'Red shirts' back with a bang, vowing to mount a million-strong demonstration

The 'red shirts', enemies of the Bangkok establishment, are back in the capital this weekend vowing to transform Thailand forever with a million strong demonstration of popular anger.

'We have justice on our side. The people who really rule this country simply won't let go - and give the ordinary people a chance for a better life. We are not violent but we want a real democracy, not a sham democracy,' veteran activist Dr Weng Tojirakarn said.

The threat is being taken seriously, especially after the debacle last April when 'red shirt' protests sabotaged a major regional meeting in Pattaya and closed down central Bangkok. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is widely pictured briefing the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, special martial law powers are invoked, shopping malls ponder security measures, schools cancel classes, thousands of troops and militia limber up, even the tigers in the Dusit zoo have been moved.

The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, the political pressure group most 'red shirts' are members of, make up a grass-roots mass movement initially created to engineer the return of tycoon-turned-populist-politician Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 bloodless military coup.

By almost any measure Thaksin is a member of the elite, yet slick marketing and the deployment of populist handouts transformed him into a people's hero who easily won three elections between 2000 and 2006. Despite being convicted of corruption in 2008, Thaksin has a loyal following in rural areas and still moves many to tears with his generosity and goodwill.

'Thaksin stunned [the establishment] by shockingly promoting policies like cheap loans and health care that actually helped poor people. But we are now way, way beyond Thaksin - this is about creating a state that helps all people, not just the privileged,' UDD leader Jaran Ditthapichai said.