English Archive

Cancel RIMPAC

Cancel RIMPAC

RIMPAC, the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, is hosted by the U.S. Navy with 29 participant countries, including Thailand and Israel. RIMPAC masquerades as a cooperative effort among nations to enhance maritime security and interoperability. However, its true purpose is to assert Western imperialist dominance over the Asia-Pacific region under the guise of military cooperation.

The Labour of Love [EN/TH]

The Labour of Love [EN/TH]

The search for love, dating, is often described as a marketplace, another market where commodities are bought, sold and traded. Love, then, becomes just another commodity to be fetishised. How can we find love under the capitalist patriarchal system and more importantly how can that love ever be reciprocal?

การออกเดท การตามหารักมักถูกนิยามว่าเหมือนเป็นตลาด สถานที่อีกแห่งที่มีสินค้าให้ซื้อ ขาย แลกเปลี่ยน ความรักนั้นกลายเป็นสินค้าอีกชิ้นให้ใคร่หา แต่เราจะหาความรักภายใต้ระบบทุนนิยมชายเป็นใหญ่ได้อย่างไร หนักกว่านั้น ความรักที่เรามีจะเอื้อต่อกันและกันได้อย่างไร?

Kafka & Mass Politics at Chang Wattana

Kafka & Mass Politics at Chang Wattana

The modern Muang system pervades 21st-century Thailand. The bureaucratic imperial castle of Chang Wattana oversees its regional Muangs in the provinces. The gates to the palace of paperwork are guarded by disinterested receptionists sipping from their Amazon ice coffee cups. They form the same system that prevents farmers from owning their land and prevents the ascension of democratically elected governments. The secretaries themselves, like Kafka’s bureaucrats, hold no actual power, you can not get angry at them, just frustrated at the system that lurks behind them.

The Death Of Class Politics – Move Forward

The Death Of Class Politics – Move Forward

Move Forward Party’s success in the election is a disaster for class-based politics in Thailand. They have achieved precisely what the capitalist elite have dreamed of for decades; to push Thailand away from the class-conscious politics of the 2000s/2010s, and towards a politics of aesthetics. Finally, Thailand has a respectable party for the middle class, one capable of defeating the red shirts.

To Stop Smog Pollution: Empower the Farmers

To Stop Smog Pollution: Empower the Farmers

During the past two decades, the north of Thailand has been turned into a corn factory farm, pouring toxic smog into the sky. Government, business and environmental groups offer few solutions. The only way to free us from this poison cloud is to empower farmers, to give them more autonomy and bargaining power against monopolies in the agricultural industry. 

Periphery, Core & Reconciliation

Periphery, Core & Reconciliation

Here, we sit on the event horizon between core and periphery, if there is anywhere it can be reconciled, surely it must be here. Not just Thailand, but other regions that fall into the same global economic bracket of the middle-income trap. Can there be any interaction between the periphery and the core?

A Call For Spiritual Leftism

A Call For Spiritual Leftism

Spirituality provided us answers to these questions on suffering, which in a sense eased it. We are still suffering, the grounds on which we lay our pain are largely claimed by science and doctrinal organised religion– more often than not organised around the capital and capitalist state. Scientists tell us our bodies are sick, or our minds are mentally ill. While the monks tell us to devote ourselves to doctrine. Indeed, scientists follow a (supposedly secular) doctrine of their own.  

A Short History of LAWAN – Malaysia

A Short History of LAWAN – Malaysia

The Lawan (to fight or oppose) Protests will be remembered by many in Malaysia as a critical voice of dissent during this tumultuous period of our history. Its capacity to mobilise and execute so many actions in such a short period of time is certainly remarkable. More so, is the engagement and participation that was engendered from outside activist circles. Its demobilisation and possible demise should also be understood from the perspective of wider failures within progressive and left movements. 

UBI The Highest Stage of Imperialism

UBI The Highest Stage of Imperialism

The concept of Universal Basic Income was designed by global north economists for global north economies and cannot be applied to the global south. The principles of UBI mean that it pays people in the global north to consume while workers in the global south continue to suffer to produce the north’s commodities. 

In Remembrance of Kru Krong Chandavong

In Remembrance of Kru Krong Chandavong

May is our month of memory. Beginning with International Workers’ Day, it marches past several anniversaries—the gunning down of Jit Phumisak on the 5th, the Rajprasong crackdown on Red Shirt protesters in mid-May, the 2014 coup on the 22th—only to end with the anniversary of the execution of schoolteacher-turned-politician Krong Chandavong in 1961 on the orders of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat. Here, a poetic ode to Chandavong is translated on the anniversary of his death.

ความแปลกแยก Alienation [TH/EN]

ความแปลกแยก Alienation [TH/EN]

มาร์กซ์กล่าวไว้ว่าแรงงานทั้งปวงล้วนแปลกแยก (Alienated) นั่นเป็นสาเหตุว่าทำไมคุณถึงรู้สึกหดหู่ตลอดเวลา และ นั่นไม่ใช่ความผิดของคุณ จะว่าเป็นโชคร้ายก็ได้นะ แต่คุณต้องเป็นคนหนึ่งที่แก้ไขมัน We have to become aware of our alienation, gain alienation consciousness, so as to fight it with solidarity and comradeship. Caring for others, for no other reason than we would hope someone else cares for us.

Thaksin

Thaksin

Thaksin Shinawatra defined Thai politics for a generation and forever reshaped it. Somehow, this elite capitalist billionaire became the unquestioned champion for a destitute peasantry. Thaksin’s politics defied left-right categorisations, creating an economic miracle, lifting millions out of poverty while further developing the very same mechanisms of capital that had placed them in said destitution.

No Sweat

No Sweat

In the late ’90s, the horrors of sweatshops became a focal point of concern in the global North. However, in the past two decades, they’ve faded from public attention. We spoke to No Sweat, a campaign to abolish sweatshops, about labour organising, campaigning, consumer culture and approaches to tackling the global North-South wealth divide. 

Proletarian Revolution In The Global North Is Impossible

Proletarian Revolution In The Global North Is Impossible

There is virtually no material production in the north, only service capital— debt and foreign holdings. The material existence of the northern proletariat is dependent on global south labour and continued material extraction. This raises the question of whether successful proletarian revolutions in the north are even remotely plausible.

Was Thailand Colonised?

Was Thailand Colonised?

Thailand often joins a small list of ‘third world’ or ‘global south’ countries, along with Ethiopia and Afghanistan, that escaped the horrors of European colonisation. However, as with the aforementioned states, the claim is somewhat dubious. In reality, Siam was ‘all but’ colonised starting in the late 19th century and well into the 20th century.

Music For Life – Revisited

Music For Life – Revisited

Ties between many of the original and most influential radical folk artists and their anti-capitalist beginnings seem to have frayed long ago. In an exercise of separating art from artist, leftists today must analyze the troubling messages espoused by many of these artists during the tumultuous political period from 2008-2014.

Insurgency In Yangon – Interview

Insurgency In Yangon – Interview

We spoke to Myo Min, an ethnic Rohingya, Din Deng contributor, activist and Yangon resident about the current situation in the former capital city on the eve of war. In the past few months an underground insurgency has grown in the city and life for it’s residents has become increasingly dangerous, although many are determined to aid the movement against the military junta.

Thalugaz Interview

Thalugaz Interview

For the past few weeks, there have been constant violent protests in the Din Daeng neighbourhood of Bangkok. Din Daeng is an extremely deprived area of the capital, particularly after strict lockdowns in the latest wave of the Covid pandemic were implemented with virtually no economic assistance. Since mid-august, predominantly young people have been fighting the police with improvised weapons like fireworks, small homemade bombs, slingshots and Molotov cocktails.

Are protests in Thailand a colour revolution? No

Are protests in Thailand a colour revolution? No

Every time I find a new leftist media outlet I always type Thailand in the search bar to see if there’s been any coverage. More often than not, there’s nothing, but on the rare occasion that Thailand does appear, it’s typically an article denouncing the Thai protest movement at large as a ‘colour revolution’. Often this claim is made with little to no explanation as to what a ‘colour revolution’ is in the opinion of the writers.

The Real Face of Thai Feudalism Today TLDR – Part I

The Real Face of Thai Feudalism Today TLDR – Part I

The purpose of the book was to expose how the plight of the rural Thai peasant in the 1950’s was a vestige rooted in the old feudal system, laying bare its horrors and its exploitative framework. Jit wrote this book as an antagonistic rebuttal against the revisionist history of the ruling classes taught to most Thai’s at the time (and still today), which typically depicts a utopian agrarian past, rather than the brutal exploitative reality. 

No One Cares – Workers Camps – Interview

No One Cares – Workers Camps – Interview

No One Cares – Bangkok is a horizontally organised volunteer group made up of around 20 people. No One Cares was recently formed during the second lockdown in Thailand. They provide emergency food and medical aid to temporary worker camps in Bangkok, which have been sealed shut since the imposition of the latest lockdown. We spoke with Dion, an activist and coordinator for the group.

Euro-Fascism with Thai Characteristics

Euro-Fascism with Thai Characteristics

In the 1930s, Thailand began a project of mass homogeneity based on western Euro-Fascism. This project was refined by the monarchy in the 1950s, leading to a reactionary consensus lasting a half-century. However, many elements in the recent protest movement, so far, fail to recognise their own deep-seated Euro-fascist tendencies when challenging the contemporary Thai state.

Royalist Realism & Lèse-Majesté

Royalist Realism & Lèse-Majesté

The Lèse-Majesté law, also known as Article 112 in Thailand, forbids any criticism of the monarchy in the kingdom under punishment of imprisonment. Even those far removed from the machinations of Thai politics are vaguely aware of this law. In an era where basic freedom of speech is held as sacrosanct, this law is globally recognised as being bizarre and archaic, and hardly used for anything other than protecting an already seemingly beloved institution.

รัฐประหารในพม่า (Burma coup)

รัฐประหารในพม่า (Burma coup)

So the million dollar question regarding the coup is: Why now? That’s what’s confusing so many Burma watchers.

คำถามโลกแตกเกี่ยวกับการรัฐประหารครั้งนี้ก็คือ ทำไมเป็นตอนนี้?  คำถามนี้กวนใจผู้ติดตามสถานการณ์ในพม่าตอนนี้อย่างยิ่ง

Haji Sulong – Patani’s Reformer, Martyr and Father

Haji Sulong – Patani’s Reformer, Martyr and Father

The name Haji Sulong is little known in Thailand proper, despite being considered a hero and the founding father of the modern separatist movement in Thailand’s deep south ‘Patani’ region. Little is known outside the region about the conflict that erupted following his death, showing just how localised a civil war can be. This nescience is embodied in Haji Sulong, a man who lived an extraordinary life, was wildly influential and yet almost totally unknown to Thai society at large. 

Thai Imperialism and Colonisation

Thai Imperialism and Colonisation

An examination of Thailand’s internal ‘auto-imperialism’, how the state works to capture populations on the fringes of the kingdom and put them to use for the nation’s imperial core. Exploring the roots, history and present-day effects of Thai ‘auto-imperialism’.

State Racism in Thailand: Capitalism, China, and Ultranationalism

State Racism in Thailand: Capitalism, China, and Ultranationalism

If in the United States, the police are shown to uphold systemic racism, what are some sources and examples of systemic racism in Thailand? Here Capitalism leads to the exploitation of migrant workers, the State alters attitudes towards Chinese people due to National Agenda changes, and the country’s history of Fascism…

Music For Life – A New Generation Rises

Music For Life – A New Generation Rises

The soft guitar and haunting vocals ring out: “He died in the outskirts of a jungle. His red blood spilled all over Isaan soil. It’s red colour will last forever. He died worthless, but his name lives on. People asked about him, craving to know more about Jit Phumisak. A philosopher and author who lit the candle for common people.”
How leftist Thai folk radicalised a generation and continues to inspire today.

Nationalism & Anti-Statehood In Thailand

Nationalism & Anti-Statehood In Thailand

Ceaseless doses of daily nationalism serve one purpose, to enforce the Thai identity and link it to the state, to make being Thai part of the Thai national state. This grand plan, however, did not come out of nowhere. It is, in fact, a direct response and attack on the long history of anti statehood found inside of Thailand’s borders.