Political and protest movements across very different times and places have adopted specific colours as identifying symbols — from the UK suffragette movement's purple, white and green to the French Revolution's tricolour — each a specific, historically scoped choice, not a claim about what any colour means politically in general.
The Women's Social and Political Union, a leading UK suffragette organisation, adopted purple, white and green as its official campaign colours in the early 20th century.
United Kingdom · early 20th century
The blue-white-red French tricolour combined the traditional colours of Paris with the royal white following the French Revolution of 1789, and became France's enduring national flag.
France · 1789 onward
Red has been used as an identifying colour by a wide range of labour and socialist political movements since the 19th century, though red is also used by many unrelated political parties around the world.
Europe and beyond · 19th century onward
Each of these is a separately scoped, separately sourced practice — shown together for comparison, not because they share one underlying meaning.
Purple, white and green in the UK suffragette movement
Historical — no longer current practiceUnited Kingdom · Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) · early 20th century – 1918 (partial suffrage granted)
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a leading UK suffragette organisation, adopted purple, white and green as its official colours in the early 20th century, with purple representing dignity, white purity, and green hope — a deliberate branding choice by one organisation within the broader women's suffrage movement.
Blue, white and red in the French Revolution
Stable, widely documentedFrance · 1789
The blue-white-red cockade and later flag associated with the French Revolution combined the traditional colours of Paris (blue and red) with the royal white, and became the enduring national symbol of France following the Revolution.
Red in labour and socialist movements
Stable, widely documentedEurope and beyond · 19th century
Red has been used as an identifying colour by a wide range of labour, socialist and communist movements and parties since the 19th century, historically linked to imagery of workers' blood and revolutionary struggle — but red is also used by many other political parties and movements around the world with entirely different meanings.
Black, green and gold in the African National Congress flag
Stable, widely documentedSouth Africa · African National Congress (ANC) · 1912
The African National Congress (ANC), the South African liberation movement founded in 1912, adopted a black, green and gold flag — colours later incorporated into post-apartheid South Africa's own national symbolism — historically associated with the people, the land, and mineral wealth respectively in commonly cited accounts.
Orange in Ukraine's 2004 political protests
Historical — no longer current practiceUkraine · 2004 – 2005
Orange was the identifying campaign colour of Viktor Yushchenko's political camp during Ukraine's disputed 2004 presidential election, and mass protests that followed became widely known internationally as the 'Orange Revolution' — a specific historical episode, not a general or ongoing symbol of Ukrainian identity.
Green as the international environmental movement colour
Stable, widely documentedglobal · 20th century
Green became the internationally recognised colour of the environmental movement over the course of the 20th century — an intuitive association with plant life and nature that spread globally through environmental organisations, largely independent of green's separate religious and national associations elsewhere.
Every claim above is scoped by the specific culture, region and/or period it applies to — none of these associations are presented as universal. See pigment and dye history for more.