Orange did not have a name in English until the 16^th century. Simply known as "yellow-red", the colour found its English name once the fruit—imported into Europe from Asia—began to be sold in European markets. Orange, as the name for the fruit, comes from the Sanskrit naranja, meaning orange tree, via Persian nâranj, and French pomme d'orenge. There are several languages in which the colour does not share its name with the fruit, like in Dutch, for example, where it is called “Chinese apple”–sinaasappel. Orange, it would seem, has always been a bit of a novelty.

The colour became synonymous with the Just Stop Oil eco-activist group in October of 2022 when the world watched as a tin of Heinz tomato soup dripped down the protective glass of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888 - 1889) in London’s National Gallery. The “nonviolent civil resistance group” was formed in February 2022, and its members have donned orange hi-vis at road blockades, have flown orange flags in the middle of a performance of Les Misérables at London’s Sondheim Theatre, and have sprayed orange paint on iconic buildings from Harrods to King’s College Cambridge. The colour orange became a far more recognisable signature for the group than their skull logo.

So when a protester went undercover in July 2023 at the wedding of the British former Chancellor George Osborne in Bruton, Somerset, and showered the couple with orange confetti, attention immediately turned to Just Stop Oil. Only, it was not them. Despite tweeting “You look good in orange @george_osborne” after the event, the group denied having anything to do with it.

Orange, it appears, had become inextricably linked to ecological causes beyond its association with Just Stop Oil. In December 2023, members from the Italian activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) smeared a Christmas tree sponsored by luxury fashion house Gucci with orange paint in a Milan shopping mall, calling for the government to issue a 20 billion Euro fund to repair damage caused by climate change. Orange struck again.

In comparison to green—the colour most associated with the environment and used by many companies to suggest the eco-friendliness of their output (known as “greenwashing” when done deceitfully)—orange feels almost artificial. Many things we come across daily in nature are orange but not as many are green. By branding them orange, eco-activist groups reveal the truly anti-green actions of their targeted institutions, businesses and governments.

However, it is not just ecological causes that have adopted orange as their trademark colour. Ukraine’s Orange Revolution took place between November 2004 and January 2005, focused in Kyiv. The protests followed the 2004 presidential election between Viktor Yushchenko (a pro-NATO politician) and Viktor Yanukovych (a member of the pro-Russian Party of Regions), in which it was suspected that voter intimidation and election fraud saw Yanukovych the winner. The protests successfully brought forward a revote. Protesters dressed themselves in orange—the campaign colour for Yushchenko—but eventually the colour became loaded with more general connotations as an anti-communist alternative: orange as opposed to communist red.

Established by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt in 2008, The Colour Orange organisation was created to protest against human rights violations occurring in China at the time of the Beijing Olympics. By selecting a colour as their symbol, the group allowed protesters to discreetly make their concerns about human rights violations known, given that the colour itself could not be banned in the same way that logos or symbols could be. During the games, the official Chinese Olympic website was hacked and turned orange, and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt wore an orange bracelet during his 100-metre sprint final in which he broke the world record with a time of 9.69 seconds.

Other major charity organisations represented by orange include America’s National Gun Violence Awareness Group, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and the UK’s Multiple Sclerosis Society. Orange, evidently, is a super-colour for protest and charitable causes. Perhaps this is because so many of the other colours have had associations made with them already. In England, blue, red and yellow are in use by the three largest political parties—the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Pink, since the 20th century, has been designated as the colour of girls and women, despite being seen as an inherently masculine colour for centuries due to its proximity to bold red. Pink is the signature colour for causes such as the Pink Ribbon Foundation in the UK which provides financial support for charities supporting people with breast cancer, it’s the hue of ‘Pussyhats’ worn by protesters in Washington DC in 2017 at the Women’s March which took place the day after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, and it often features in the campaigns of feminist art activist group Guerrilla Girls formed in 1985 in New York City.

It will be interesting to watch how orange’s association with environmental causes continues in the future and to see whether it is adopted for any other movements given its new association with highlighting the anti-green. Perhaps it’s only purple that’s left for the next big thing in civil disobedience.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of STIR or its Editors.)