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The roots of the yellow movement go back to 2005. Farmers, teachers, state enterprise workers, foes of free trade agreements, human rights defenders and environmental groups came out to oppose then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. This was a revival of the energetic civil activism of the 1990s that had been crushed in the early years of his government.

The second element was Sondhi Limthongkul and his urban audience. In the pre-crisis boom, Sondhi's Manager newspapers had best captured the confidence and aspirations of a new, modern middle class that saw themselves as the leaders of the future.

Sondhi's split from Thaksin in 2005 may have resulted from personal conflict, but it also reflected a broader political shift. Many middle-class people were deserting Thaksin because of his corruption, growing authoritarianism and shift towards populism.

They looked at both Thailand's large, remaining rural population and its corrupt, corner-cutting businessmen as drags on the country's conversion to first-world modernity.

After being thrown off television, Sondhi drew an audience to his Lumpini rallies and ASTV broadcasts by thundering against corruption and promising to lead a middle-class crusade to clean up politics.

He also made common cause with the civil society activists by backing their causes and inviting them onto his stage.

Still, the movement almost died in January 2006. Sondhi had already called a "farewell" rally when the Shin Corp sale was announced.

Disgust at the trickery behind the sale deepened opposition to Thaksin across the middle class, but especially among the ranks of small businessmen, officials, professionals and white-collar workers who see themselves as respectable, honest, tax-paying citizens.

Ten years earlier they had cheered Chamlong Srimuang's drive to clean up both Bangkok and national politics. Now Chamlong re-emerged to join the anti-Thaksin alliance.

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) was formed on February 9, 2006. The 15 founding members included Sondhi, leaders of students, teachers, workers, NGO activists other protest groups, and various artists. Chamlong joined a few days later.

The civil activists recruited support through a dense web of personal networks woven from protest campaigns of past years. Chamlong brought along his "Dhamma Army" committed to this-worldly Buddhist activism, and his ranks of old, mainly lower middle-class admirers. Through ASTV, Sondhi broke the state's stifling grip on broadcast media, and created a new genre of political television that was fascinating simply because it was so novel.

Sondhi swathed the movement in yellow, portrayed Thaksin as a threat to the monarchy and called for royal intervention to remove him. This provoked a crisis behind the PAD stage. Several civil activists objected to this strategy. Some peeled away, while others remained but with less influence over the movement. PAD started a debate on why Thai politics was dominated by a minority of not-so-honest businessmen, and how to move beyond this system so Thailand could progress.

The red movement has two main streams - hardcore Thaksin enthusiasts, and a broader audience that supports democracy and opposes military intervention in politics.

Thaksin had won support in the Northeast and upper North among people who felt pandered to and empowered as never before. After the coup, they protested through community radio, and resisted military intimidation.

In parallel, anti-coup protests in the capital attracted a few thousand activists, mainly veterans of the democracy campaigns of 1973-6 and 1992. In February 2007, Thaksin loyalists tried to set up a cable TV network to rival ASTV but were blocked. Following Sondhi's example, they then took their campaign onto the street.

In June, they announced a "united front", combining the democracy activists and Thaksin loyalists under one umbrella.

Over the following months, they campaigned for the rejection of the junta's constitution. After the 2007 election, the movement became dormant but was revived in the following May to counter the PAD rallies.

As governments were toppled, parties banned, ministers removed and more coups threatened, the movement attracted more support among people who felt democracy was under threat, including many who had earlier supported PAD.

When the movement initiated mass rallies in October, the audience included quotas bussed down by pro-Thaksin ex-MPs from the North and Northeast, along with growing numbers of walk-ins from the capital.

In his early phone-ins, Thaksin talked mainly about himself, but soon switched his theme to reflect the changing weighting in the audience. He began to speak about "full democracy" and railed against its enemies.

In January, the movement founded D-Station on the model of ASTV. In March it launched a mass protest in Bangkok and provincial centres.

The appearance of these two movements is the most dramatic change in Thai politics in three decades. At the core of both is the rebirth of the civil society activism of the 1990s.

The big innovation of these movements was to break the state's grip on the electronic media and so gain the means to recruit mass support through political broadcasting.

Of course, in the background is Thaksin's money and ambition on one side, and military power and meddling on the other.

But this should not be allowed to obscure what these movements stand for.

Thai politics is often criticised for being dominated by small, self-serving cliques of businessmen and generals. Both these movements want to move beyond.

Their main enemy is not each other, but the old, old politics desperate to resist this challenge.

Consider the past week: An ambitious general. An unsavoury, opportunistic political clique. An official mob recruited by the Interior Ministry. A billionaire concession-hunter. Coup rumours. Media controls. Fear-mongering. Intrigue. The desperate grey politics of survival.