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Occupy Protest Flags (U.S.)

99% Stars and Stripes
Red and black anarchist flags
Corporate America Flags
- Logos used on Corporate America flags

See also:

99% Stars and Stripes

image by Peter Orenski, 27 October 2013

The newest wave of American protests, originally called "Occupy Wall Street," started in New York in 2011 and spread across the United States, with the name being modified to simply "Occupy" and you name the place (Occupy Oakland, Occupy San Francisco, etc.). Originally, the protesters claimed to be tired of the large corporations, who, in their quest for more power and profit, showed an apparent disregard to the economic woes of the American people. This, along with the government's inability or unwillingness to work together to solve the financial crisis facing the nation, sparked large and spreading protests.

Beginning as peaceful "camp-ins," they began to generate escalating violence between demonstrators, citizens, and law enforcement as more unrelated dissident and extremist groups infiltrate the peaceful grassroots movement to get their share of the national spotlight. Examples of this violence and associated flag burnings, especially in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay area (where there is never a shortage of those willing to demonstrate on about any cause imaginable), resulted in the loss of middle class support, and the continued lack of any clear message, direction, or leadership further damaged the movement. By early 2013, the movement was so fractured its original message had practically disappeared, along with most of its supporters, and only small localized (and largely ignored by the general public) demonstrations have remained.

Although the movement also failed to focus its attention on any one particular flag, during the movement's hey-day, some interesting flags were re-purposed or used at their demonstrations. Naturally, many regular US flags were displayed, either right-side-up or upside-down (many times defaced with slogans), and versions of the US flag with the stars replaced by corporate logos (first used in the 2003 Corporate America protest) saw some popular reuse. A variety of historical and group flags, such as the historical American Continental Flag, the Culpeper Minute Men Flag, the American Indian Movement Flag, the New World Regeneration Party Flag, the Che Guevara Flag, and several interesting versions of the Gadsden Flag have also made their appearances. Other flags seen in use at Occupy demonstrations included plain red flags, red and black anarchist flags, versions of the Peace flag, flags of Puerto Rico, Veterans for Peace flags, the Earth Flag, and an interesting 99% Stars and Stripes flag.
Pete Loeser, 27 October 2013

Red and Black Anarchist flag

image by Pete Loeser and , 27 October 2013

This Anarcho-Syndicalists flag variant was seen displayed at the Urban Shield Protest in October of 2013 in Oakland, California. The protest was against the Urban Shield police weaponry expo, a trade show of weaponry and law enforcement gadgetry held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Oakland, California. It set off a major protest amid ongoing tension across the country over reports of police violence, including several shootings of African Americans. It also coincided with the second anniversary of the Occupy Oakland's eviction. Naturally there were many helicopters and a high police presence at the protests, and lots of local and national press coverage.
Pete Loeser, 27 October 2013

Corporate America Flags

image courtesy of Pete Loeser, 3 November 2011
Source: www.loeser.us/flags/protest.html#occupy

The flag with the Corporate logos instead of stars has been around for quite a while. I featured it in a piece in NAVA NEWS April - June 2003 Issue (#178), page 13: www.vexman.net/nnpdf/NN178.pdf
Dave Martucci, 4 November 2011

It seems to me that most of these designs, if not all, stem from Adbusters. Since they are the ones who have been distributing such flags since at least 2003, I would consider theirs the official version.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 November 2011

Logos used on Corporate America flags

Image reported in 2001:

image by Phil Nelson, 27 June 2001

CBS television, Playboy, Coca Cola, ABC Network, Camel cigarettes, Microsoft Windows;
Sprint, Travellers Insurance, Apple, Nike, AT&T, Chrysler;
Warner Brothers, Westinghouse Electric, Chase Bank, Intel (Inside), Pizza Hut, McDonald's;
Xerox, Adobe, IBM, General Electric, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Bell;
United Airlines, Shell, adidas, NBC television, Pepsico, Compaq
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 November 2011

image courtesy of Pete Loeser, 3 November 2011
Source: www.loeser.us/flags/protest.html#occupy

CBS television, Playboy, Coca Cola, ABC Network, Camel cigarettes, Microsoft Windows;
Sprint, Travellers Insurance, Apple, Nike, AT&T, Chrysler;
Warner Brothers, ??, Chase Bank, Intel (Inside), Starbucks Coffee Co.,McDonald's;
Xerox, Adobe, IBM, General Electric, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Bell;
United Airlines, Shell, adidas, NBC television, Pepsico, Compaq
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 November 2011

At Flickr, on 17 October 2008, Yire Shalom 3000 posted a version that is somewhat different:
www.flickr.com/photos/yire_shalom3000/2950160000/. I'm not sure whether Yire Shalom 3000 created this version, the posted flag designs all seem to be original, unless they are all obscure.

CBS television, Playboy, Coca Cola, ABC Network, Camel cigarettes, Microsoft Windows;
Sprint, Travellers Insurance, Apple, Nike, AT&T, Chrysler;
Warner Brothers, Westinghouse Electric, Chase Bank, Intel (Inside), MTV, McDonald's;
IBM (over three columns), General Electric, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Bell;
United Airlines, Citicorp/Citibank, ??, NBC television, ??, Compaq

This is the version also used for the Wikipedia article on Adbusters: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbusters. No evidence of a real flag.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 November 2011

A more different version can be seen, as a graphic from 21 January 2010, at:
theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/supremes-make-it-official-corporations.html).

CBS, Nike, Coca Cola, AT&T, Walmart Stores, Lilly;
General Motors, Citibank, Apple, Google, Fox, Verizon;
Warner Brothers, Bank of America, Exxon, Chevron Corporation, Visa, McDonald's;
Hewlett Packard, Disney, Pepsico, Ford, NBC, Starbucks Coffee Comapy;
Procter & Gamble, Intel, Master Card, General Electrics, Adobe, Microsoft.

Shown 17 October 2011, this photograph: www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/willis-report/blog/2011/10/17/occupy-wall-street-going-pro appears to show the same one. It does not use the "Sold" tag.

At www.corporateamericanflag.com/, this is offered as "Rare 3x5 ft Corporate America Flag with the original logos".
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 November 2011

For different takes, have a look at:
- www.thevoterupdate.com/articles/2011/5_31_11_corporate_cash.php;
- s194492532.onlinehome.us/2010/01/24/a-new-flag-for-the-corporate-states-of-america/;
- media.photobucket.com/image/corporate%20america%20flag/Darmoe/USCorpFlag.jpg?o=10.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 6 November 2011

See also a US barcode flag posted at recollectionbooks.com/bleed/1124.htm (near bottom of page). It is a mock US flag composed of red on white barcode stripes and a canton of blue on white barcode stripes (image at recollectionbooks.com/bleed/images/radical/bndFlag.jpg. It is credited to Adbusters 2001, but the link now goes to an updated page without the flag and browsing through some past iterations of the page on webarchives didn't reveal it.
Ned Smith, 7 November 2011

image courtesy of Pete Loeser, 27 October 2013

A version of the Corporate America flag with WAR written in bright red.
Pete Loeser, 27 October 2013