Communist Party of Thailand

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The Communist Party of Thailand (KPT, พรรค คอมมิวนิสต์ แห่ง ประเทศไทย , RTGS : Phak Khommionit haeng Prathet Thai, abbreviated พ ค ท.) Was a Marxist-Leninist party in Thailand that was active between 1942 and the early 1990s , but only for one period was legal for three years (1946 to 1948). At their wedding, the party was the second largest communist party in Southeast Asia after the Vietnamese . At that time, the party was operating like a state within a state in parts of north , south and north-east Thailand .

Flag of the Communist Party of Thailand, which is identical to the flag of the Chinese Communist Party

History of the Communist Party of Thailand

Foundation and early years (1940s and 1950s)

The party was founded as the Communist Party of Siam on December 1, 1942 , but communist activities began as early as 1927. As early as 1933, the government enacted a law against communist activities, which was not so much against the then hardly existing communists as it was against judged progressive tendencies within the People's Party , which were also put under suspicion of communism. Initially spread among intellectuals and civil servants, especially among people of Chinese origin , in Bangkok , the number of members of the party grew slowly. The secret headquarters was in a traditional Thai wooden house on Si Phraya Street in Bangkok. During the Second World War , the KPT offered resolute resistance to the de facto occupation of Thailand by Japanese troops and the collaboration of the Thai government with them. Communist groups undertook social aid actions for workers on the one hand, and acts of disruption and sabotage on the other.

The Communist Party had good connections to the anti-Japanese Seri Thai movement , which ruled and legalized it after the resignation of the pro-Japanese Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram . Your weekly newspaper Mahachon ("The Masses"), which circulated underground from 1942, could appear openly from 1944 onwards. The anti-communist law was officially repealed in 1946. The party initially renounced the revolutionary struggle and decided to work through elections and unions. She helped found the Union of United Workers of Thailand , organized two strikes by rice mill workers during the economically difficult post-war period, as well as large demonstrations on May Day 1946 and 1947. After the 1947 coup it was banned again.

Under the influence of Thai communists who had fought in the Chinese Civil War and are now returning, from 1947 onwards she adopted the Maoist strategy of a country-based revolution. According to British intelligence, there were significantly fewer than 3,000 members nationwide in 1948. In February 1951, the KPT took part in the 2nd International Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Tuyen Quang . The regime acted increasingly repressive against the communists. In February 1952, numerous activists were arrested. Most of the rest fled to China, where they were trained at the Marxist-Leninist Institute in Beijing. By the time she returned to Thailand five years later, the KPT's activities came to a standstill.

The People's War (1960s)

During the first high phase of the Cold War , the CPT took part in an international meeting of the communist and workers' parties in Moscow , but during the subsequent drifting apart of the Soviet Union and China it stuck to China and ideologically followed Maoism. This was shown in the congratulatory address to the People's Republic of China on the occasion of its 15th anniversary. In 1961 the KPT confirmed its Maoist-influenced “rural strategy” at its 3rd Congress. It intended to "encircle" the cities from the countryside and committed itself to the armed struggle against the state. The KPT was increasingly able to benefit from the frustration of urban intellectuals in the face of the rigid military rule of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat , from the peasants' fears of the intensified market economy and from the resistance of people in the peripheral regions of Thailand to the forced linguistic and cultural centralization ( Thaiization ). She moved her headquarters from Bangkok to the thick forests of the Phu Phan Mountains in northeast Thailand . The daughter of the executed northeast Thai farmer leader Khrong Chandawong took on a leading role here. The provinces in the extreme south, where the CPT allied itself with the separatist efforts of the Muslim Malays , and the mountainous north, where it campaigned for the support of the so-called hill tribes Hmong , Yao and Lawa, became further centers of the decentralized actions of the KPT . In March 1962, the KPT opened a radio station called Voice of the People of Thailand , broadcasting from Kunming in southern China's Yunnan Province .

From 1961, the Thai government under Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat or Thanom Kittikachorn had allowed the United States' armed forces to station troops and use air bases for their war against North Vietnam and the Viet Cong . The Thai Independence Movement was formed in 1964 and the Patriotic Front of Thailand in 1965. As part of a popular front strategy, these addressed Thais who were not expressly communist, but patriotic and interested in national independence and who were therefore against American influence on Thailand. However, both were led by Thai communists living in exile in China. The front was to form an organizational triangle with the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army. It was backed by China and North Vietnam, in a sense in response to the Thai government's support for the American attacks on Vietnam. The government responded in late 1965 by establishing the Command for Operations to Combat Communists (CSOC; later renamed Command for Internal Security Operations, ISOC). This was assigned to the military, but also employed civilians. In addition to military measures, it also used political measures such as the fight against poverty in the northeast and anti-communist propaganda in order to minimize the attraction of the KPT to the rural population.

Armed clashes began in August 1965 after the party proclaimed an "era of armed struggle" on the Voice of the People of Thailand . The fighting began in Amphoe Na Kae , Nakhon Phanom Province , with an estimated force of around 1,200 fighters. Individual radical intellectuals joined the KPT, for example Jit Phumisak . He wrote startling poems and songs that urged the villagers to join the fight against social injustice and oppression and encouraged his comrades in arms. In 1966 he was shot, presumably by the police. His writings and songs became important symbols for the Thai left. The increasing presence of US troops in Thailand promoted the development of the Communist Party in the country, whose representatives took the position that Thailand was under the direct control of the USA and was thus colonized ; one spoke of "neo-colonialism". In line with this logic, the KPT therefore took up the fight for national independence. In 1968, however, this position was corrected by the Maoists in the party, who spoke of Thailand as a semi-colonial country.

In 1969 the High Command of the People's Liberation Army of Thailand was established, which marked a new phase in the internal guerrilla war. As a result, armed fighting began in various areas of northern Thailand . At the same time, armed forces were forming in the south, on the border with Malaysia , where like-minded people from the Communist Party of Malaysia were already operating. In July 1969 nine members of the KPT were arrested, including a high-ranking official of the Central Committee. The Thai government hailed the arrests as an important victory over communism.

Heyday

Since 1970, Thailand's People's Liberation Army has received considerable logistical aid from China and North Vietnam, after which the army has been able to expand its operations, including attacking US bomber bases.

After a brief period of general freedom of expression in Thailand, the military leadership pushed back to power, leading to a massacre of demonstrating students at Thammasat University and at Sanam Luang in Bangkok on October 6, 1976 . Following this, the KPT recorded an increased influx, mostly from students, workers, intellectuals and farmers. Many of the new members received political and military instructions from Thais, Laotians and Vietnamese in camps of the People's Liberation Army in Laos . Many of the students and workers who were used to the more pleasant city life found the hard life in the jungle difficult, so that the army leadership of the People's Liberation Army began to place the recruits in villages. They lived in groups of five to ten people in the country's 250 or so "liberated villages".

By 1977 the People's Liberation Army had around 6,000 to 8,000 armed fighters and the party was estimated to have one million sympathizers. According to official figures, half of all provinces were infiltrated by communists. In February 1977 communist fighters killed Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit , a confidante of the king and queen who was committed to the development of the provinces in the extreme south, in the southern Thai province of Surat Thani . The entry of left-wing intellectuals improved the KPT's ability to influence other layers of Thai society. On May 7, 1977, the Socialist Party of Thailand declared its entry into the armed struggle alongside the CPT. On July 2nd, both parties formed a united front.

New alliances

The further development of the Communist Party of Thailand was determined by the global political processes following the revolutionary visit to China by US President Richard Nixon in 1972 and the end of the Vietnam War. Since the party was dependent on support from neighboring states and friendly communist organizations, any change in relations had a direct impact on the CPT. When international relations changed, the KPT soon found itself in an isolated position.

In the autumn of 1978 armed clashes arose in Southeast Asia due to the rift between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China : a war broke out between Cambodia and Vietnam, both of which were important supporters of the CPT. Laos, so vital to the Thai People's Liberation Army, sided with Vietnam, while the CPT remained neutral. As a result, the Laotian government expelled members of the People's Liberation Army and the KPT from Laos, which broke the backbone of the KPT's military arm. On October 22, 1979, Bunyen Worthong, along with other student leaders and intellectuals in Vientiane, founded the Thai Isan Liberation Army , commonly known as Pak Mai (New Party). Pak Mai represented Vietnamese-Laotian positions and operated from Laotian soil. In mid-1979 the KPT had already condemned the invasion of Vietnamese troops in Cambodia.

The rapprochement between Thailand and the People's Republic of China led by Prime Minister General Kriangsak Chomanan led to improved trade relations. The governments' common enemy was now pro-Soviet Vietnam, and China's logistical support for the CPT declined dramatically. The Chinese Communist Party advised the CPT to lower its revolutionary tone. The KPT radio station Voice of the People of Thailand last broadcast on July 11, 1979.

Decline (1980s)

Since 1980 the Thai government under General Prem Tinsulanonda has been working to crush the KPT in a peaceful way. In cabinet decision 66/2523, the KPT cadres were asked to renounce the party. They were promised amnesty . In March 1981, the Socialist Party of Thailand broke with the CPT and ended the United Front because of the "influence of foreign powers" on the CPT. The leadership of the KPT then proposed peace talks with the Thai government, which previously insisted on the demobilization of the armed fighters. The director of the operations department of the Thai Army , Major General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh , declared on October 25, 1981 that the war against the armed arm of the CPT was nearing its end, as all the major bases of the People's Liberation Army in the north and northeast of the country had now been destroyed.

In 1982 the Thai government under General Prem offered the fighters of the KPT and the People's Liberation Army an amnesty (Cabinet Decision 65/2525). As a result, many cadres turned away from the KPT, so that its military potential was decisively weakened. It was mostly the students and intellectuals who joined the KPT after the 1976 massacre who no longer agreed to the KPT's Maoist ideology, since Thailand, as an emerging industrialized country, demanded other solutions than the struggle of the peasants. After two party leaders, Damri Ruangsutham and Surachai Sae Dan, were arrested, the KPT sank into insignificance. It is still banned today.

Party organization

In the 1970s, the Communist Party of Thailand was led by a seven-member Politburo elected by the Central Committee, which in turn had 25 members. Other KPT committees followed the administrative structure of Thailand, with committees at the provincial , amphoeic and tambon levels.

Little is known about the leaders themselves, as they were kept confidential. A Cambodian document drawn up in 1977 names "Khamtan" (nickname of Phayom Chulanont - the father of the later army chief and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont ) as the leader , but "Comrade Samanan" ( Jaroen Wanngarn ) is also named as the leader of the party.

composition

Initially it was mainly Chinese who were listed as members of the Communist Party of Siam (and later Thailand), but the ethnic composition changed after the massacre on October 6, 1976. Now, more and more ethnic Thais joined the party and soon formed the majority .

Other ethnic groups in Thailand were also attracted to the Communist Party, including the Hmong , many of whom formed the basis of membership in the north of the country. This happened in contrast to the Hmong in Laos, who were overwhelmingly anti-communist.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Battersby (1998-1999), pp. 473-488
  2. ↑ http://www.asiapacificms.com/articles/chin_peng/ Book review on Bertil Lintner: From Decorated Hero to Public Enemy No. 1 . Singapore 2004 (last accessed July 14, 2011)
  3. ↑ Chris Baker , Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Thailand. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-76768-2 , pp. 180-81.
  4. ^ Baker, Pasuk: A History of Thailand. 2009, p. 182.
  5. ^ Communism in the Far East.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 174 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ari.nus.edu.sg   Report of the British Joint Intelligence Committee (Far East) from 1948. In: Document collection of the project The Cold War in Asia (1945-1990) , Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
  6. ↑ a b Baker, Pasuk: A History of Thailand. 2009, p. 183.
  7. ^ William R. Heaton: "China and Southeast Asian communist movements: the decline of dual track diplomacy". Asian Survey , 22: 8, 779-800 (1982)
  8. ↑ Donald F. Busky: Communism in History and Theory. Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Praeger Publishers, Westport CT 2002, p. 69.
  9. ↑ Stephen I. Alpern: "Insurgency in Northeast Thailand: a new cause for alarm". Asian Survey , 15: 8, pp. 684-692 (1975)
  10. ↑ Harold E. Smith, Gayla S. Nieminen, May Kyi Win: Historical Dictionary of Thailand. 2nd Edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham MD / Oxford 2005, pp. 132-133, keyword “Jit Pumisak”.
  11. ↑ Stephen I. Alpern: "Insurgency in Northeast Thailand: a new cause for alarm". Asian Survey , 15: 8, pp. 684-692 (1975)
  12. ^ Clark D. Neher: "Thailand: Toward fundamental change". Asian Survey , 11: 2, 131-138 (1971).
  13. ↑ David Morell and Chai-anan Samudavanija: "Thailand's revolutionary insurgency: chances in leadership potential". Asian Survey , 19: 4, 315-332 (1979).
  14. ^ Martin Stuart-Fox : Factors influencing relations between the Communist Parties of Thailand Laos. In: Asian Review , Vol. 4 (1979), H. 4, pp. 333-352.
  15. ^ Princess killed by Communist rebels. In: Chronicle of Thailand. Headline News Since 1946. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore 2010, p. 215.
  16. ^ Thomas M. Marks: "Thailand: anatomy of a counterinsurgency victory". Military Review (2007), available at http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/JanFeb07/Marks.pdf (last accessed July 14, 2011).
  17. ^ William R. Heaton: "China and Southeast Asian communist movements: the decline of dual track diplomacy". Asian Survey , 22: 8, 779-800 (1982).
  18. ↑ Surachai Sirkai: "General Prem survives on a conservative line". Asian Survey , 22, 11, 1093-1104 (1982).
  19. ↑ K. Viviane Frings: "Rewriting Cambodian history to 'adapt' it to a new political context: the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party's historiography (1979-1991). Modern Asian Studies , Vol. 31 (1997), H. 4, pp. 807-846.
  20. ^ William R. Heaton: "China and Southeast Asian communist movements: the decline of dual track diplomacy". Asian Survey , 22: 8, 779-800 (1982)
  21. ↑ David Morell and Chai-anan Samudavanija: "Thailand's revolutionary insurgency: chances in leadership potential". Asian Survey , 19: 4, 315-332 (1979).
  22. ↑ Chaim Kaufmann: "Possible and impossible solutions to ethnic civil wars". International Security , Vol. 20 (1996), H. 4, pp. 136-175.

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