The Black Shirts

[discovery1]

Musselini had his gangs of black shirts which went around ruffing up his enemies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shirts

Any one know the symbolism of the black shirts? Mourning over the less than expect gains of the great war maybe? Thank you.

[InsaneApache]

Musselini had his gangs of black shirts which went around ruffing up his enemies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shirts

Any one know the symbolism of the black shirts? Mourning over the less than expect gains of the great war maybe? Thank you.

If my memory serves me correctley it was something like this.

Blackshirt=Fascist
Brownshirt=National Socialist(nazi)
Blueshirt=Nationalist

and then there were others..

Redshirt=Socialist
Grey/Silver=Freekorps(vetern servicemen)

Just a 1930's political fashion statement I suppose

[Franconicus]

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_colour :

Black is primarily associated with anarchism, dating back to the 1880's and an association of many anarchist groups with the color black.
In the countries with a history of anti-clericalism in Europe and elsewhere in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the officials of the Catholic Church, because their vestments are often black, were called the Black International. In Germany, it is the colour of christian democrats.
In the 1920's the color black came to be associated with Fascism, especially the Italian black shirts.

[Kralizec]

InsaneApache you are wrong, redshirts are the guys who always take the first bullet in Star Trek [/nerdspeak]

[GoreBag]

I know that 'blackshirt' is a catch-all word used today to describe fascists or neo-nazis. It was even used in The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn by the Pogues.

"And ya decked some ****'in blackshirt who was cursin' all the Yids;"

This has probably changed over the years.

[InsaneApache]

InsaneApache you are wrong, redshirts are the guys who always take the first bullet in Star Trek [/nerdspeak]

You, Sir, are right. I stand corrected. What on Earth was I thinking of?

[English assassin]

Pah, blackshirts.

In P G Wodehouse's 1938 satire about "Roderick Spode", Leader of the "Black Shorts", Bertie Wooster tells Spode: "because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of halfwits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: 'Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"

[discovery1]

Ah. Thanks people. Much appreciated.