Thai protestors smash PM's car windows

[Stranger Than Paradise]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7989023.stm

There's a lot of these videos about this event. The BBC are calling the protestors anti-government. Does anyone know more about these protests?

[Iuvo]

I grew up in Thailand. The protests aren't the kind of protest you are thinking (not a revolution). They trace back to a couple years ago when the PM was ousted due to corruption charges (tax evasion and other things that have to do with money). The red shirts support the old PM (who had social programs such as single payer health care and other distribution of wealth, but also had a leaning towards anti-monarchy [though he wouldn't admit it]) and the yellow shirts are anti-Thaksin (ousted PM) and his party. Thaksin came from the town I grew up in and he has overwhelming support from the poor. However, the yellow shirts claim that the poor are easily bought during elections (which they are, and Thaksin is a very rich man) and they are also uneducated and stupid and shouldn't be given the right to vote (typical bouguois). So, there is a huge opposition: the red shirts for Thaksin, outraged that the person they voted for (and the party they voted for) has been forced to resign several times (though, of course, the red shirts are backed by Thaksin money) and the yellow shirts outraged by Thaksins tax increases on the rich, his mild corruption (compared to other PMs and administrations, he isn't that corrupt and was the best damn PM ever) and his anti-monarch leaning. The yellow shirts are backed by the rich businessmen and some of the upper class (though people of all classes are on both sides). In Thailand the king is semi-divine and is considered the father of the nation (quite big-brother like, actually, if you live there you see his picture everywhere).

So after several protests by the yellow shirts (large scale protests), Thaksin was ousted, then a new election happened and Thaksin's party was reelected, then forced to resign, then reelected again (all different times the same party was elected, just a different PM, backed by the same people). This final time a person that isn't Thaksin backed so the red shirts start violently protesting (Thaksin, of course, paying people to go... my aunt who lives in Thailand was payed 1000 baht to protest. She's pro-Thaksin anyways, so I guess she didn't have a problem with the extra cash).

That's a very short summary of the hole thing, skipping how the monarchy is involved and all that, but it's not a marxist revolution. People in Thailand don't read western philosophy (humanities is looked down upon).

[PRC-UTE]

[Moved to politics]

[RedHal]

As corrupt as Thaksin is, he actually brings real hope for the poor of Thailand, unlike that chump Obama.

[BobKKKindle$]

As corrupt as Thaksin is, he actually brings real hope for the poor of Thailand, unlike that chump Obama.

Thaksin, despite being corrupt, and a bourgeois political leader, has pursued reforms that have allowed for major improvements in the conditions and opportunities of the most destitute sections of Thai society - he implemented a universal healthcare program during his term of office, for example. Many of those who are involved in the protests, including Giles Ji Ungpakorn, who was forced to flee to Britain after the coup last December, do not see themselves as supporters of Thaksin, due to his neo-liberal policies and authoritarian tendencies, but acknowledge that the protest movement is rooted in the working class and represents a vital opening for socialists who want to engage with Thai workers and sweep aside the bourgeois leadership as the first step towards the creation of a genuinely radical and democratic opposition. I think recent events in Thailand really confirm one of Lenin's most important observations - that revolutionaries shouldn't expect revolts against capitalism to take the form of movements that are "pure" in their social composition and political aims, because we often find that, in the absence of a revolutionary leadership, and a history of revolutionary struggle, workers turn towards the most visible forms of resistance that are available when they feel the need to voice their opposition and take action against the status quo, which, in Thailand, as in other countries, often means movements that are linked to a section of the bourgeoisie. This means that revolutionaries need to be part of these movements so that we can prove that we are the ones who consistently fight for the interests of the oppressed, through our arguments, and the strategies we adopt, even if this means fighting alongside bourgeois leaders for some period of time.

[Iuvo]

Quite rightly so too. We must sometimes compromise in order to advance our cause. Sometimes the right-wing are endorsing things that are advancing our cause, and they don't know it (like technology, for example).