Political uniform

A number of political movements have involved their members wearing uniforms, typically as a way of showing their identity in marches and demonstrations. The wearing of political uniforms has tended to be associated with radical political beliefs, typically at the far-right or far-left of politics, and can be used to imply a paramilitary type of organization.

Prohibition

A number of countries have legislation banning the wearing of political uniforms. Many also ban members of their police and armed forces from taking part in political activity when in uniform.

In Germany, political uniforms are forbidden.

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

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. 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

Members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary street thugs of the German Nazi Party, were called "brown shirts" after the color of the party uniform. Propaganda poster showing SA uniforms from the Freikorps movements after World War I, through the party ban 1923–25, the uniform ban 1930–1931 up to 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor.

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
• Golden Dawn, a 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 Chinese 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 wear forest green colored balaclavas with a large white Tiwaz rune on them.
• Atomwaffen Division members are known for wearing skull mask neck gaiters/balaclavas. 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.

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 International Falcon Movement has many branches around the world with some having uniforms and being to varying degrees associated with political parties, the Swedish Branch Örnar|Unga Örnar had uniforms until the ban on uniforms in 1933 by the Swedish Social Democratic Party which led to them splitting from it. In Austria, they maintain their connection to the SPÖ and have a blue uniform with a red tie
• Free German Youth (German Democratic Republic)
• Pancasila Youth

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