Viewpoint: V for Vendetta and the rise of Anonymous

By Alan Moore Author On Saturday protests are planned across the world against Acta - the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The treaty has become the focus of activists associated with the Anonymous hacking network because of concerns that it could undermine internet privacy and aid censorship. First published in 1982, the comic series V for Vendetta charted a masked vigilante's attempt to bring down a fascist British government and its complicit media. Many of the demonstrators are expected to wear masks based on the book's central character. Ahead of the protests, the BBC asked V for Vendetta's writer, Alan Moore, for his thoughts on how his creation had become an inspiration and identity to Anonymous.

1. Where the Guy Fawkes character represented on the mask comes from:
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot. We see no reason why Gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot!" Words to Guy Fawkes Rhyme On November 5 people across the UK celebrate Bonfire Night because it's the anniversary of an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament led by a man called Guy Fawkes. It's called the Gunpowder Plot, and bonfires are lit to burn the "Guy" - a kind of dummy that represents Fawkes. Guy (Guido) Fawkes led the Gunpowder plot in 1605. It was a plan to blow up King James I and his government. Fawkes and his group put 36 barrels of gunpowder in cellars under the Houses of Parliament in London, ready to set off a massive explosion. One member of the group sent a letter to his friend who worked in Parliament, warning him to stay away on November 5. The King's supporters got hold of the letter and the plot was rumbled. Guards broke into the cellars where the gunpowder plotters were waiting. They were arrested, tortured and executed. The Gunpowder Plot was about religion. England was a Protestant country, and the plotters were Catholic. The group wanted to return England to the Catholic faith. They thought they could do this by killing King James I and his ministers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ 2. Alan Moore's point of view (V For Vendetta author):

The series was published as a graphic novel in 1988 While that era's children perhaps didn't see Fawkes as a hero, they certainly didn't see him as the villainous scapegoat he'd originally been intended as. Revolutionary At the start of the 1980s when the ideas that would coalesce into V for Vendetta were springing up from a summer of anti-Thatcher riots across the UK coupled with a worrying surge from the far-right National Front, Guy Fawkes' status as a potential revolutionary hero seemed to be oddly confirmed by circumstances surrounding the comic strip's creation: it was the strip's artist, David Lloyd, who had initially suggested using the Guy Fawkes mask as an emblem for our one-man-against-a-fascist-state lead character. V's takeover of a TV broadcast has been echoed by Anonymous's many hack attacks. It also seems that our character's charismatic grin has provided a ready-made identity for these highly motivated protesters, one embodying resonances of anarchy, romance, and theatre that are clearly well-suited to contemporary activism, from Madrid's Indignados to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Today's response to similar oppressions seems to be one that is intelligent, constantly evolving and considerably more humane, and yet our character's borrowed Catholic revolutionary visage and his incongruously Puritan apparel are perhaps a reminder that unjust institutions may always be haunted by volatile 17th century spectres, even if today's uprisings are fuelled more by social networks than by gunpowder. Some ghosts never go away. For the full article go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16968689

3. David Lloyd's point of view (V for Vendetta illustrator):

"The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny - and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way," he says. The masks are from the 2006 film V for Vendetta where one is worn by an enigmatic lone anarchist who, in the graphic novel on which it is based, uses Fawkes as a role model in his quest to end the rule of a fictional fascist party in the UK. Early in the book V destroys the Houses of Parliament by blowing it up, something Fawkes had planned and failed to do in 1605. British graphic novel artist David Lloyd is the man who created the original image of the mask for a comic strip written by Alan Moore. Lloyd compares its use by protesters to the way Alberto Korda's famous photograph of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara became a fashionable symbol for young people across the world. The widespread adoption of the masks was definitely a reaction to the film rather than the book, he argues. "The book is about one man bringing down the state but the film includes a scene of a huge crowd - making a statement against a faceless corporation." "The masks were useful for the Scientology protests because it prevented individuals from being recognised," he adds. Lloyd says he has already heard anecdotes about police in the US searching for the masks in people's houses to be used as evidence of involvement with Anonymous hacker attacks, "which is scary but also ridiculous - you wouldn't prosecute someone for having a t-shirt with Che or CND on it".

4. An Anonymous hacktivist's point of view:

[An member of Anonymous] said that she and others had been wearing the masks, not only to protect their identity but also because it has become a symbol of the movement against corporate greed: "It's a visual thing, it sets us apart from the hippies and the socialists and gives us our own identity. We're about bypassing governments and starting from the bottom." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15359735