Red Shirts (Thailand)
The Red Shirts are a political movement in Thailand, formed following the 2006 coup d'état against then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Originally synonymous with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, a group formed to protest the coup and military government, the movement has since expanded to included various groups with diverse political priorities. Its members range from Left-wing and/or liberal activists and academics to the large number of Thaksin's rural and working-class supporters. The movement emerged as the result of socioeconomic changes in Northeast Thailand in the 1990s and 2000s, including a growing middle class, rising aspirations, and an increasing awareness of the extreme inequality and of the fundamentally weak democracy in Thailand, typified by Thailand's primate city problem. Red Shirts group dynamics center on frustrated economic and political aspirations, which contributed to the 2009 Thai political unrest and the 2010 Thai political protests, as well as shared suffering at the hand of the ruling class hegemony. As with other minorities, the Red Shirts have been dehumanized and demonized, and their claims for transitional justice following the 2010 Thai military crackdown have been subverted by the Thai state.
