From mid-2008, red shirt and yellow shirt groups have occasionally clashed. In a moment of terrible clarity, yellow shirts claiming to be defenders of the monarchy clashed with Red shirts claiming to be defenders of democracy.
At the end of 2008, the second pro-Thaksin government after the 2007 election was forced out of power by military pressure, judicial rulings, and a parliamentary man oeuvre. After that, the main demand of the red shirt movement was for an election to reinstate the popular mandate. They also wanted to change the constitution, perhaps back to the 1997 version. In their rhetoric, they called themselves phrai, an old word for serf in Thailand’s version of a feudal system; described their enemies as ammat, an old word for a senior noble or official; and railed against “double standards”. In this vocabulary, they clearly showed the resentment against the inequities of wealth, power, and opportunity.