By Zanny Begg
The Alternative Life Style Organisation's choice of theme for the January 23 gay and lesbian dance party in Melbourne — "Red Raw" — has been controversial. Red Raw was billed as a "revolutionary dance party", and the publicity included pictures of the Kremlin, Lenin, red stars and a hammer and sickle. Inside the venue, the theme continued with dance spaces called Stalingrad and Siberia.
This communist chic touched a raw nerve with some. The Melbourne Star Observer quoted Shaun Miller: "Would we have a Techno Tiananmen or Disco Dachau? So why have a celebratory party with a backdrop of totalitarianism?" Other critics described the theme as "insensitive", "ignorant" and "nothing to do with the gay and lesbian community".
The furore raises interesting questions. For socialists, it is nice to be just a little bit hip for a change. Soviet iconography seems to be the new big thing in popular culture, with hammers and sickles adorning everything from Stoly vodka bottles to dance party flyers.
But the fuss over Red Raw shows that beneath the advertising hype lie serious issues of history.
The critics of Red Raw are right to point out the appalling record of the Stalinist regime, in relation to the rights of gays and lesbians and the whole population. But Soviet iconography is not hip because of Stalin, Siberian death camps or show trials. Rather, the advertising agencies promote communist chic because they assess that the original meaning of these symbols has been lost on our generation.
But for those of us who want social change, these symbols have appeal because of the 1917 revolution led by Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
The Russian Revolution was a democratic rebellion carried out by millions of workers and peasants. It was the first time in human history that people attempted to build a socialist society.
The revolution's achievements were impressive. Far from being of "no relevance to the gay and lesbian community", the Bolsheviks abolished all laws against homosexual acts within two months of taking power, then completely decriminalised homosexuality with a new penal code introduced in 1922. On the eve of the 21st century, Australia is yet to achieve equal age of consent laws for heterosexual and non-heterosexual sex, something the Bolsheviks implemented in 1922.
Stalin's rise to power in the late 1920s involved a political counter-revolution; by 1940, the Stalinist bureaucracy had assassinated the entire leadership of the Bolshevik Party and established a totalitarian regime that kept millions in prison camps.
Coupled with this wave of terror was a conservative social atmosphere. By 1934 there were mass arrests of gay men in the Soviet Union, and laws were passed to re-criminalise homosexuality.
For socialists, Soviet iconography doesn't represent the horrors of Stalinism, but the democratic tradition of Lenin and the 1917 revolution. The red star, the hammer and sickle, the fist and the red flag symbolise the struggle for equality for all — workers, women, gay men and lesbians, migrants and indigenous people.
The symbols remain popular with radicals because the fight against the system continues. So next time you glance down at the hammer and sickle on a Stoly bottle, think about the Bolsheviks' achievements and dance proud to the revolution.