This special issue on 'Xenophobia, nationalism and techniques of difference' begins with a provocation: a series of flags which can be construed as the legitimate narrative around organisation, celebration and campaigning, an urgent call for action or solidarity. Two versions of the same flag are presented that are essentially formal inversions. Each calls up a specific stylised emblem, beginning with the organisational flaga palisade fence; followed by the rally flag -an eight-point star. The ceremonial flag reads GROIN in bold capital letters, presumably the abbreviated name of the movement, but also a puzzling word, with its bodily or sexual connotations. The parade flags could be read as an architectural detail, and similar to the fence in the first flag points to a barrier or wall. There is only one campaign flag, depicting the shape of a knife or machete poised upward at an angle, with the bottom end of the handle forming a drop. As the last flag in the series it is the most aggressive one, an obvious call to violence, declaring the means and stakes of GROIN. In colour the flags appear more fascist than in their black and white versions, aligning themselves with the forceful graphics and rhetorics associated with extremism. 1