Deformed class war in Thailand – Part 2

[Watchman]

Deformed class war in Thailand – Part 2
29 April 2009

In the second part of a three-part series guest blogger John Moore examines the latest crisis in Thailand and asks why the organised working class seem absent from the recent political conflicts that have engulfed Thailand. Undoubtedly thousands of working class Thais have been involved in the current mobilisations against the government. The propaganda of the Red Shirt leaders have targeted both the rural and urban poor, calling for a defence of the social policies, including universal health care, enacted by the former Thaksin led government, and for a ‘people’s revolution’ against the ‘elite’. However, Thailand has a large and significant trade union movement that seems conspicuously absent from the current conflict and mass rallies and protests. A number of historical and political factors account for the absence of organised labour from the current events unfolding in Thailand. [Read more below]

[URL="http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2009/04/deformed-class-war-in-thailand-part-2.html"]http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2009/04/deformed-class-war-in-thailand-part-2.html[/URL]