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Another instance of neo-conservative revanchist politics on the part of ex-Marxist, ex-communist renegades? I've seen ex-communist involvement with the Yellow Shirt linked Democrat party mentioned by Giles Ji Ungpakorn as well. Red and Yellow: Thailand's Future in Check and Balance Philip J. Cunningham "Meanwhile the yellow ideology, if such a thing can be said to exist, also appropriates tropes and fault lines from past eras, especially the identity politics of the Thai establishment at the height of the Cold War when being “red”, which in those days meant communism, was posited as being unThai and antithetical to tradition. Ironically the seemingly pro-elite yellow shirt movement enjoys the support of many ex-communists with significant links to northeast Thailand and self-made men and woman of ordinary circumstances. "The core leaders of the yellow shirts are not that different from the core leaders of the reds, cut from the same generation of upwardly mobile, university-educated urban Thais who came of age during the violent and disruptive decade of the 1970’s when the state battled with the CPT for the hearts and minds of the Thai people. The basic similarities between the two camps are masked and their differences accentuated because they wear opposing colors and manipulate opposing tropes. "Hidebound, if not reactionary, rhetoric about protecting the establishment and preserving a timeless traditional status quo has been paired with outrageous acts of rebellion, raising the question of which speaks louder, action or words? "Yellow shirts claim to uphold the sanctity of state, religion and monarchy, which implies that people need to know their place and know the rules of traditional society, yet they have been as defiant, or more defiant, than the reds in staging bold acts of civil disobedience–the outrageous but peaceful and smoothly executed November 2008 takeover of Thailand’s international airport to pressure Thaksin’s brother-in-law to step down as premier in being a case in point. "On the other hand, the yellow shirts, in part due to their close association with the lay Buddhist order Santi Asoke, and in part due to their enthusiastic embrace of the “pho-phiang” or “Sufficiency” philosophy popularized by the king, offer a compelling vision of a calm, harmonious society at a time when Thailand is being rocked by the shifting tides of global capitalism and foreign influence. In this sense, the yellows, while ostensibly traditionalists, are picking up where the Thai communists left off in the fight for sovereignty and self-rule in the face of American imperialism and global capital." As suspected, at the top this is a bitter faction fight within the Thai bourgeoisie, or "oligarchs", to use the now popular alias for big capitalists these days. This has produced a crisis of the State institutions and an opening for the masses of peasants and poorer workers. The Shinawatra party strikes me as nothing so much as a Thai FDR-New Deal type party of conservative reform or "passive revolution". This might explain why imperialism doesn't pick clear sides in the struggle. What they want is an end to the chronic political instability. Complete article http://www.japanfocus.org/-Philip_J_-Cunningham/3786 Also, background on "The rise and fall of the Communist Party of Thailand" http://links.org.au/node/1247 -Matt ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
