Last modified: 2009-09-12 by antónio martins
Keywords: socialism | rose | hand | rosette | cockard | bread | flower (red) |
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The hand-holding-rose device, sometimes also a plain rose, is a popular
symbol for parties labelled under socialism and social-democracy.
António Martins, 24 Feb 2003
According to the website
of the Swedish Social Democratic
Party, a rose has been used on and off by the party since the early 20th
Century. The red colour is said to be a sign for the stuggle againt material
poverty and the flower for the struggle against the spritual poverty.
Elias Grandqvist, 07 Aug 2001
The poppy symbolizes (nowadays) soldiers dead in combat. It seems that
until the early part of the 20th century the red flower (no matter the type)
was a socialist symbol. Since most articles tend to agree it was only after
WW2 that the (socialist) rose imposed itself, could it be that it was a
conscious effort not to be confused with the "poppy-bearers"
that made the socialists chose the red rose?
Marc Pasquin, 28 Nov 2004
The rose comes from the old labor union slogan
«Bread
and Roses».
Henry Churchyard, 26 Aug 2003
The poem about «Bread and Roses» was first published in 1911. However, these pages:
both date the adoption of the rose for socialist/worker/labor parties to the Haymarket massacre in 1886.An article (in french) that discuss the origin of the red flag quotes, regarding the Paris Commune in 1848, an official edict stating:
les membres du Gouvernement provisoire et toutes les autorités porteront la rosette rouge, laquelle sera placée aussi à la hampe du drapeau.meaning: «The members of the provisonal government and all the autorities shall wear the red rosette which shall be place at the hoist of the flag».
The fact that "rosette" in french ethymologicaly means "little
rose" might be a reason why it would have stayed as a militant worker
symbol afterward. However, reading through
the article,
it appears that the exact type of flower being worn during worker
demonstration in the second half of the century was less important than
its colour. My final hypothesis then would be that the rose in particular
being adopted might have been because (in addition to a confluence of the
other items mentioned) that as a flower it is a well known one,
widespread and it tend to invoke the colour red right away.
Marc Pasquin, 26 Nov 2004
It is quite possible that nothing was meant or came out of
the fact that instead of a circular piece of cloth they used
rose-shaped one but I just I mentioned as this seem to be the earliest
association rose + red = proletariat.
("Cockard" in French is "cocarde"; I checked an french-english
dictionary and "rosette" was the translation for the same word in
french.)
Marc Pasquin, 28 Nov 2004
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