The term red-green-brown alliance, originating in France, refers to the alliance of Leftists (red), Islamists (green) and the far-right (brown).^[1]
The term has also been used to describe alleged alliances of industrial union-focused leftists (red), ecologically-minded agrarians (green) and the far-right (brown).^[2][3]
It is often used in a broad sense to refer to anti-Zionist, conservationist, anti-globalization, anti-American or anti-Western views shared by disparate groups and movements.^[2][4]

History[edit]

The French essayist Alexandre del Valle wrote of “une alliance idéologique … rouge-brun-vert” (“a red-green brown … ideological alliance”) in a 22 April 2002 article in the newspaper Le Figaro,^[5] and wrote “Rouges-Bruns-Verts, l’étrange alliance”, in a January 2004 article in the magazine Politique Internationale.^[6] Del Valle’s conceptual rendering of Islamist ideological trends appears to be based at least partially on earlier writings in which he had charged the United States and western Europe with favouring the “war machine” of “armed Islamism” via its funding of the Afghani mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War during the presidency of Ronald Reagan,^[7] which helped future enemies of the West.^{[citation needed]} In 2010, Del Valle published an essay in Italy titled “Rossi, Neri, Verdi: a convergenza degli Estremi opposti” (Red, Black, Green: The meeting of extreme opposites.)^[8]

The later popularity of the red-green-brown theory and its various permutations derives mainly from a speech given by Roger Cukierman, president of the French Jewish organization CRIF, to a CRIF banquet on 25 January 2003, and given wide circulation by a 27/28 January 2003 article in Le Monde. Cukierman used the French term “alliance brun-vert-rouge” to describe the antisemitic alignment supposedly shared by “an extreme right nostalgic for racial hierarchies” (symbolized by the color brown), “an extreme left [which is] anti-globalist, anti-capitalist, anti-American [and] anti-Zionist” (red), and followers of José Bové (green).

In Great Britain in 2003, the politician George Galloway announced that he was seeking “to unify the red, green, anti-war, Muslim and other social constituencies radicalised by the war“.^[9]:407 Shortly thereafter, led by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot, the Socialist Workers Party and the Muslim Association of Britain formed an alliance in the Respect Party, under which Galloway ran for office. Respect initially tried to form an electoral pact with the Green Party of England and Wales,^{[9]:407–408[10]} but the Green Party refused to ally with Respect, saying that Respect did not align with their values of openness and democracy^[11][12] and had an under-developed political platform among other issues.^[12]

In the United States, a similar alliance of disparate groups occurred in opposition to the World Trade Organization in the alter-globalization movement, which joined trade unions, neo-Luddite environmentalists, and paleoconservative nationalists like Pat Buchanan in common cause.^[3] Many were surprised by leftist Lenora Fulani‘s support for Pat Buchanan, which has been viewed as an example of a red–green–brown alliance.^[4]