CORRN Logo
The CORRN Logo was developed by Oscar Juarez- Luna in 2016. It is an image of the iconic raised fist inside the C and circle echoing the Colorado State Flag, with the words Colorado Rapid Response Network. The raised fist has been a symbol of far left activism dating back to at least 1917, when it was used by United Workers of the World Labor Union. The symbol has evolved and is now used by marginalized groups worldwide who face oppression. In the 60s, Black Panthers used the raised fist to represent Black power and Black liberation. More currently, the Black Lives Matter movement adopted the iconic clenched fist after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. Though the particular movements may change, this iconic symbol continues to evolve with the times to represent solidarity and liberation of the oppressed, used by people expressing dissent.
Clenched Fist Origins and History
Black Lives Matter fist symbol: Meaning and history behind the Black Power raised fist salute by Charlie Duffield June 19, 2020
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“At first it was not exclusively used in relation to people of African descent, but by marginalised groups worldwide experiencing any form of oppression, to reject discriminatory behaviour”
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“When the Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to challenge police brutality against the African American community, the black power fist was repeatedly used as a symbol of black liberation”
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“Photos and video footage of the Black Panthers saluting each other with raised fists at conventions, meetings and rallies solidified the symbol as synonymous with the fight for black civil rights”
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“The raised clenched fist isn’t the only symbol brandished by the movement, but it was adopted following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014”
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“It’s been used ever since both in social media posts and at rallies, as a symbol of resistance and defiance, and was created as an emoji in 2015.”
What Does a Raised Fist Mean in 2020? By Christopher Spata Published Jun. 25
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“a raised fist has been used in leftist social movements going back at least 170 years. Honoré Daumier’s painting The Uprising depicts a riot during the French revolution of 1848. A man leading the charge has a fist up.”
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The fist was used by the United Workers of the World labor union in 1917 and by anti-fascists in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War. Students raised the fist in Paris in 1968 in mass protests against French President Charles de Gaulle.
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The movements might change, but the fist is almost always raised in solidarity, by people expressing dissent about an existing situation.
Frank Cieciorka: RIP
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The iconic clenched fist has long been a symbol of the international left, its usage going back at least until 1917. But the symbol was transformed and revitalized in 1965 by Cieciorka, whose rendition of the pictogram struck a cord with a new generation of activists involved in the civil rights and antiwar struggles.
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“Cieciorka returned to the San Francisco Bay area in 1965, and created a woodcut print inspired by his experiences as a civil rights activist in the deep South. His image, simply titled Hand, made its way onto posters and flyers, but according to the artist, “It wasn’t until we made it into a button and tossed thousands of them into crowds at rallies and demonstrations that it really became popular”. I wore one of Cieciorka’s buttons as a sixteen-year-old, and I still regard his woodcut print as one of the most striking symbols to have come out of the turbulent 60s.”
A brief history of the "clenched fist" image
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The fist was always part of something - holding a tool or other symbol, part of an arm or human figure, or shown in action (smashing, etc.). But graphic artists from the New Left changed that in 1968, with an entirely new treatment. This "new" fist stood out with its stark simplicity, coupled with a popularly understood meaning of rebellion and militance.
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Michael Rossman and I have concluded that, to the best of our knowledge, the moment this first occurred was a poster (shown right) by San Francisco Bay Area graphic artist Frank's Cieciorka for Stop The Draft Week, for actions January 14, 1968 protesting the arrest of the "Oakland Seven"
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A virtually identical fist used in the 1969 Harvard student strike (below) traces its design to School of Design student Harvey Hacker
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The fist has been used in other countries - note these examples from Cuba and Serbia. The international agency OSPAAAL (Organization in Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America)