Political colour

Black is primarily associated with anarchism[4] (see anarchist symbolism). Black is used by anarchists due a rejection of the state and hierarchy. Black can be seen as a lack of colour, anarchism as a lack of a state. It's used in contrast of national flags, to instead represent universal anarchism.[5] Black is used to a lesser extent to represent fascism (see blackshirts and Schutzstaffel) and jihadism (see Black Standard).[2]

Anarchists in Germany wearing all black

The colours black and red have been used by anarchists since at least the late 1800s when they were used on cockades by Italian anarchists in the 1874 Bologna insurrection, and in 1877 when anarchists entered the Italian town Letino carrying red and black flags to promote the First International.[6] During the Spanish civil war the CNT used a diagonally half strip of black and red, with black representing anarchism and red representing the labour movement and the worker movement. The flag was quickly adopted by other anarchists, with the second colour used to distinguish specific anarchist philosophies: anarcho pacifism with white, green anarchism with green, anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism with red, mutualism with orange, and Anarcho-Capitalism with yellow, while black alone typically represents Anarchism without adjectives.

During the golden age of piracy, the black flags of pirates such as Blackbeard and Calico Jack became popular symbols of piracy. The flags representing death and no quarter to those who did not surrender. The black flag of the jolly roger, used by Calico Jack turned into a popular and recognizable symbol of pirates, particularly of pirates of the Americas.[7][8] The skull and bones also became a hazardous symbol to display poisons such as cyanide, Zyklon B and other toxic substances. The black flag of piracy would later influence the symbols of anarchism, such as the symbols of the Free territory and Kronstadt rebellion. The rise of internet piracy led to the symbols of the golden age of piracy becoming widely adopted, becoming the symbols of pirate sites such as the Pirate bay. Black becoming a colour to represent pirate parties.

• Anti-clerical parties in the late 19th and early 20th centuries sometimes used the colour black in reference to the officials of the Roman Catholic Church because the cassock is usually black.[9]
• In Germany and Austria, black is the colour historically associated with Christian democratic parties, such as the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Austrian People's Party, however this is customary as the official colors of the parties are orange for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and cyan for the Austrian People's Party
• In Italy, black is the colour of fascism because it was the official colour of the National Fascist Party. As a result, modern Italian parties would not use black as their political colour, however it has been customary to identify the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement.[10]
• In the Islamic world, black flags (often with a white shahadah) are sometimes used by jihadist groups. Black was the colour of the Abbasid caliphate. It is also commonly used by Shia Muslims, as it is also associated with mourning the death of Hussein ibn Ali.[11] It is now known as the flag colour of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
• In Russia, black was used for monarchism and nationalist movements such as the Black Hundreds before their defeat.[12]
• In India, black represents protest. In Tamil Nadu (a state in India), black represents atheistic human rights rebels who follow Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.[13]

Blue is usually associated with centre-right or conservative parties,[2] originating from its use by the Tories (predecessor of the Conservative Party) in the United Kingdom.[14]

• The field of the flag of the United Nations is light blue, chosen to represent peace and hope. It has given rise to the term "bluewashing".[15]
• In Belgium, blue is associated with liberalism, used both by the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats as the Reformist Movement.[16]
• In Brazil, blue is associated with conservatives and liberal parties. Blue is the colour of Progressistas, which descends from the National Renewal Alliance, the main party of military regime. Blue and red were the main colours of National Democratic Union, the main liberal conservative party between 1945 and 1964 and currently are the main colors of the Liberal Party. Blue and yellow are the colours of Christian Democracy and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, a former centre-left, now economic liberal party. Blue and green are the colours of the Democrats, the main liberal conservative party in Brazil in the current republic. Blue was also the colour of Brazilian Integralist Action, the first far-right movement in Brazil. The Brazilian Republican Party, a Christian democratic party linked with evangelicals and the conservative liberal Social Democratic Party use a blue banner with green, yellow and white, the other three colours of Brazilian Flag, with less prominence.[17]
• In Japan, blue is associated with liberal, centrist, and centre-left parties. Historically was used by Japan Socialist Party. Three centre-left parties in Japan with elected representatives use blue. These are the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Democratic Party for the People, and the Social Democratic Party.
• The colour blue, normally of a lighter shade, is of prime significance in Judaism. The flag of Israel features two blue horizontal stripes and a blue Star of David. See also tekhelet and Zionism. The colour is also strongly identified with the right wing Likud party.
• In Romania, blue is generally associated with centre-right or right-wing parties and a number of such parties use the colour officially, such the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union, the People's Movement Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the National Democratic Party, the New Republic, M10, as well as the now-defunct Conservative Party.
• In South Africa, blue is usually associated with liberal political parties, the most popular being the Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party. The colour blue was also used by the United Party, from which the Progressive Party (the most senior ancestor of the Democratic Alliance) split in 1959.[18]
• In South Korea, traditionally blue was used by conservative parties. In 2013, blue has adopted by the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (previously used green and yellow), while conservative party change its colour from blue to red.
• In Taiwan, blue is used by Kuomintang.
• In Hong Kong, blue is used by pro-Beijing camp.
• In the United States, since 2000 the mass media have associated blue with the liberal Democratic Party.[19] In 2010, the party unveiled a blue official logo[20] (see red states and blue states). Any use of the colour blue exclusively to describe historically the Democratic Party on anything prior to 2000 would be historically inaccurate and misleading.
• In Venezuela blue represents the Democratic Unity Roundtable, the large multi-ideological coalition of parties in opposition, probably as a counterpart to PSUV's red.
• In most of Latin America blue is used as a colour of anti-feminism and, more specifically, anti-abortion. This colour was used as a response to the feminist/pro-abortion green. This originated in Argentina.[21]
• In Austria blue is heavily associated with the far right, reactionary Freedom Party, and associated with pan-germanism, and neo-Nazism. It is the Freedom Party's official colour, and its members are generally referred to as "blues" in the media and colloquial speech.[22] The blue cornflower was a national symbol of Germany in the 19th century, often associated with Prussia. It later became a symbol for Pan-German nationalists in Austria, such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer's Alldeutsche Vereinigung. In 1930s Austria the cornflower was also worn by members of the then illegal NSDAP, as a secret symbol and identifier.[23] After 1945 MPs of the Freedom Party wore cornflowers on their lapels at the openings of the Austrian parliament, until they switched to the more "Austrian" Edelweiß in 2017.[24]

Brown has been associated with Nazism because of the Sturmabteilung (SA), whose members were called "brownshirts". They were modeled on Benito Mussolini's blackshirts, and the colour was chosen because many brown uniforms intended for the colonial troops in Germany's African colonies were cheaply available after the end of World War I. In Europe and elsewhere, the colour brown is sometimes used to refer to fascists in general.[25]

• Brown is sometimes used to describe the opposite of green parties, that is to describe parties that care little about pollution.[26]

• Buff was the colour of the Whig faction in British politics from the early 18th century until the middle of the 19th century. As such, it is sometimes used to represent the current political left (in opposition to blue, which represented the Tories and then the Conservatives and political right).[27]

• Grey is sometimes used by parties that represent the interests of pensioners and senior citizens, such as "The Greys" in Germany.[28]
• Grey can also be used to refer to reactionary independence or secessionist movements, due to its association with the Confederate States of America.[29]
• Grey is often used to represent independent politicians, However, in the UK, white is used to represent independent politicians.[30]

Green is the colour for both environmentalist[31] and Islamic political parties and movements (see green in Islam).[2]

• The Esperanto movement makes wide use of green in its symbolism, including the language's flag which is known as the Verda Flago (literally Green Flag)
• Fern green is occasionally used by political organizations and groups who advocate the legalization of medicinal use of marijuana.[32]
• Sea green was used as a symbol by members of the Levellers in 17th-century Britain and for this reason, it is occasionally used to represent radical liberalism.[33]
• Green has sometimes also been linked to agrarian movements, such as the Populist Party, in the U.S. in the 1890s and the current-day Nordic Agrarian parties, as well as the National Party of Australia, a conservative party traditionally representing regional and agricultural interests.[34] The International Agrarian Bureau, though often known as the "Green International", did not formally endorse the colour, although successor, called International Peasant Union, was represented by a clover.[35]
• In Canada, in addition to its use by the Green Party of Canada, green has also been frequently used by right-wing and populist parties that are unaffiliated with the Conservative Party. Examples include the Social Credit Party of Canada, Reform Party of Canada, Canadian Alliance, Wildrose Party in Alberta and the Saskatchewan Party.
• In Iran, green has been used by the Iranian Green Movement, a political movement that arose after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office.
• In India, green is used mainly by center-left parties, such as All India Trinamool Congress and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and by Islamic political parties, such as the Indian Union Muslim League.
• Irish Nationalist and Irish Republican movements have used the colour green.[36] Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Green Party all use green as colour.
• Green, considered the holy colour of Islam, it is used to represent Islamism such as Hamas, Saudi Arabia and Islamist parties.[37][38][39]
• In Italy, Northern secessionist movements such as Lega Nord chose green as their political color, advocating their Celtic origin.
• In Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) uses green as its official colour, though in recent year in has changed to use red.
• In Morocco, it is associated with the Green March of 1975.
• In most of Latin America, green is associated with pro-choice movements, the colour started being used in Argentina as a symbol of third wave feminism and abortion rights, with a green scarf as a symbol.[40]
• In South Korea, green was used by liberal parties. It changed to use blue in 2013.
• In Taiwan, it is used by the Democratic Progressive Party.

Magenta is a colour that tends to replace yellow for liberal and centrist parties and organisations in Europe.[41] It is not to be confused with the socialist or social democratic use of the colour pink.

Orange is the traditional colour of the Christian democratic political ideology and most Christian democratic political parties, which are based on Catholic social teaching and/or neo-Calvinist theology. Christian democratic political parties came to prominence in Europe and the Americas after World War II.[42][43]

• Orange since 2004 has represented Post-Communist Democratic Revolutions in Eastern Europe.[44]
• It less frequently represents various kinds of populist parties. Such is the case in Austria, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Turkey.[45]
• Orange is often used to represent the mutualist current in anarchist politics, as a middle ground between pro-market currents such as anarcho-capitalism (associated with the colour yellow of liberalism) and anti-capitalist currents such as anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism (associated with the colour red of communism and socialism).[46]
• Humanism frequently uses orange for representation. It is the colour of the Humanist International, as well as the humanist parties in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Chile, and other humanist organizations.[47]
• In Greece, orange is associated with liberal and centrist parties, like Center Union, Drassi and Recreate Greece
• In Mexico, orange is not linked to Christian democratic movements (the Christian democratic party Partido Acción Nacional uses blue). Instead, it is linked to the center-left secular party Movimiento Ciudadano.
• In New Zealand, the Electoral Commission rejected a proposed orange logo[48] for being likely to confuse or mislead voters by being too similar to the colour used by the country's electoral agencies.[49]
• In India, orange is associated with Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu nationalism.
• In Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, orange is associated with Unionism and the Orange Order.
• In South Africa, orange is often associated with conservative Afrikaner political movements. Orange was the official colour of the National Party which was the country's governing party from 1948 to 1994. Additionally, its successor, the New National Party, used the colour orange. It is the used by the Christian democratic and Afrikaner nationalist party Freedom Front Plus. Orange red is the official colour of the Independent Democrats, a social democratic political party in the Northern and Western Cape Provinces.
• In Ukraine, orange was the colour of liberal groups that participated in the "Orange Revolution". This gave the colour orange a certain association with radical anti-authoritarian politics in some countries and it has been used as such by groups and organizations in the Middle East, for example in Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Bahrain and Israel.
• Orange is the official colour of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
• Czech Social Democratic Party uses the orange colour alongside the more traditional red.
• During the English Civil War of 1642, orange was associated with parliamentarian Roundheads.

Pink is sometimes used by social democratic parties, such as in France and Portugal. The more traditional colour of social democracy is red (because social democracy is descended from the democratic socialist movement), but some countries have large social democratic parties alongside large socialist or communist parties, so that it would be confusing for them all to use red.[50] In such cases, social democrats are usually the ones who give up red in favor of a different colour. Pink is often chosen because it is seen as a softer, less aggressive version of red, in the same way that social democracy is more centrist and capitalistic than socialism. This is also the origin of the colloquial term "pinko".

• In some European nations and the United States, pink is associated with homosexuality and the pink flag is used as a symbol in support of civil rights for LGBT people,[51] it is commonly used to represent queer anarchism. Originating from Nazi German policy of appending pink triangles to the clothing of homosexual prisoners.

Although purple has some older associations with monarchism, it is the most prominent colour that is not traditionally connected to any major contemporary ideology. As such, it is sometimes used to represent a mix of different ideologies, or new protest movements that are critical of all previously-existing parties.

• Purple is often associated with feminism and when combined with black, is often used to represent anarcha-feminism.
• In Brazil, purple is the color associated with some progressive liberal movements such as Cidadania and Livres. This color is chosen because those movements consider themselves to be mixing the best ideas of the left (associated with red) and the right (associated with blue)
• In Europe, purple tends to be used for movements, parties and governments that are neither clearly right nor left.[52] The color is also used by the European federalist party Volt.
  • It has been used to represent the Purple governments of Belgium and the Netherlands, formed by an alliance of red social-democratic and blue liberal parties.
• In Italy, purple has been adopted by anti-Silvio Berlusconi protesters (see Purple People) as an alternative from other colours and political parties.
• In the United Kingdom, purple is associated with Euroscepticism, being the official colours of the UK Independence Party and the minor party Veritas.
• Purple is also unofficially used in the United States to denote a "swing state", swing district, or county. (i.e. one contested frequently between the Republican Party, whose unofficial colour is red; and the Democratic Party, whose unofficial colour is blue). Purple is also used by centrists to represent a combination of beliefs belonging to the Republicans (red) and the Democrats (blue). It has also been used to reference Purple America, a term used in contrast to "blue" or "red", noting the electoral differences nationwide are observed more on discrepancies instead of unity (see red states and blue states).

Red is traditionally associated with socialism and communism.[2] The oldest symbol of socialism (and by extension communism) is the Red Flag, which dates back to the French Revolution in the 18th century and the revolutions of 1848. Before this nascence, the colour red was generally associated with monarchy or the Church due to the symbolism and association of Christ's blood. The colour red was chosen to represent the blood of the workers who died in the struggle against capitalism. All major socialist and communist alliances and organisations—including the First, Second, Third and Fourth Internationals—used red as their official colour. The association between the colour red and communism is particularly strong. Communists use red much more often and more extensively than other ideologies use their respective traditional colours.

• In Europe and Latin America, red is also associated with parties of social democracy and often their allies within the labour movement, a symbol of common solidarity among leftists.
• Red is also the traditional colour of liberal parties in Latin America and was the colour use, for example, in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay for liberal parties.
• In Canada, red is the colour of the Liberal Party of Canada.
• In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, red is also the colour of the labour movement and the Labour (spelled Labor in Australia) parties in those countries. The use of red as a symbol is referenced in the British Labour Party's anthem, The Red Flag.[53]
  • In the heyday of the British Empire before 1960, maps, globes, and atlases typically used red or pink to designate the British Empire or its Commonwealth.[54] As soon as a colony became independent, it needed its own distinctive color and the practice died out.
• In Brazil, red combined with black and white was formerly associated with Brazilian nationalism. The first incarnation of the agrarianist-centrist Social Democratic Party, both incarnations of the Brazilian Labour Party (the first a social democratic party, the current a populist one) and the Brazilian Democratic Movement use this color scheme. Red, Black and White are associated with the three races which form the ethnic composition of Brazil: the Amerindians (Red), the Afro-Brazilians (Black) and White Brazilians.
• A key exception to the convention of red to mean socialism is the United States. Since about the year 2000, the mass media have associated red with the Republican Party, even though the Republican Party is a conservative party (see red states and blue states).[19] This use is possibly entrenched, as many political organisations (for example, the website RedState) now use the term. Conservative parties such as the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and the People Power Party of South Korea also adopted red as their political colour in recent years.

• In India, saffron is traditionally associated with Hinduism, Hindutva and the Hindu nationalist movement.[55] Saffron was chosen because in Hindusm, the deep saffron colour is associated with sacrifice, religious abstinence, quest for light and salvation. Saffron or "Bhagwa" is the most sacred colour for the Hindus and is often worn by Sanyasis who have left their home in search of the ultimate truth.

White is today mainly linked to pacifism (as in the surrender flag)[2] and in politics of the United Kingdom to independent politicians such as Martin Bell.

• Historically, it was associated with support for absolute monarchy, starting with the supporters of the Bourbon dynasty of France because it was the dynasty's colour. Later it was used by the Whites who fought against the communist "Reds" in the Russian Civil War, because some of the Russian "Whites" had similar goals to the French "Whites" of a century earlier (although, it is worth noting that the Whites included many different people with many ideologies, such as monarchists, liberals, and others).
  • Because of its use by anti-communist forces in Russia, the colour white came to be associated in the 20th century with many different anti-communist and counter-revolutionary groups,[56] even those that did not support absolute monarchy (for example, the Finnish "Whites" who fought against the socialist "Reds" in the civil war following the independence of Finland). In some revolutions, red is used to represent the revolutionaries and white is used to represent the supporters of the old order, regardless of the ideologies or goals of the two sides.
• In Italy a red cross on a white shield (scudo crociato) is the emblem of Catholic parties from the historical Christian Democracy party.[57]
• In Afghanistan, the Taliban reversed the Islamist schema, using black shahada on a white background (symbol of purity).

Yellow is the colour most strongly associated with liberalism and right-libertarianism.[2][3][58][59]

• In Latin America, it is not unusual for left-wing social democratic parties to use yellow, as red was the traditional colour of liberals, especially in countries with prominent red-using liberal parties like Paraguay, Honduras, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica.
• Yellow is also associated with Judaism and the Jewish people, although this may be seen negatively (see also Yellow badge) and since 1945 the blue Star of David is preferred.
• In East and Southeast Asia, yellow is used to represent monarchies. For instance, in Thailand yellow represents King Bhumibol. It was also the colour of the pro-monarchy Panchayat system in the Kingdom of Nepal.
• It is also a common colour to represent Buddhism, monks in Burma used it in the anti-government protests.
• In Brazil, yellow, combined with green, is associated with right-wing populists and national conservatives movements against corruption, anti-Workers Party, anti-communists, supportive of impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and later, with support of Jair Bolsonaro, like PSL and the Alliance for Brazil. The association came because many of the protesters against Dilma wears the jersey of Brazil national football team, which is yellow with the numbers and some details in green, and because the protesters chanted that brazilian flag "will never be red" (in reference to the colours of the communism and Workers' Party) and "will be always green and yellow".
• In Hong Kong, yellow represents the pro-democracy supporters.
• In Malaysia, yellow was used by Bersih (The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections).
• In South Korea, yellow associated with historically Uri Party and former President Roh Moo-hyun supporters.
• In the United States, the colour yellow was the official colour of the suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[60] In the 21st century, the Libertarian Party's official branding colours are gold/yellow (HEX #E5C601), grey, and black.[61] The yellow/gold colour is prominent because of the historical association with classical liberalism and in reference to a gold-backed currency and free markets.

In this map of the 2012 United States presidential election results, the states are colour-coded by the political colour of the party whose candidate won their electoral college votes, but the political meanings of red and blue in the United States are the opposite of their meanings in the rest of the world.

Notable national political colour schemes include:

• In Northern Ireland, the Unionist parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly are called the "orange block" and the Nationalist parties are the "green block".[62]
  • Some of the established political parties use or have used different colour variations in certain localities. This was common in British politics up to the 1970s. The traditional colour of the Penrith and the Border Conservatives was yellow, rather than dark blue, even in the 2010 election Conservative candidates in Penrith and the neighbouring constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale wore blue and yellow rosettes. In North East England, the Conservatives traditionally used red, Labour green and the Liberals blue and orange. In parts of East Anglia, the Conservatives used pink and blue, whilst in Norwich their colours were orange and purple. The Liberals and Conservatives used blue and red respectively in West Wales, while in parts of Cheshire the Liberals were red and Labour yellow. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Tories used orange in Birmingham, pink in Whitby and red in East Worcestershire, whilst the Whigs were blue in Kendal, purple in Marlborough and orange in Wakefield.[63] The traditional colour of the Warwickshire Liberals was green, rather than orange.
• In the United States the two major political parties use the national colours, i.e. red, white and blue. Historically, the only common situation in which it has been necessary to assign a single colour to a party has been in the production of political maps in graphical displays of election results. In such cases, there had been no consistent association of particular parties with particular colours. Between the early 1970s and 1992, most television networks used blue to denote states carried by the Democratic Party and red to denote states carried by the Republican Party in presidential elections. A unified colour scheme (blue for Democrats, red for Republicans) began to be implemented with the 1996 presidential election; in the weeks following the 2000 election, there arose the terminology of red states and blue states. Political observers latched on to this association, which resulted from the use of red for Republican victories and blue for Democratic victories on the display map of a television network. As of November 2012, maps for presidential elections produced by the U.S. government also use blue for Democrats and red for Republicans.[64] In September 2010, the Democratic Party officially adopted an all-blue logo.[20] Around the same time, the official Republican website began using a red logo.
  • This association has potential to confuse foreign observers in that, as described above, red is traditionally a left-wing colour (as used with the Democratic Socialists of America), while blue is typically associated with right-wing politics.[1] This is further complicated by the diversity of factions in the Democratic Party ranging from conservatives to right-libertarians to democratic socialists alongside the dominant centrist and social liberal elements of the party that outside the United States often each use different political colors.
  • The conservative Blue Dog Coalition within the Democratic Party adopted the color blue at its founding before the 2000 election solidified the red-blue convention.
  • There is some historical use of blue for Democrats and red for Republicans: in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Texas county election boards used colour-coding to help Spanish speakers and illiterates identify the parties,[65] but this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not picked up on a national level. For instance in 1888, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison used maps that coded blue for the Republicans, the colour Harrison perceived to represent the Union and "Lincoln's Party" and red for the Democrats.[66]
  • In the accounting world, red ink is used to indicate a deficit (that is, spending exceeds income). Politicians often attack deficit spending as "being in the red." For example, Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole in 1996 denounced one of President Bill Clinton's proposals because it would impose new costs on small business. Dole said: "Now that the federal government is running in the red and state governments are faced with budget deficits that rise each year, the Democrats are looking for a new pocket to pick, and small business will fill that role."[67]
  • In Puerto Rico, the main conservative party, the New Progressive Party, uses blue, while the Popular Democratic Party uses red and the Puerto Rican Independence Party uses green.

• Political uniform
• List of political ideologies
• List of political party symbols
• NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems#Affiliation