Red Shadows across Thai Politics: From Redshirts to Red Oranges

This talk looks at the redshirts, a broadly pro-Thaksin movement that began in opposition to the military junta in 2007, culminated in massive Bangkok protests that precipitated the brutal crackdown of April-May 2010, and then had a number of afterlives.

The 2020-21 youth-led protests actively channelled the redshirts, drawing inspiration from their earlier struggles and receiving strong support from members of the movement. While some die-hards stayed true to the pro-Thaksin cause, other redshirts turned on their former hero when he embraced the military after his 2023 return to Thailand. A new phenomenon had emerged: self-proclaimed “red oranges”. For these activists, the ideological baton they previously associated Thaksin’s parties had been passed to the orange parties: they became committed voters for Move Forward, and latterly the People’s Party.

We are left with lots of questions. Did the 2020 youth-led protestors really understand the redshirts? Was Thaksin ever on the right side of history? Was the movement that helped inspire the youth protests itself genuinely progressive? And how do former redshirts now define and understand themselves?

The presentation draws on dozens of interviews and a couple of focus groups with both ordinary redshirts and movement leaders, conducted between 2024 and 2026. It forms part of a larger book project on generational change and contestation in Thai politics.

Speaker & chair biographies

Prof. Duncan McCargo works primarily on the comparative politics of Southeast Asia, especially Thailand. He has published a dozen books, and 100+ articles and chapters, most notoriously that one about network monarchy. His books include the award-winning Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand (Cornell 2008) and Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party (NIAS 2020). He is currently President’s Chair Professor of Global Affairs at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. See Duncan’s website: https://thaipolitics.leeds.ac.uk/

Prof. John Sidel is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Dr. Petra Alderman is a researcher and Centre Manager at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the LSE. Her research focuses on authoritarianism, democracy, and promotional politics, with a particular expertise on Thailand.

*Banner Photo by Clint Oka on Unsplash

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