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Interesting. It's kind of interesting, but in the battle of Blair mountain, there's definitely some hints that there were already communist and anti-communist sentiments at work. I wonder if the red bandanas were a nod to communism.
yes. The book, "The red badge of Courage" was printed in 1895 and the color's association with the far left dates back to the french revolution of the 1780s.
Also, iirc Blair Mountain was backed by the IWW which is anarcho-syndicalist and not Communist.
I dunno why the downvotes but I googled it for you:
iww Blair mountain flyer:
https://omekas.lib.wvu.edu/home/s/minersorganization/media/1109
who are the iww? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World?wprov=sfla1
history of red for left wing politics: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_(politics)
when the black flag diverged front he red flag. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_symbolism
red AND black symbolism associated with the IWW https://www.iww.org/how-we-organize/
red and black flag https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anarchist_flag.svg
Previously I had mistakenly said that the red flag dated back to the 1880s and the Paris commune. No, that's the black flag as this article states. That split is actually kinda a big deal. The IWW and red/black symbolism is about grass roots power and not some revolutionary vanguard or dictatorship by the proletariats and I think that distinction is actually kinda important.
You can see the same symbolism and terminology (redneck) used in the US today: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck_Revolt
which has far more in common with black Panthers style neighborhood defense than it does with Stalin or Lenin or Trotsky.
it's more in line with thinkers like:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman
which is about building resilient communities that exist apart or in spite of capitalism. It's not really an economic policy or ideology concerned about the existence of the state or a dictatorship of the proletariat or really even collective ownership of the means of production. You can join the IWW and work for Amazon and not be committed to a 1917 Russian style revolution. They wanted better working conditions, not a bloody coup. While I agree that that's associated with the Marxist ideal communist ideal future post-capitalist Star Trek furture is great, I think the IWW is notably and distinctly different than what Americans in the 1920s would have associated with the word "communist".