In the afternoon of Sunday 19th September 2010, tens of thousands of Red Shirts returned to the Rajprasong intersection in Bangkok to remember the coup four years previously and the deliberate murder in April and May this year of nearly 90 unarmed demonstrators, many of whom were gunned down by army snipers near Rajprasong. Since the brutal killings by the Abhisit junta, there has been a climate of fear, with hundreds of political prisoners locked up and evidence of extra-judicial killings of some Red Shirt activists. Censorship has remained tight and Thai mainstream TV failed to report the extent of the demonstration, playing down the numbers as usual. Bangkok is still under the Emergency Decree and Red Shirts were given dire warnings by junta politicians and the Generals. They were “ordered” not to block the road. Yet tens of thousands of Red Shirts gathered in Bangkok. There were so many that the road was soon blocked and the size of the demonstration resembled the size of the protests 4 months ago. Thousands also gathered in the northern city of Chiang Mai and there were modest protests in many towns and cities throughout the country. At the same time coordinated protests also took place around the world. In Thailand, two days before the 19th September, thousands laid red roses outside 17 prisons holding political prisoners.
While some jaded hacks and conservative journalists will write about the weakness of the Red Shirts, how they are the “rural poor” and the simple folk “dependend on Taksin”, what the mass protests at Rajprasong show most of all is that the Red Shirt movement is an incredibly resilient grass-roots movement. This is not surprising because Thailand has a long tradition of the struggle for Democracy. What is amazing is that only 4 months after the bloody crackdown, Red Shirts dared to return to the site in very large numbers. Most of those at Rajprasong on the 19th September were from Bangkok, showing that there is mass support in the capital city, not just in the provinces. What is even more encouraging is that people came out to protest in Bangkok because a general call was put out by Sombat Boon-ngarmanong, the organiser of Red Sunday events. Sombat and his colleagues were overwhelmed with emotion at the unexpected response and the size of the protest. Sombat is not a Peua Thai politician but a grass roots pro-democracy activist. He organised the first symbolic protest against the 2006 coup, which I attended. The significance of this is that while most Red Shirt leaders are either in jail or on the run, and while Taksin and top Peua Thai Party officials are calling for reconciliation and compromise with the junta, the Red Shirts are capable of grass roots self-activity.
Many eye-witnesses report that the Red Shirts at Rajprasong were chanting “Hia Sung Ka”, which means “the iguana ordered the killing”. Iguana is a strong term of abuse in Thai. Now this can be interpreted in many ways. It could refer to Abhisit, General Anupong, ex-head of the Army, or Prem. But it might well refer to the King. It may be that people were referring to different figures as they chanted. But my guess is that most meant the King. While this writer does not believe that the King has enough leadership qualities to order anything, this phenomenon does indicate a growing republican movement among millions of Red Shirts following the April/May blood bath.
The 6th October 1976 was the last time in Thai history when the elites successfully gunned down and murdered the democracy movement, in order to stay in power. It took years for the movement to recover, but even then, the growth of the Communist Party forced the ruling class to eventually come to a compromise. This time round, the early shoots of recovery have already started to sprout, only 4 months after the blood bath. What is more, the elites are faced with an open, above ground, mass social movement, made up of millions and this movement is showing self-leadership and radicalisation.
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Thailand: `The Red Shirts will fight on!’ — Eyewitness account, photos of Sept. 19 Red Shirt protest
By Peter Boyle
September 20, 2010 — “It was truly an amazing experience yesterday. I expected that in the afternoon people would start to join. However after my ‘morning walk’ around 9am it was pretty clear to me that it might grow into something big”, “Klaus Crimson” – whose photographs of this historic rally of Thailand’s resurgent Red Shirt movement (popular name for the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, UDD) appear above (and here) – explained to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal and Green Left Weekly.
“Later in the morning Khun Sombat [Boonngamanong, leader of the Red Sunday group that organised the rally] was really stressed because he didn’t expect so many people to join and he was worried about people getting arrested if they blocked traffic on Ratchaprasong Intersection.
“Around noon it was quite clear that there would be more than 10,000 joining and the intersection would be blocked completely. The police finally allowed Sombat to use his own loudspeaker trucks to address and hopefully control the crowd, which he did perfecttly. The police finally allowed the crowd to flood the intersection and issued the order to the crowd to disperse by 8pm or else …
“The mood was truly jubilant and absolutely peaceful throughout the day. You could always find groups of people singing and dancing. No one down here was paid. Everyone came of their own free will without any strong leader calling them to get here. Many Reds now go with the slogan: ‘Everyone is his own leader’.
“The arguments of the elite that these are not real protests because the Red Shirts are nothing but a paid mob helping [deposed prime minister] Thaksin Shinawatra is now completely proven to be wrong.
“The only thought that worries me is that now the elites will realise again that they will have no chance in any future free elections. As a result future elections might be even more of a dream now. Maybe even a coup by hardliners around the new military chief is more likely.
“We’ll see – we have to hope for the best. Only one thing is for sure, the Red Shirts will fight on!”
To see the video; go to: http://links.org.au/node/1901
[Peter Boyle is national convenor of the Socialist Alliance of Australia, which supports the struggle for democracy in Thailand.]