Political uniform

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A number of

In Germany, political uniforms are forbidden.[1]

Political uniforms were forbidden in Sweden during the period 1933–2002. The law existed to prevent Nazi groups from wearing uniforms.^[2][3]

In the United Kingdom, the Public Order Act 1936, passed to control extremist political movements in the 1930s such as the British Union of Fascists, banned the wearing of political uniforms during marches. Attempts to legislate against the wearing of political uniform were difficult to implement, due to problems with defining what constitutes political uniform, but also in determining which groups were a threat to public order.^[4] Though this has rarely arisen in recent decades, in January 2015 the Leader of Britain First Paul Golding was convicted for wearing a political uniform. Later in November 2016 the deputy leader of Britain First Jayda Fransen was convicted for wearing a political uniform.

List of parties with political uniforms

Notable uniformed political groups have included:

• The Chinese Communist Party, which dressed its members in green, loose fitting fatigues or the more formal Mao suit
• The Brownshirts, or Sturmabteilung, of the Nazi Party

"Blackshirts"

• The Blackshirts, Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy
• British Union of Fascists, a fascist political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom
• The
  Patriotic People's Movement of Finland
• The Blackshirts, an atheist organisation in India
• neo-Nazi political party in Greece

"Blueshirts"

• The Blueshirts, or Army Comrades Association, an Irish political organisation set up by General Eoin O'Duffy in 1932
• The British Fascists, the first avowedly fascist organisation in the United Kingdom
• The
  Blue Shirt Society
  , a secret clique within the Kuomintang
• The National Syndicalists in Portugal
• The Falange Militia in Spain
• The
  National Unity Party
  in Canada

"Greenshirts"

• The
  Green Shirt Movement for Social Credit
  in the United Kingdom
• The Romanian Iron Guard movement
• The
  Greenshirts were a wing of the Irish National Corporate Party
• The Hungarian National Socialist Agricultural Labourers' and Workers' Party
• The Brazilian Integralist Action
• The Yugoslav Radical Union

"Redshirts"

• The Redshirts that unified Italy
• The Ratniks, a Bulgarian national-socialist organisation
• The
  Red Shirts
  of the Southern United States
• The Red Shirts of Mexico
• The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship in Thailand
• The Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa

Other:

• The
  Gold shirts
  , a Mexican fascist movement
• The
  Greyshirts, a South African
  Nazi organisation
• The Grijze Werfbrigade (Grey Defence Brigade), a Flemish paramilitary organisation of
  Vlaams Nationaal Verbond
  , predecessor of the Dietsche Militie that was formed in 1940s
• Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, an American fascist organization founded by William Dudley Pelley
• The white uniform of Singapore's People's Action Party
• Free Peru uses a white shirt with red cuffs
• The White Shirts Society, a clandestine fascist terrorist group in South Korea

Political uniforms have sometimes taken the form of headwear:

• Red berets were worn as distinguishing devices of the Spanish Carlists
• Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Sinn Féin have worn black berets in demonstrations, or black balaclavas for anonymity
• Black berets are also worn over hoods by members of ETA
• The Black Panther Party
• Members of the Swiss neo-Nazi group Junge Tat [fr] wear forest green colored balaclavas with a large white Tiwaz rune on them.^[5][6]
• Atomwaffen Division members are known for wearing skull mask neck gaiters/balaclavas.^[7][8] This signature face covering has also been adopted by other neo-Nazi groups like The Base as well as militant far-right and neo-fascist sympathizers in general.^[9]

Other uniformed movements:

• Black Sash a non-violent white women's anti-apartheid organization in South Africa
• Ku Klux Klan in the United States
• Britain First, a far-right group who wear green jackets and flat caps
• Fruit of Islam, the paramilitary wing of the Nation of Islam.
• The Brown Berets
• Yellow vests movement
  , a populist political movement that began in France in 2018.
• Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a neo-Nazi Afrikaner nationalist political organization in South Africa.

The youth sections of some political movements have also been uniformed:

• Hitler Youth (the youth wing of the German Nazi Party)
• Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, youth organization of the Italian National Fascist Party
• Komsomol, youth organization in the Soviet Union
• the
  SPÖ
  and have a blue uniform with a red tie
• German Democratic Republic
  )
• Pancasila Youth

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

See also

• Armband
• The
  Black Shorts, a parody of fascist uniforms in the Jeeves novels of P. G. Wodehouse
  .
• Political colour
• Political symbol
• Black bloc

References