Since we last reported on Thailand, the unelected Thai government has completed its brutal crackdown on the protest camp in the heart of Bangkok’s business and shopping district.

Showing that they valued the property of the area, and their own power, more than human life, the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajjiva ordered troops to violently clear the site. In the process, at least 88 people were killed by army snipers and assault tanks. Over 1000 were injured.

Thailand’s 20th century history is littered with the intervention of the army to protect the aristocratic and business elite’s power against the majority of Thais who live in poverty. Now once again, Thais are living under a military curfew, with mass censorship of the media and internet and hundreds of political prisoners facing long sentences or possible execution.

Among the many prisoners facing trial is a British man, Jeff Savage, who lives in Thailand and was part of the protests.

But despite their short term retaking of the streets, the government has solved nothing by using violence against the overwhelmingly poor and working class Red Shirt protesters. The huge economic and class inequality in Thailand remains, and the poor are demanding democracy in order to try and get a government that will do something about it.

In parliament itself, opposition politicians have voiced their anger about the way the government has conducted itself, calling for Eton educated Abhisit to be impeached.

“Up until now, almost 100 people have died. Can you continue reading the budget and balance sheets like that? Do you have any feelings?” said Surapong Tovichakchaikul, an opposition member from Chiang Mai, a northern city where support is strong for the Red Shirts. Regional inequalities are also an important factor in the division of Thailand. The Red Shirts are particularly strong among the peasants and small farmers of the Thai north and northeast, which are ethnically and linguistically different from both central and southern Thailand. The peoples of these regions have been bounded to the rest of the country by borders established in the times of western colonialism.

Further evidence that Thailand is riven by discontent was the news that two bombs exploded in the south of the country this week, set by Islamic insurgents who want an independent south. The south of Thailand was an autonomous Islamic enclave before being annexed by Thailand in the early 20th century.

School contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson Abhisit Vejjajjiva

Fundamentally, the conflict in Thailand is about the desire of the traditional nobility and business elite to hold on to power. They were threatened when, for the first time in Thai history, the 1997 constitution allowed both houses of parliament to be directly elected. This led to the rise of billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, who was able to fill the vacuum on the left of Thai politics once filled by the Communist Party.

In the absence of a credible left alternative, Thaksin established policies like the first universal healthcare scheme and economic support for small farmers that won him huge support among the Thai poor. Ousted by a military coup in 2006, he now lives in exile and the current Thai regime is seeking his arrest through Interpol.

The demand for democracy by the mass of Thai people is, therefore, a demand to be allowed to vote in a government that will represent their interests. They are frustrated in this by the so-called ‘Human Rights’ organisations and NGOs, who support the monarchy and anti-democracy, middle class Yellow Shirt movement, which has used violence and intimidation. The National Human Rights Commission is now actively taking part in the prosecution of Red Shirts.

The complicity of the monarchy in the current crisis has for virtually the first time in Thai history brought out open criticism of the institution, and the radicalisation that is likely to follow the government crackdown can only increase this. The current King Bhumibol has been on the throne for 55 years, and is ailing in health. He still retains widespread support, especially concentrated in the more well off. Check out this scene from the national Thai TV awards, where an audience of the entertainment elite applaud a pro-monarchy statement by one of those winning an award. Such total shows of total submission to the monarchy are common among the Thai elite. (The term “Father” refers to the King.)

However, his son and heir apparent, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, is held in much less esteem by most people. As a military officer, he participated directly in crackdowns against the Communist Party in the 70s. And his personal life has drawn a lot of criticism: he has been married several times, abandoning different wives and children. In Thailand, laws that prevent offences against the monarchy have been used to silence republican opposition. That’s why Thai socialist Giles ji Ungpakorn, who we’ve linked to before, lives in exile in Britain: he faces charges for criticising the monarchy at home. However, the Crown Prince has gone even further than that. In divorce proceedings, he accused a former wife of being totally responsible for the breakdown of their relationship, and she couldn’t answer back for fear of contravening the law!

It’s virtually certain that although crushed militarily for now the Red Shirt movement will re-emerge, quite possible greatly radicalised by this show of state violence. The fact of the matter is that the crackdown is a hollow victory for the Thai elite, for instead of taking any steps to resolve the contradictions at the heart of Thai society, their actions have only heightened them. The future of Thailand as a country is highly uncertain.

A protester shot by government snipers

Since we last reported on the situation a couple of days ago, the standoff between pro-democracy protesters and the unelected government in Thailand has escalated dramatically.

Troops, acting under orders from Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, have begun firing live ammunition on the protest camp in the middle of the capital Bangkok. At least three people have been killed, including two unarmed photographers. Military officer turned Red Shirt leader Seh Daeng, who we previously featured footage of, is also reported to be in a critical condition after being attacked by snipers.

Bangkok is reportedly a warzone, with protesters struggling to fight back against advancing government troops with improvised weapons, including bamboo staves, golf clubs and homemade rockets. Below there’s some footage:

There’s also reports of clashes in other parts of the country. The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), the Red Shirts official name, has issued the following statement:

“1. The Government must stop the use of force, cease fire and immediately withdraw troops back to barracks. The Government must end the State of Emergency which has been an excuse to kill citizens.
2. Parliament should be dissolved immediately, and Abhisit and Deputy Sutep must step down from public office since they have no legitimacy.
3. Those responsible for the violence, the assassination attempt against Seh Daeng, and the killings of at least two civilians and numerous injuries, must face the justice system, just like the UDD leaders will do because of Government instigated charges.
If the Government does not accept these demands, the situation in Bangkok and other parts of the country will be extremely serious.”

There is already a civil war situation.

The Red Shirts are made up overwhelmingly of the poorest people from the Thai urban and rural working class. They are protesting the fact that the Thai army, at the behest of the aristocratic and business elite, and with the complicity of the King (who’s the richest monarch in the world), overthrew a democratically elected government in 2006. Although far from perfect, that government had won the support of the poor by carrying out some wealth redistribution and instituting the country’s first universal healthcare scheme. These actions angered the rich, who had it overthrown, and ultimately replaced with the current government, under Eton educated Abhisit.

Protester fires a homemade rocket in defence of their camp from advancing troops

The Red Shirts’ demand was simple: they wanted Abhisit to dissolve parliament and call immediate elections, so that Thailand could have a democratically elected government. However, if the Thai government wants to push its conflict with the Red Shirt movement, which has proved powerful enough to put hundreds of thousands of poor people in the street, to the point of civil war, then it’s likely the situation could spiral out of control. The majority of Thais who live in poverty are sick of the exploitation and domination of the traditional elite, who today once again are using the force of the military to try and crush them.

Update: Reports now of up to 50 people murdered by the troops firing indiscriminately at protesters. Those shot include reporters, a paramedic, and a 10 year old boy, who is in critical condition. Possibly hundreds of injured.

The acquiescence of the King in the state violence is pushing more and more Red Shirts towards a republican position.

After the break, I’ve added images from Giles ji Ungpakorn’s blog, showing the results of the government attacks, some of which could be a bit disturbing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Protest camps in the Thai capital Bangkok are under a full scale siege by the army, as the unelected government has declared that the pro-democracy demonstrators must disperse today or face the cutting off of food and water supplies.

As Leftfield has extensively reported, there’s been a standoff on the streets between the forces of the Thai government and the National Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, known as the Red Shirts for the colour they wear, since they established their camps on March 14th. The Red Shirts argue that the current government is illegitimate, having come to power on the back of a military coup. The coup displaced a government which, although far from perfect, had won the support of the poor by measures of wealth redistribution and establishing Thailand’s first ever system of national healthcare.

The aim of the protests was to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (who was in the same year at Eton as Boris Johnson, and the year above David Cameron) to resign. They demand immediate new elections, an end to government censorship of opposition TV stations and websites, and the government officials responsible for the deaths of protesters in violent crackdowns to be brought to justice.

It appeared the situation had been resolved last week when the PM made his first attempt at a compromise: to hold early elections in November. The Red Shirts responded positively to this offer, stating they were happy to enter negotiations with the government. However, wisely they opted not to trust the government completely. They demanded the government stop blocking their sites and allow their TV station to return to the air. Crucially they also demanded that a firm date for the dissolution of parliament was set by the electoral commission, rather than a vague promise by the PM, which he could easily go back on once the protesters had dispersed (a prediction which has proved prescient since). They also demanded that the deputy PM, Suthep Thaugsuban, should give himself up for trial for the deaths of protesters on the streets, something the government could not stomach.

The government’s agenda was clearly about clearing the protesters, who were overwhelmingly the urban and rural poor, off the streets of Bangkok’s shopping district, and getting business back to usual. When they realised that they had not been able to buy off the Thai workers, they went ballistic, proving the government was never serious about its proposed plan for resolving the situation.

Thai PM, and schoolmate of David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Abhisit Vejjajiva

Abhisit has now announced that he has cancelled his offer, and has set a deadline for today for the Red Shirts to disperse. Last week it looked as if he had skillfully managed to defuse the opposition to his rule, and with it the revolutionary potential represented by thousands of poor people permanently occupying the streets. Now it looks like he has thrown that victory away, and the situation is being pushed towards breaking point.

The army has begun to surround the protest camps with troops and razor wire. They have vowed to begin cutting off supplies of food, water and electricity.

“This is a full-scale measure to limit the freedom of protesters and to close down the area 100%, starting at midnight,” said Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

One of the Red Shirt leaders, Weng Tojirakarn, responded: “The prime minister must not threaten us and must not disperse us. If he wants more deaths, so be it. I don’t.”

Leftfield will bring you updates on the situation as we get them.

Update: It’s being reported that the army have put off the plan to cut off food and water. The camps are in the middle of the Thai shopping district, also home to several luxury hotels.  Apparently, the government hadn’t considered that turning off the water to this area would affect some of their own supporters in the bourgeois classes. D’oh!

“On cutting off water supplies and power, we decided that the protesters will be less affected than residents, so we have postponed it for now,” said Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

Update, Thurs 13th: The government is reported to be moving armoured personnel carriers and snipers with live ammunition into position around the protest camp.

Red Shirt spokesman Nattawut Saikua, told reporters that “We have made a decision to hold our ground here to call for justice for our people. We are going to stay here no matter what happens.”

Bonus: This piece by Giles ji Ungpakorn, a Thai socialist living in exile since being charged with criticising the monarchy, outlines what the Red Shirt movement should do next. Although it was written before the compromise position began to unravel, its suggestions are still good ones.

Thailand's right wing Yellow Shirts are calling for martial law

As Leftfield has already reported, the centre of the Thai capital Bangkok has been locked down for weeks now, as hundreds of thousands of Thais, mostly from the rural and urban poor, have camped out in mass protests. The Red Shirts, as they are known, demand the immediate dissolution of parliament, and fresh elections. The current government of Thailand has never been elected, and the last elected government was deposed in a military coup.

The current government of Abhisit Vajjajjiva last weekend rejected a peace offer from the protesters that would have given him 30 days to dissolve parliament and 60 days after that to hold new elections. Protest leaders emphasised that they wanted to try and save lives and prevent violence with the compromise. The PM’s reaction was to begin preparations for a military crackdown to try and resolve the crisis, which has seen clashes throughout the capital over the course of this week.

Now, the right wing, pro-monarchy and pro-military movement, the yellow shirts, have re-emerged calling for the Red Shirts to be crushed. Yellow Shirt leaders called for martial law, and the military to take action on its own if the government does not, clearly paving the way for another military intervention in politics. The Yellow Shirts’ own violent protests in 2006 helped pave the way for the military coup that installed the present government. They represent the business and bureaucratic elite, and fundamentally oppose new elections because they know the majority of Thais, who live in poverty, would not choose a government to their liking.

Red Shirt protests have been much bigger than the Yellow Shirts'

And Thailand’s ailing King Bhumibol Adulyade (the world’s longest reining monarch) has also spoken to the nation for the first time, calling on all Thais to “perform their duties strictly and honestly.” When you take this alongside the fact that the government has tried to justify its violence against unarmed protesters on the basis that they are “republicans” (which is not even true in many cases), the stage seems set for a final confrontation between the mass of the people and traditional elite, centred on urban businesses, the nobility and the monarchy.

A key argument deployed by the government as to why they won’t dissolve parliament is that they need time to deal with the economy, and pass a new budget to support the economy. In other words, the government is determined to make ordinary people pay for the crisis caused globally by financial capitalists, just like here and across Europe. The difference in Thailand is that the poor are organised and in the streets. Although their demand is simple, a return to democracy, the stage is set for a much bigger class confrontation which will shape the whole future of the country. The whole world could learn a lesson from the way ordinary Thais have got into the streets to stand up for their rights, and we’ll watch with interest to see if the Red Shirts can maintain their fortified position, and hold off the coming military crackdown.

The Thai capital is filled with protesters

As Leftfield has already reported, Thailand is currently in the grip of a political crisis as hundreds of thousands of some of the nation’s poorest are on the streets demanding democracy.

The Red Shirt movement demands the immediate dissolution of parliament and the calling of new elections. The current government was installed in a military coup in 2006. The coup overthrew Thailand’s first government to install a national health system for all, and was constantly attacked by the elite for using state funds to help the poor.

For weeks now the Thai rural and urban poor have been engaged in a rolling campaign of non-violent campaign of protest demanding a return to democracy. The response of government has been to crack down, with a massive wave of censorship taking TV stations off the air and websites off the internet. This weekend at least 21 people were killed by government forces, including a Japanese cameraman.

This morning Red Shirts carried coffins through the streets of Bangkok, at least some of which contained the bodies of killed protesters. They have declared they will “not negotiate with the murderers in government.” They control key streets in the city, and have let it be known they will stand firm against attempts to move them by the police or military. They are braced for state violence after the government branded them “terrorists.”

Carrying coffins of killed protesters through the streets

The current Thai government is backed by the Royal elite in Thailand, the military, and a minority of the population, mainly the small middle class and wealthy. The Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was educated at Eton and Oxford.

Unlike the Red Shirts, who have protested peacefully, the government’s supporters, who wear Yellow Shirts, have previously used violence and weapons. Despite this, they have received support from the Liberal International, the global grouping of liberal parties of which the Lib Dems are a member.

The ironically named Democrat Party which holds power in Thailand is afraid of holding new elections because they know their anti-poor policies would almost certainly lose. The poor people of Thailand are on the streets demanding democracy and an end to dictatorial rule by the country’s aristocratic/military elite, proudly calling themselves “serfs.”

For updates on the situation in Thailand, check out the blog of Thai socialist Giles Ji Ungpakorn, who’s currently living in exile in the UK. There’s also a free download available there of his book ‘A Coup for the Rich.’ He’s got some useful links as well, although some are currently down, possibly due to Thai government censorship. This just makes it all the more important that people around the world spread the word about what’s happening.

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!