa.

Bandiera Rossa

Music: Trad Lyrics: Tuzzi

Avanti popolo a la rescosa
Bandiera rosa, bandiera rosa
Avanti popolo a la rescosa
Bandiera rosa, bandiera rosa

Chorus:
Bandiera rosa la trionfera
Bandiera rosa la trionfera
Bandiera rosa la trionfera
Y viva la Socialiste, la bella liberta

The people’s on the march,
This road they’re treading
It leads to freedom
It leads to freedom
The people’s on the march,
This road they’re treading
It leads to freedom and liberty
(Chorus)

From farm and factory,
From school and college
With force of suffering
And source of knowledge
Our leaders leading, our banners waving
Victory proceeding, towards liberty

We’ll wave the scarlet banner triumphantly
We’ll raise the scarlet banner triumphantly
We’ll wave the scarlet banner triumphantly
Y viva la Socialiste, la bella liberta

German: Steht auf ihr Arbeiter,
steht auf Genossen
Die Rote Fahne werht siegentschlossen
Steht auf ihr Arbeiter, steht auf GenossenDie Rote Fahne erkamft die Macht

Die Rote Fahne erkamft die Macht
Die Rote Fahne erkamft die Macht
Die Rote Fahne erkamft die Macht
Vorwärts Kommunisten zur Freiheitsschacht

Bandiera Rossa, the Scarlet Banner or Red Flag! But why is the Red Flag the symbol of the working class? Very appropriately for a song of the masses there isn’t a single explanation or origin but many. From the 14th Century Norman warships would fly scarlet streamers to indicate that they would “give no quarter” in battle. This meaning continued into the 17th Century when the red flag was adopted by pirates.

The “Jolly Roger” is a corruption of “Jolie Rouge” (Literal Translation: Pretty Red) and it was this red “no mercy” flag which was used to intimidate pirates’ intended prey before the now better known black flag (with optional skull & crossbones!) came into use. Pirates were often escaped slaves and rebels against authority and were very egalitarian, electing their captains and sharing their spoils equally. They even provided death and injury benefits to their crews! It’s far from surprising that their flags – the “Jolie Rouge” and its black successor (adopted by anarchists) both became symbols of working class resistance. It’s also no coincidence that the earliest recorded use of the red flag by workers was in sailors’ strikes and mutinies.

Later the red flag came to be used to indicate a readiness for battle. It was the flag of defiance raised in cities under siege to indicate that there would be no surrender. During the 1768 London seamen’s strike, the strikers used it because it had become the Royal Navy’s battle flag and they were going into battle against their bosses.

The red flag was not just a British symbol but also an international emblem of workers’ resistance. During the French Revolution in July 1791, Louis XVI attempted to flee France with his family. They were arrested in Varennes, on their way to Germany to join anti-revolutionary forces. The king was brought back to Paris where a Republican petition calling for his overthrow was started on the Champ-de-Mars. A huge crowd gathered to sign it. On 17 July the mayor of Paris, Bailly, ordered that the red flag be hoist, meaning in this instance, that the mob should disperse. The National Guard then fired without warning killing more than 50 of the crowd. The red flag, “shed with the martyrs’ blood” then became known as a symbol of the French Revolution throughout Europe.

In 1797 when the sailors of the Royal Navy mutinied at the Nore they hoist the red flag in defiance of their officers. This could have been because of the red flag’s revolutionary symbolism or because of its traditional naval origins or, more probably, both.

The red flag was also used as a symbol of rebellion in the Welsh Merthyr “Riots” of 1831 when 10,000 foundry workers rebelled against the local “Ironmasters” and took over the town of Merthyr for five days. Their flag was a shirt soaked in calf’s blood by one of the rebellion’s leaders, Dic Penderyn. The rebellion was brutally crushed by soldiers, and Penderyn was hung, becoming in the process another martyr.

In 1843, Garibaldi and his supporters, who were fighting for the unification of Italy, adopted red-shirts as a symbol of their radical republicanism. But if the universal identification of the red flag with the international workers movement can be traced to any one event it must be the revolutions of 1848. It was then that it appeared spontaneously on barricades throughout Europe. Marx’’s ‘ spectre that was haunting Europe’ was obviously draped in red.

Thus during the Commune of 1871 when workers took over Paris and held it for two months against besieging Germans and counter-revolutionaries it was the red flag which flew over the city. It had truly become the symbol of workers’ liberty.

In 1890 Frederick Engels wrote, “The proletariat of Europe and America is holding a review of its forces. It is mobilizing for the first time as one army, one flag, one class…” That one flag was the Red Flag symbolising workers’ unity, as opposed to the hundreds of flags that the bosses of the world flew to symbolize their respective capitalist states. The song “Bandiera Rossa” comes from the Italian socialist movement of this period. It was already an Italian folk song by the early 20th century. Then in 1908 Carl Tuzzi set down the lyrics that we still use today.

The song was originally sung on Italian workers’ May Day celebrations and then on socialist and anti-fascist demonstrations (as seen in Bertolucci’s great film, “1900”). Most importantly for its popularity amongst socialists in other countries was its use as a battle song by Italian members of the International Brigade the Spanish Civil War.

As anyone can testify “Bandiera Rossa” is catchy and easily learnt. So Brigade veterans adopted it and carried it back to their home countries both in translated versions (including English, Spanish, German, French and Ukranian) and in its original Italian. It’s a joyous song that continues to unite socialists across Europe whenever it is belted out on demos. The best version to learn from is by Scottish folk group the Laggan. They sing it back-to-back with the Spanish Civil War song “Jarama” on their “I Am the Common Man” LP – in the 1980s a single with both songs charted at Number 1 in the old German Democratic Republic!

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