"What is most regrettable is the fact that young people now have no third choice. If they cannot conform to the government, they must run away. Those interested in peaceful means to bring about freedom and democracy must start from square one."
Dr Puey Ungphakorn
He was referring to the 1976 massacre, but the quote is just as true and relevant today.
Since yesterday, I have developed a crazed obsession with the Weathermen/Weather Underground Organisation. I have spent office hours reading about them and have been hiding in the darkened meeting room to watch the documentaries.
There's a second documentary called Underground which was made in 1976 while the activists were underground. I could only find parts 1 to 6 on youtube, still trying to find the rest. Check out this clip, special attention from the 4th minute onwards.
The argument, then, is that changing political leadership is not enough, what needs to happen is a revolutionary uprooting of the capitalist/imperialist system. I dig it. Replace Vietnam with I-rack, same shit different generation.
I am definitely more radical now as I get older than I was when I was a student, which actually shows how out-of-touch student activism is these days. My obsession with the Weathermen really has nothing to do with the fact that they blow shit up. I support armed struggle in certain cases where the state violently represses legitimate social movements and represses fights for self-determination, specifically in the cases of Burma and Tibet. If they want to take up arms, I would support that.
I find that much of the Weatherman ideology stems from certain discourse of the day which has since evolved or been rejected. For example, their general take on communist third world countries and how they seemingly represent the ideal, their view that those countries have weapons of mass destruction because the US forced them into such a situation, and the way that they believe solidarity with black people means to speak also on behalf of black people - these things I am not so fond of.
But my fascination comes from my general fascination with movements. I am completely in awe of groups of people who come together in solidarity for a common purpose and objective, become consumed by it and commit to it with the core of their being. These are causes they are willing to get beaten, arrested and killed for. Specifically, it is the death of this movement that fascinates me. In the documentaries, you can sense the point at which it began to unravel and consume itself, you get a sense of the frustration of misunderstanding when the movement is ending and this new terrorist identity is being slapped onto them. You get a sense of the angry reluctancy when the activists emerged from the underground and wove themselves into the mainstream, being punished for crimes they believed they were totally right-on about.
On this anniversary of Thailand's student uprising on 6 October 1976 and the subsequent violent crackdown, I am paying homage to student movements whose idealism and passion for change and social justice have continuously been subjected to suppression (often violent) by the government, in the name of fighting communism, terrorism or whatever the reason of the day to legitimise force against youth.
The right wing government and elites at the time supported the violence conducted towards the students, which not only included beatings and shootings but also public lynching of "communists" and setting fire to their bodies.
The student groups are absent in this current political crisis which pins one right-wing group against another right-wing group. Individual students are now joining the existing factions, either choosing to side with the pro-Crown PAD or the pro-Thaksin PPP instead of being that cohesive, organised and crucial 3rd voice, the voice of resistance calling for reform.
Here are some clips of former PM Samak and his complete lunacy, both in general and when discussing the massacre specifically. Samak recently had to give up his PM post as his cooking show on national television was in breach of the constitution. Nevertheless, the frightening statements which he makes exemplify that there is still a fight to be fought.
It's easy to forget sometimes that student unions and organisations were once important political actors and agents of change. Having studied in Canada, all I know of them is that they take your membership money and throw parties, print t-shirts and have elections where only 2% of the student body votes. My student union avoided taking stances on anything, unless it was a bland, non-partisan stance. In respecting diversity and wanting to be representative of the student body, they were largely an administrative body. I cannot imagine that any form of activism could have taken place through such a dull body of over-sensitive over-achievers.
