Fawkes walked to the gallows in front of a baying
crowd of thousands. Amongst them was the very
man he was charged with attempting to assassinate
King James I of England.
final destination, Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Here he was due to be hanged then have
his body quartered and sent to the furthest reaches of the realm. Choosing to throw
himself from the scaffold and break his own neck rather than face any further torture,
Fawkes' lifeless body was nonetheless mutilated and dismembered as a warning to other
would-be traitors.
"Che" Guevara was shot 9 times through the neck, arms and legs in a military execution
designed to give the impression that the Cuban revolutionary had been killed in action.
Guevara had been captured two days earlier by Bolivian troops and CIA operatives,
interrogated and then killed before his supporters had chance to retaliate. In the
years preceding his capture, Guevara had fought to forcibly remove large American
corporations from his adopted Cuba and helped to spread Marxist ideology throughout
Latin America and the rest of the globe.
because he tried to kill the King but because he fought to upset the status quo. By
attempting to remove the Protestant monarch and begin a Catholic rebellion, he and
his twelve fellow conspirators made challenge to the very foundations of 17th century
Britain and for this it was deemed he could not be allowed to survive and must be
made an example of. In the same way Guevara's death was not ordered because
companies such as the United Fruit Corporation were no longer allowed to trade in
Cuba, but because of the ideas he embodied. His growing world standing and outward
appearance as a genuine ambassador for Communist ideals offered too much of a threat
to his predominantly capitalist neighbours.
brought up in respectable middle class families, yet motivated to strive for immense
social change. Neither was a stranger to war and conflict and both were, by all accounts,
talented and passionate orators. Today the faces of both still resonate as a symbol of
resistance to fascist regimes, overbearing government repression and corporate greed.
you agree with their politics or methods, both men can be admired for taking a stand
for their beliefs. Whilst many stay at home in silent disagreement, these men willingly
gave their lives for what they believed to be the greater good. Today though, they are no
longer seen as human beings who lived and breathed and walked upon the earth. Their
legend has become such that they are now no more real than the likes of King Arthur
or Robin Hood.
system he sought to destroy. Today his portrait "Guerrillero Heroica", taken by Alberto
Korda, is one of the most ubiquitous images of our time, appearing on a seemingly
endless parade of merchandise from t-shirts to tea towels and everything in between.
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London believe it to be the most reproduced in
human history while Jonathan Green, director of the California Museum of Photography
has speculated that it "has worked its way into languages around the world. It has
become an alpha-numeric symbol, a hieroglyph, an instant symbol."
adolescence, I too displayed the famous "Che" poster featuring the Cuban flag above my
bed. I knew little of the man depicted or what he stood for, only that people thought he
was pretty cool and that he had a nice beard. I bought it though as a metaphorical two
fingers to the oppressive regime of my parents, with their cruel policies of enforced fruit
and vegetable consumption and 11pm curfews. I wasn't going to give in to "the man",
man, and this poster proved it.
removed from his beliefs. So much so that both are now rendered utterly pointless.
There is now even a dedicated "Che" online superstore (www.thechestore.com) where
you can buy "officially licensed" merchandise. Just quite who has the authority to licence
such goods is unclear, but what is known is that the website is based in the USA and
priced in US Dollars...just as he no doubt would have wanted.
are the products encouraging anti-capitalism?
become his makeshift prison, 22 year old Julia Cortez. During their brief conversation he
pointed out the poor condition of the schoolhouse, stating that it was "anti-pedagogical"
to expect students to be educated there, while "government officials drive Mercedes
cars", declaring "that's what we are fighting against." Forty years later, at the launch of
a new car-sharing scheme in Las Vegas (not ordinarily known as an especially socialist
town), Mercedes displayed an adapted version of "Guerrillero Heroica" as it's backdrop,
the revolutionary star on Guevara's beret crudely replaced by the Mercedes logo. Truly
the detachment was complete.
riddance but today it is sold in fancy dress shops up and down the land, acting too as
the defining icon for the Hacktivist's darlings Anonymous.
Magazine named the group amongst its100 most influential people in the world in 2012,
despite no-one knowing who the vast majority of its members actually are. Their faces
are hidden behind a mask the smiling face of Fawkes stylised by David Lloyd for the
DC Comic "V for Vendetta". The story focuses on one vigilante's efforts to bring down
an authoritarian British government in a dystopian fictional future. When developing the
vision of the eponymous "V", Lloyd wrote a handwritten note:
papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? He'd look really bizarre and it would
give Guy Fawkes the image he's deserved all these years. We shouldn't burn the chap
every Nov. 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament!"
towards similar aims whilst using similar questionable, and often violent, methods. For
Anonymous however the link becomes tenuous at best. Since their formation 9 years
ago on the forum 4Chan, the self-appointed and self-regulated guardians of the internet
have racked up a lengthy list of victims. Their iconography can be seen across the globe
from Berlin to Bahrain, websites have been brought down, buildings occupied and
viruses spread all in the name of internet freedom.
its "legion" to take to the streets, each one sporting the "V" mask, to protest against ...
well, anything they liked really. Like my teenage affinity to Che the icon, the differentiation
between Fawkes the man and Fawkes the smiling mask seemed unclear for those
protesting, as did the notion of a common focus for the protests. Various targets were
singled out by the "Million Mask March" including the NSA, fracking, rising food costs,
energy bills, the FIFA World Cup, banker's greed, corporate greed and the continued
presence of Noel Edmonds on British Television (I might have made the last one up).
Anonymous, Wiki Leaks, the Pirate Party, Occupy and Oath Keepers to defend
humanity". In the UK, as protesters inevitably clashed with police forces in Parliament
Square and hurled fireworks at Buckingham Palace it appeared they were doing anything
but. Unsurprisingly, a movement based on anonymity and unlawful hacking appears to
have been hijacked itself for the ulterior motives of less altruistic individuals.
Nor will they ever in their current, anarchical, state. Without concentrated effort and
reasoned argument, their causes, whether noble or not, will remain unsolved. To date all
that has been achieved is bringing an acceptable face to unacceptable bullying and fear. A
fictional character fighting fictional enemies has become real life extremists fighting real
life people, yet no one blinks an eye.
machine than its ideology. Without the mask, the mantra and the glamorised publicity
their protests would be seen in a similar vein to the London riots, merely the work
of opportunist trouble makers. Their attacks rarely have an established point, focus or
goal. They appear to take up causes on a whim and then approach with a brute force
mentality, determined to destroy all in their path regardless of whether guilt has been
established first. Make no mistake, much of the work carried out in Anonymous' name
is terrorism. It may not involve hijacking planes or blowing up Parliament but the threat
and chaos is just as great. How many of their "legion" would be as willing to act in their
name if they weren't afforded the privacy of the mask forced to reveal their identity
and accept the consequences as the man whose face they bear did?
generation of politics that focuses more on issues that matter to the populous in way
which resonates with the next generation. But therein lies the problem. Guy Fawkes is to
Anonymous what Che Guevara is to Mercedes Benz, simply a clever marketing device, a
pretty picture that can be easily appropriated - and while that remains the case, change
can never come.