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.

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.

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…

The reality of Cambodian socialism was brutal, but it was made brutal by the forces of reaction sponsored by The West and its allies. For all its flaws, real Cambodian socialism did exist, if not in the halls of ministries of Phnom Penh, it existed in its purest form through the economy of solidarity. What else other than communism or socialism can we call a communal and social construction project alongside the revolutionary will to discard the previous system?

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.

Som are the new Salim. How the self-described progressive movement in Thailand fell into the same political space as the reactionaries of old.

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.