For the past week Thailand has been engulfed in a massive wave of protest by the anti-government ‘Red Shirts‘, who all dress in red to symbolise their support for the immediate dissolving of parliament and new elections.

The current government of Thailand was installed by a military coup in 2006, that overthrew former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra’s government.

Thaksin Shinawatra

Shinawatra is one of the richest men in Thailand, and came to power as leader of a populist party. (He was also briefly the owner of Man City.) However, his policies in government were extremely popular with the rural and urban poor of Thailand, and included the first ever attempt to create a universal health care scheme, and microcredits to try and alleviate poverty in the countryside.

The mobilisation of the poor threatens the traditional elite in Thailand, which until the 1930s was ruled by the king, and the monarchy still retains a lot of power. Today, nobles and bureaucrats continue to contol a lot of the political process.

Shinawatra was deposed in a military coup in September 2006, and the military junta then wrote a new constitution and appointed the current Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The Red Shirt movement, known formally as the National United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), was formed to protest the junta, and this year has been stepping up activities dramatically.

The UDD is seen by many as simply a movement aimed at returning Thaksin Shinawatra to power, and many protesters are his supporters. They demand his return from self-imposed exile, and an amnesty for the 2 year prison sentence for corruption he’s received in his absence.

But the supporters of the UDD, who’ve been in the streets in their hundreds of thousands, are overwhelminngly the poor and working class. Most people outside Thailand see the conflict as being about who will control Thailand-the monarchy and the traditional nobility, or modern capitalists.

But to get power Shinawatra built an alliance with the people who are now in the street, and, in the absence of a major organised challenge by socialists or the left for power, his policies inspired millions of people.

Now, in his absence, the movement has the potential to grow beyond his control. Some leaders of the movement within Thailand have begun openly talking about a “class war.” But there remain a lot of contradictions. Some protesters wanting to keep to a narrow agenda of new elections, but still supporting a constitutional monarchy. Others want to go further, and confront the whole traditional power structure that keeps the elite in power and the majority poor.

A lot will depend on how the reaction of the current Thai government, how far they are willing to push things, and if they are willing to negotiate. If they remain as stubborn as they’ve been so far, they may end up pushing the Red Shirts to go further than the limits of Thaksin Shinawatra’s politics.

For anyone that would doubt the seriousness of the commitment of people to the Red Shirt cause, check out this video-protesters actually en masse donated their own blood for the sake of the movement. Huge quantities of their blood were then oured into the streets in symbolic locations. Next time you cant be bothered getting up early for a demo, just be glad you’re not part of a movement that demands this level of commitment from it’s members!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.