<p class="rteleft">Phreuk Thaothawin, a political scientist from the Faculty of Arts of Ubon Ratchathani University, is one of the few academics who have not been shy to say that they are sympathetic to the red shirts&rsquo; cause. &nbsp;On 21 March, he shared his views on the red shirts in a public forum in Bangkok.&nbsp;</p>

<p>As the political standoff continues, Pravit Rojanaphruk talks to &quot;Luke Chao Na Thai&quot; or &quot;Thai Peasant's Son&quot;, an influential red-shirt intellectual whose articles under the pen name is widely followed by many middle-class red shirts. &quot;Luke Chao Na Thai&quot; was educated in Thailand and England. He is a bureaucrat in his mid forties who kept his real identity secret due to his bureaucratic status. His father is a humble peasant from a province in the lower Northern region of Thailand.</p>

<p>About 40,000 cc of blood left over from the red shirts&rsquo; splashing activities at Government House, Abhisit&rsquo;s residence and the Headquarters of the Democrat Party has been used to paint banners and make artworks.</p>

<p><em>Many in capital's working and lower-middle classes clearly sympathetic</em></p> <p>The massive 20-kilometre-long red-shirt motorcade around Bangkok yesterday proved beyond doubt that many working-class and lower-middle-class people in the capital support the red shirts, as they came out in force to wildly cheer the caravan as if their liberators had arrived.&nbsp;<em>(See photos and video clips inside)</em></p>

<p>A group of Chulalongkorn doctors have expressed their disapproval through the Facebook network of medical student Salaktham Tojirakarn, who is from the same institution and is the son of red-shirt leader Dr Weng Tojirakarn, for helping the red shirts in the blood gathering activity on 16 March. &nbsp;They have written a letter to the university&rsquo;s Faculty of Medicine administration and the Faculty&rsquo;s Alumni Association to have him investigated for his conduct, and have the case forwarded to the Medical Council to consider in the issuance of his professional medical licence.</p>

<p>The mainstream mass media has been so busy blasting Thaksin Shinawatra for being the cause of all political evil that it has failed to see the seeds of the class struggle that have been germinating since the 2006 coup. Nevertheless, the attacks on the old elite have been unprecedented.</p>

<p>The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) or &quot;Red Shirt&quot; demonstrators sacrificed blood during their protest in Bangkok on March 16, 2010. They vowed to collect one million cubic centimetres of blood to pour outside Government House in Bangkok. &nbsp;Protest leaders said this campaign is a symbolic move to protest against the government and call for fresh elections.</p>

<p>Amidst the political polarization that has created deep-rooted divisions in Thai society, the mass media is one factor that has difficulty in denying any responsibility and has been asked serious questions about its role and how it has performed its duty by people who have chosen political sides. At the same time, new media has appeared and individuals&rsquo; preferences in following the news change according to their political stance and access to technology. &nbsp;Pravit Rojanaphruk, senior journalist at The Nation, is one mainstream journalist who has long asked questions about his own professional conduct and criticized the media culture. &nbsp;Prachatai talked to him on the day when every single branch of the media gave space to expressing the importance of the profession, especially the duty of the media in the run-up to an eye-catching day in Thai politics, the day of the red shirt rally on 12 March.</p>

<p>A group of about 100 people, mostly belonging to the middle class in Bangkok, have signed a petition to the Thammasat University administration to open the campus and allow demonstrators and the public to use basic facilities such as toilets. &nbsp;They say the university is ignoring the political struggle of the people.</p>

<p>BANGKOK, Mar 14, 2010 (IPS) - An unprecedented show of force by men and women from Thailand&rsquo;s rural hinterland was on display over the weekend as they poured into Bangkok in the tens of thousands to stake a claim on having a voice in shaping this South-east Asian kingdom&rsquo;s national agenda.</p>

<p>(14 March 2010)&nbsp;It is hard to know what is going on in a town like Bangkok. Like everyone else, I was curious what was really going on with the Red Shirt rally. The tourism authority is saying everything is fine, but you should stay away from Sanam Luang, Khao San Road, and even Victory Monument. If you don&rsquo;t mind knowing the news a day after it happens, then the Bangkok Post and Nation are great.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>On 12 March, the red shirts began their rally at 6 spots around Bangkok. &nbsp;They chose to perform major rituals at two places which have significant political implications for their struggle; the Laksi Circle and the King Taksin Monument.</p>