Thailand. Roots of Conflict PDF
Preview Thailand. Roots of Conflict
1MB ROOTS OF CONFLICT EDITED BY ANDREW TURTON JONATHAN FAST MALCOLM CALDWELL Spokesman First published in 1978 by Spokesman Bertrand Russell House Gamble Street, Nottingham NG7 4ET Cloth ISBN 0 85124 238 3 Paper ISBN 0 85124 239 1 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are strictly reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission. © The Journal of Contemporary Asia The editors would like to thank the Journal of Contemporary Asia for permission to reproduce articles contained in Volume 8 Number 1 of that journal Printed by the Russell Press Ltd., Nottingham Contents Preface 1 Map 3 Thailand and Imperialist Strategy in the 1980s Malcolm Caldwell 5 The Socio-Economic Formation of Modern Thailand David Elliott 21 ‘Cycles’ of Class Struggle in Thailand Peter F. Bell 5 1 Causes and Consequences of the October ’7 6 Coup Marian Mallet 80 The Current Situation in the Thai Countryside Andrew Turton 104 History and Policy of the Communist Party of Thailand Patrice de Beer 1 43 Appendix 1 A brief introduction to the history of the Communist Party of Thailand (1942-1977) 159 Appendix 2 Life in the Thai liberated zones by Chontira Satayawatana 169 Appendix 3 Statement in commemmoration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Thailand by Mitr Samanand, First Secretary-General of the CPT 177 Appendix 4 Interview with the President of the northern region, Peasants Federation of Thailand — September 1976 184 Appendix 5 The war in southern Thailand by Ruang Kao 1 88 1 Preface Thailand is in crisis. Momentum is gathering towards full-scale civil war. A level of class struggle has been reached almost unimaginable until a few years ago when the effects of the integration of Thailand into the world capitalist economy since the 1950s began to take form. The writings of numerous academics, many of them Cold War and then counter-insurgency advisers, technocrats in the service of multi- national corporations, international agencies, and Western governments, have hardly prepared us for what is now happening. The Thai people have begun to shape their own destiny. A new generation of Thai scholars and writers has emerged deeply committed to the people's cause, to the freeing of their country from imperialist domination, and to the autonomous development of their country, economically, socially and culturally. The authors of the essays in this volume acknowledge their debt to these inspiring pioneers, and salute the brave struggles of the Thai people, to whom this work is dedicated in a spirit of international co-operation and solidarity. The contributors to this volume have undertaken some first steps towards the analysis of economic, political and ideological aspects of Thai society in the new internal and international conjuncture following renewed reactionary offensives signalled by the bloody October 1976 coup d'etat. The undertaking has important implications for political strategy; it also contributes to the urgent, and hitherto relatively neglected, task of raising and discussing theoretical questions. Thailand offers an instance of a singular non-colonial relation with imperialism since the mid-nineteenth century. This relation and its effects are considered — with varying emphasis and interpretation — by all contributors. Together they stress the unity of imperialist goals and forms of domination: economic, political, military- strategic, and cultural. They show the inextricable bonds which tie the various sectors and fractions of Thai ruling and capitalist classes to the transnational structures of imperialism. They demonstrate that, as one author put it,. Thailand offers an example of the formulation of imperialist strategies par excellence. The development of social classes is a dominant theme: economic determinants, questions of political representation, and ideology. This development is traced from the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the decades after 1940, and more especially from the beginnings of US military occupation in 1962 and the crucial period following the October uprising of 1973. Special priority is given to the overwhelmingly important rural sector: structures of exploitation, problems of landlessness, tenancy, indebtedness; forms of peasant struggle and the student- 2 peasant-worker alliance. Current government suppression operations are inevitably harshest in the countryside, especially in the peninsular south which has taken on a new strategic importance as the combined forces of imperialism attempt to ensure a new line of defence across the Kra Isthmus. Thai ruling circles understand well that they cannot survive without massive economic and military support from their imperialist overlords. But these circles themselves are riven with contradictions and beset by crippling problems, quite apart from the growing insurgency: the palace is no longer the unifying institution of earlier years; military and bureaucratic fractions multiply and cannot restrain their old habits of plunder, corruption, and mutual backstabbing. Thai capital is in flight to Hong Kong, Singapore and other havens; foreign investors, though lured by devices which reinforce the misery of Thai workers and peasants, look uneasily at the political future, and are loath to risk their capital; unemployment increases and the consumer price index of essential goods spirals upward; there are record trade deficits, declining production, balance of payments difficulties, increased foreign debts. Torn between the conflicting demands of urgent social, economic and political reform on the one hand, and political suppression, "stability", on the other, the latter path is desperately followed, bringing its own nemesis. It is in this situation that the people's resistance to the government, its policies and backers, goes from strength to strength. Armed opposition now pervades the greater part of the country, operating from large base areas in all regions of the country, and led by the Communist party of Thailand with the direct support of many hundreds of thousands of peasants, and a united democratic and patriotic front which allies members of numerous parties, organizations and classes. As the Thai people say: "The longer the sky suppresses, the stronger the land resists". The 1980s look set to be a truly revolutionary decade. J C HINA (dienbienphu' i NAN .AMPANO, (RANGOON LOEI UDON PHIT5 L HUt / north east UBOL KORAT Iayuthaya ANDAMAN BANGKOK ' KAMPUCHE SEA leUTAPAO SATTAKtP c5,J c 0 GULF OF PHNOM PENHl 9 . THAILAND HO CHI MINH CITY Inakorn (aSRITHAMMARAT International boundary Administrative boundary HATYAI 100 200 300 KILOMETRES 5 Thailand and Imperialist Strategy in the 1980’s Malcolm Caldwell* There are two compelling reasons — aside from whatever intrinsic fascination it may exert — ’for taking particular interest in Thailand from among the scores of third world countries. The first consists in the singular non-colonial form of articu- lation with imperialism that it has experienced since the mid -nineteenth century. The second, quite simply, is that Thailand is now the front line in the long, long implacable war to the death between the forces of Asian liberation and regeneration and an ageingbut still vicious, arrogant, obdurate, devious and dangerous imperialist enemy. The idiosyncratic historical experience provides us with a wealth of com- parative material and a readymade yardstick by which the better to evaluate the true impact of colonial rule upon Thailand’s neighbours; by the same token we may work on and with the assumption that the pre-capitalist, pre-impe.rialist, socio- economic structure of Thailand, comparatively better preserved for longer, must have left and continue to leave more relatively unsullied traces lending themselves to scrutiny in the search for clues to the elucidation of problematic areas in the theory of development,. and more particularly the Marxist branch of it. However, in this brief foreword to what follows I wish to concentrate upon the second of the two justifications for studying Thailand I gave above — its conjunctural promotion to the forefront of international strategic concerns. The two aspects are, of course, related. Had it not been for the historical diffusion and indirectness of imperialist dominance over Thailand, Washington would have experienced much greater difficulty in asserting its post-second world war ascen- dancy over the country. Once it had become virtually the HQ of United States activity in the South East Asian region, it was inevitable that Thailand would sooner or later emerge as a vulnerable salient, exposed by erosion of the imperialist position elsewhere — in effect, now, all around it. The readiness of the Thai elite to accept the risks and opprobrium of identifying with and serving American purposes regionally and domestically can, again, be explained at least in part by its own peculiar genealogy and genesis. It is upon these interlocking strands of the Thai experience that I enlarge in what follows. Thailand and the Inter-war Crisis Before the first world war, Britain had been slowly losing ground to foreign com- petition in the field of international trade. However, two factors put a brake upon The following article is adapted from the Introduction by Malcolm Caldwell to David Elliott’s book Thailand: Origins of Military Rule, published by Zed Press, price £5.95, available from 57 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DN. *Malcolm Caldwell teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
The list of books you might like
