In this second article, we will outline the different periods in Tai history, beginning in the ‘primitive communism era’ and concluding in the formation of the Saktina state, examining how they developed through Jit’s understanding of historical materialism.

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. 

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.

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.

We spoke to Noor Netusha Nusaybah, a Malaysian Patani historian, about how today’s insurgency is connected and shaped by its post-WWII roots, which are often shrouded in misunderstandings, conflicting or competing narratives and secrecy. 

Every year, for 2-3 months, the entire Northern region of Thailand, Laos and Burma, suffocate under smoke. This annual climate apocalypse is a relatively new phenomenon, beginning around 20-30 years ago and seemingly increasing in intensity. The cause, in our opinion, is a conspiracy, a product of decades-long interplay between state and capital, the birthing of mass agribusiness, monopolisation of markets, of coups, of massacres in the streets and of networks of dark finance and patronage.

LONG READ – Seismologists often shy away from predictions, likewise here, what the next earthquake will bring is near impossible to foresee. Not to disavow us of any agency, but when standing back and witnessing the scale and depth of these reactionary formations it can be daunting to imagine anything else. The Red Shirts imagined something else, as did the peasants of the Farmers Federation and the Communist Party. What’s important is to recognise this near-invisible yet ubiquitous power of reactionary violence, so as to brace ourselves for the inevitable. 

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.