Red Threads: A History of the People’s Flag

’I loved this book ... this is a history we can all connect with and be inspired by’ - Josie Long, comedian

’The epic story of this universal symbol told with passion and erudition’ - Liz Lochhead, poet

’Intense and gripping. Tells a grand history of the people and movements who flew and still fly the red flag’ - Ewan Gibbs, author of Coal Country

’An internationalist tour de force and a source of inspiration’ - Hannah Proctor, historian and author of Burnout

The red flag: There is no symbol, perhaps other than the crucifix and the crescent moon, for which so many people have lived and died. A standard of hope and resistance to millions and of terror and tyranny to many. But why is the flag red? How did it come to represent the workers against the bourgeoisie? And how did it travel the world?

Henry Bell takes us around the globe and back in time, tracing the lineage of the red flag. From its beginnings as a sign of battle and piracy to the raising of a blood-stained flag at the Merthyr Rising and the arrival of the red flag at the Paris Commune, from the jungles of north-eastern India to the factories of Cuba, Red Threads explores how this symbol of working-class power first came to be held aloft in the hands of revolutionaries; who raises it today; and its meaning for the future.

HENRY BELL is a historian and award-winning poet based in Glasgow. He is the author of John Maclean: Hero of Red Clydeside, described as ’compelling and brilliantly written’ by Jackie Kay, Scottish Poet Laureate. He brings people’s history to life through running Radical Glasgow Tours and is a committee member of the Red Sunday School, a socialist school for young people. He has written for National Geographic, Open Democracy and Jacobin.

Henry Bell is a writer, editor and poet based in Glasgow. He is the author of John Maclean: Hero of Red Clydeside, alongside three chapbooks of poetry, The Last Lochan, The Inner Circle, and Still Life. He is the editor of A Bird is Not a Stone: An Anthology of Palestinian Poetry, and Now’s The Day, Now’s The Hour: Poems for John Maclean. He runs people’s history tours of Glasgow with Radical Glasgow Tours and is a committee member of the Red Sunday School.