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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2010
World in View
Thailand
by Gerry Emmett
The "Red Shirts" protest movement in Thailand occupied parts of the capital and dozens were killed and injured in clashes with security forces, causing a political crisis. The government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, once a "reformer" himself, faces the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) which is led by billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In that regard it is a struggle among different elements of the Thai ruling class.
However, many poorer people have been active as "Red Shirts." Thailand is a country of gross inequalities, with a growing working class in auto and other industries. Workers and peasants have been hit especially hard by the world economic crisis. Their occupation of the tony Ratchaprasong shopping district is heavily symbolic.
Both Thaksin and Abhisit have shown that they do not have the interests of poor workers and peasants at heart. The potential does exist for the situation to go beyond their control, as more of the poorest sections of the Thai people are drawn into the continuing protests. When this began to happen a year ago, Thaksin and the UDD called off protests. The Thai people confront a world stage of state-capitalism, represented in both factions of the ruling class, and ultimately will need to go beyond that perspective to articulate their independence.
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