Red Shirts (Thailand)

{{Short description|Thai political movement}}

{{Other uses|Redshirt (disambiguation)}}

File:Hot Bangkok (29 March 2010) (28223961422).jpg

The Red Shirts ({{Langx|th|เสื้อแดง|translit=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.{{Cite journal|last=Forsyth|first=Tim|date=2010|title=Thailand's Red Shirt Protests: Popular Movement or Dangerous Street Theatre?|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/30644/1/Forsyth_Thailand%27s_red_shirt_protests_2010.pdf|journal=Social Movement Studies|volume=9|issue=4|pages=461–467|doi=10.1080/14742837.2010.522313|s2cid=145712901|issn=1474-2837}}{{cite journal|last1=Chachavalpongpun|first1=Pavin|author1-link=Pavin Chachavalpongpun|title=Thailand's Red Networks: From Street Forces to Eminent Civil Society Coalition|journal=Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Freiburg (Germany) Occasional Paper Series|date=April 2013|issue=14|url=https://www.southeastasianstudies.uni-freiburg.de/Content/files/occasional-paper-series/op-14_chachavalpongpun.pdf|access-date=9 September 2017}}

{{Cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Saowanee T.|date=2019|title=Identity in Isan and the Return of the Redshirts in the 2019 Elections and Beyond|url=https://kyotoreview.org/issue-27/isan-identity-return-of-redshirts-2019-elections-and-beyond/|journal=The Kyoto Review|volume=27}} 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,{{Cite journal|last1=de Jong|first1=Edwin|last2=Knippenberg|first2=Luuk|last3=Ayuwat|first3=Dusadee|last4=Promphakping|first4=Buapun|date=2012|title=Red-Shirt Heartland: Village-Level Socioeconomic Change in Northeast Thailand Between 1999 and 2008|journal=Asian Politics & Policy|volume=4|issue=2|pages=213–231|doi=10.1111/j.1943-0787.2012.01337.x|issn=1943-0779|hdl=2066/102833|hdl-access=free}}{{Cite journal|last=Hewison|first=Kevin|author-link=Kevin Hewison|date=2014-03-27|title=Considerations on inequality and politics in Thailand|journal=Democratization|volume=21|issue=5|pages=846–866|doi=10.1080/13510347.2014.882910|s2cid=145019012|issn=1351-0347|url=http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/21893/|url-access=subscription}} typified by Thailand's primate city problem.{{Cite journal|last=Fong|first=Jack|date=2012-09-05|title=Political Vulnerabilities of a Primate City: The May 2010 Red Shirts Uprising in Bangkok, Thailand|journal=Journal of Asian and African Studies|volume=48|issue=3|pages=332–347|doi=10.1177/0021909612453981|s2cid=145515713|issn=0021-9096}} Red Shirts group dynamics center on frustrated economic and political aspirations to improve democracy and overcome inequality,{{Citation|last=Sopranzetti|first=Claudio|title=Mass politics and the Red Shirts 1|date=2019-10-17|work=Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand|pages=156–164|location=Abingdon, Oxon|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315151328-12|isbn=978-1-315-15132-8|s2cid=214052492}} which contributed to the 2009 Thai political unrest and the 2010 Thai political protests,{{Cite journal|last=Elinoff|first=Eli|date=2012|title=Smouldering Aspirations: Burning Buildings and the Politics of Belonging in Contemporary Isan|journal=South East Asia Research|volume=20|issue=3|pages=381–398|doi=10.5367/sear.2012.0111|s2cid=147295246|issn=0967-828X}} as well as shared suffering at the hand of the ruling class hegemony.{{Cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Jim|date=2012|title=Remembrance and Tragedy: Understanding Thailand's "Red Shirt" Social Movement|journal=Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia|volume=27|issue=1|pages=120|doi=10.1355/sj27-1d|s2cid=145259518|issn=0217-9520}}{{Citation|last=Glassman|first=Jim|title=Gramsci: Space, Nature, Politics|chapter=Cracking Hegemony|date=2012-10-16|pages=239–257|publisher=John Wiley & Sons Ltd|doi=10.1002/9781118295588.ch12|isbn=978-1-118-29558-8}}{{Cite book|last1=Montesano |first1=Michael J. |last2=Chachavalpongpun |first2=Pavin |author2-link=Pavin Chachavalpongpun |last3=Chongvilaivan |first3=Aekapol|title=Bangkok May 2010 : perspectives on a divided Thailand|date=2012|publisher=Silkworm Books|isbn=978-616-215-042-5|oclc=943968424}} As with other minorities, the Red Shirts have been dehumanized and demonized,{{Cite journal|last=Sripokangkul|first=Siwach|date=2015-08-18|title=Inferior to Non-humans, Lower than Animals, and Worse Than Demons: The Demonization of Red Shirts in Thailand|journal=Asian Social Science|volume=11|issue=24|doi=10.5539/ass.v11n24p331|issn=1911-2025|doi-access=free}} with insults such as "Red Buffalo" ({{Langx|th|ควายแดง|translit=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.{{Cite journal|last=Sripokangkul|first=Siwach|date=2019-06-11|title=Subversion of transitional justice in Thailand: transitional injustice in the case of the 'Red Shirts'|journal=The International Journal of Human Rights|volume=23|issue=10|pages=1673–1692|doi=10.1080/13642987.2019.1624538|s2cid=197709427|issn=1364-2987}}