The Red Shirts (
Thai: เสื้อแดง,
romanized: Suea Daeng) are a political movement in
Thailand, formed following the
2006 coup d'état which deposed then-Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra. Originally synonymous with the
United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), a group formed to protest the coup and resulting military government, the movement subsequently expanded to include 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.[1][2][3] 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,[4][5] typified by Thailand's
primate city problem.[6] Red Shirts
group dynamics center on frustrated economic and political aspirations to improve democracy and overcome inequality,[7] which contributed to the
2009 Thai political unrest and the
2010 Thai political protests,[8] as well as shared suffering at the hand of the ruling class hegemony.[9][10][11] As with other minorities, the Red Shirts have been
dehumanized and
demonized,[12] with insults such as "Red Buffalo" (
Thai: ควายแดง,
romanized: khwai daeng; khwai, 'buffalo', is a common insult in Thai meaning a stupid person), since reclaimed by some of its targets. Their claims for
transitional justice following the
2010 Thai military crackdown have been subverted by the Thai state.[13]
^Fong, Jack (2012-09-05). "Political Vulnerabilities of a Primate City: The May 2010 Red Shirts Uprising in Bangkok, Thailand". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 48 (3): 332–347.
doi:
10.1177/0021909612453981.
ISSN0021-9096.
S2CID145515713.
^Taylor, Jim (2012). "Remembrance and Tragedy: Understanding Thailand's "Red Shirt" Social Movement". Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 27 (1): 120.
doi:
10.1355/sj27-1d.
ISSN0217-9520.
S2CID145259518.
^Sripokangkul, Siwach (2019-06-11). "Subversion of transitional justice in Thailand: transitional injustice in the case of the 'Red Shirts'". The International Journal of Human Rights. 23 (10): 1673–1692.
doi:
10.1080/13642987.2019.1624538.
ISSN1364-2987.
S2CID197709427.