University Student Union.

Today, students in Thailand are permitted to openly express their concern for the thai rural and urban poor without facing overt harassment from the government. But they have not (and will not) always have today's 'freedom' to operate.

A succession of military dictatorships has been the framework within which the student movement has been forced to work. The framework has changed its colour according to the level of opposition from the that people, and the tactics of suppression deemed most effective by the military faction in power at the time.

Student Support for the Poor

Prior to 1976, large numbers of students in every university and college were active in helping the poor - for example the Rural Project of the National Student Centre of Thailand (NSCT). This consisted of 50 groups who worked among the peasants to improve their conditions; groups studying workers' problems, working with the unions to give legal and medical aid; and volunteers who helped teach children and give health care in the slums.

As the students became more active, harassment from the government increased -from a few student leaders disappearing here, and a mysterious bombing of students' residences there, to the bloody October 6 Coup of 1976.

General Thanin Kraivixien snatched fascist rule from his opponent and proceeded immediately to annihilate any opposition. His troops poured into Thammasat University where thousands of students were holding a peaceful rally and opened lire. Hundreds were massacred, beaten up, tortured, arrested and detained without trial. Over 3000 fled to the countryside.

Student Movement Back to Square One

With the student movement beheaded with the loss of leaders, and the banning of student unions and any student activity not approved by the university administration, organisation had to start from scratch.

NSCT slipped underground, and with the memory of October 6 deeply engraved in the minds of the students, continued the fight for political freedom. Today, out of this movement, has grown the 19 Student Unions of Thailand (19SUT).

The political climate changed with the October 20 Coup in 1977 when General Kriangsak came to power. His government decided that blatant suppression only aggravated the opposition from the people. So they allowed students to organise, but only under strict control by the university administration.

Student Movement's Successes

The student unions were able to study the problems of that society. In 1978 they worked on a massive project for relieving flood victims. In 1980 they organised huge demonstrations to protest at bus fare hikes and rising sugar prices. While all the unions of 19SUT are controlled to a fair degree by the administration, they have been able to link up with the poor, and develop a strong leadership.

My week in Bangkok was spent with students from Thammasat and Chulalongkorn Universities. Two examples I saw of their commitment to fighting for social justice for their people stand out.

Peasants Ask Students for Help

Two days before I arrived in Bangkok on June 9 a group of 130 peasants from Pittsanulo province in Northern Thailand, faced with expropriation of their land by the Government, had travelled by train to Bangkok to protest outside Parliament. When the government refused to see them they went to Thammasat University to ask the students to help.

The next day more than 100 students joined the peasants' camp to give them moral support and food (they had spent all their savings on the train fare). A committee of Law students was set up to advise the peasants on the law, and tactics, and a delegation of students joined the peasant leaders in attempting to speak with government representatives.

The protesting peasants represent about 100 families of rice growers who have farmed the land for more than 100 years. On March 5 this year soldiers, police and government officials arrived in the village and began surveying the land. They told the villagers that the local Teachers College was to be expanded, covering 400 rai of land that the provincial administration claimed was declared public land in 1966.

The peasants protested and produced documents saying the land was theirs, plus evidence of paying taxes every year since then. The peasants were offered money to leave the area - they refused to take it because they had nowhere to go.

Two days later the officials returned with machine guns, beat up several peasants and arrested one of the leaders. "The Government has said that if you quarrel with them, you will always be the losers", the peasants were told. The peasants asked the Mayor and King to help them. The King was not interested, the Mayor issued an order to expel the peasants. He said they should be pleased because their children would get free education. Meanwhile, construction had begun.

Child dwellers of Chongnoneri slum in Bangkok. The land is owned by the Thai King.

Sompong, leader of the peasants camped outside Parliament told me "We're poor, we want education for our children but our first priority is food. If we have not land to grow rice, we cannot survive". His family gets 3500 baht (US$175) a year income for their rice - 40 baht goes in tax, the rest in food and essentials. Most of the peasants are forced to borrow from the banks at extortionate interest rates.

The peasants went to Bangkok where they thought they would get justice "Now we realize that is not so", said Sompong, after he and students had tried to see the Deputy Prime Minister to no avail. His secretary told them that Cabinet had not made a decision yet. So, construction of the new college continues and the peasants have to return to their village (since their money has run out) to await the decision.

Students Work in Slums

I met with the Thamassat slum club who took me to a slum called Chongnoneri. Formed four years ago, the club's aims are twofold: to help the slum dwellers in setting up schools and health care centres, advising on the law and in many other ways; and to let the new students experience how the Thai poor really live.

There are over 300 slums in Bangkok. Chongnoneri has about 3,000 dwellers. Most of the dwellers (60%) have come from the countryside because they could not produce enough to live. They come to Bangkok where they have heard there are jobs and places to live. In fact, it is harder to make a living in the city - so the slums grow.

The men try to find labouring jobs nearby - the average wage, if they are successful is around 35 baht a day (US$1.75) or two meals, transport and perhaps a second set of clothes for a year. The women can be seen every day in the streets trying to sell fruit and vegetables, cheap trinkets, pot plants, hot food, or anything that is remotely saleable. The small children stand in the carbon monoxide fumes at the intersections for hours trying to sell garlands. When the girls grow up they sell their bodies.

The Government has tried to "help" by building cheap flats for the slum dwellers. But cheap is not cheap enough. Most families have no chance of paying rent and gas for a start - for those who can, the fathers are usually on an inconstant income (for example, on the wharves) and sooner or later have to move back into the slum.

A school has been set up, with the help of a Christian organisation, in Chongnoneri, catering for seven classes. The students help teach one day a week - no easy task.

"The little boys vent their frustrations by getting very violent - one day I saw blood running down one of my pupil's side. His neighbour had stabbed him with a knife. The little girls are just very passive", the leader of the slum club told me.

She said that while the education must have some positive effects, there is no future for the children. "Many of my pupils end up in jail for theft or assault, or become heroin or opium addicts."

The first year students who visit the slums find it hard to believe that people can live in such poverty. "I cried when I first came here", one told me. Such an exposure is usually the beginning of an active commitment to the movement for changing the people's conditions.

king Owns the Slum

Chongnoneri is the personal property of the King. The people have been living there for more than 20 years, last year it was decided that a shopping centre should be built on the slum. The people were warned several limes to move out. With nowhere to go, they went to Thamassat to ask the students for help. Since then, the students have been publicising their case and advising them on the channels of protest. The slum dwellers are determined the stay on in the face of increasing harassment. Last month a fire was set off in the slum - a common eviction tactic.

"We try to teach the people in the slums about democracy" one student told me, "but the problem is that before they get together to think about what to do they have to think about eating. Also, the government is always watching us closely and calling us subversives".

A Smiling Face

General Prem Tinsulanond, current Prime Minister, has adopted the tactic of disguising repression with a democratic image.

His policies have led to a more relaxed political atmosphere, more intellectual freedom at the universities, more freedom of the press (one newspaper "The Nation" carries round table discussions about peaceful versus violent means of achieving real democracy!) and the withdrawal of the Labour Act which prohibited strikes.

But the students I me are not fooled. Sucheela, one of the Bangkok 18 (the 18 student leaders who were arrested on October 6, tortured, beaten and detained without trial until 1978), said she had no doubt that she was being closely watched, and that a change of wind in military circles could mean arrest again, or worse. Quite recently three student leaders 'disappeared'.

With the appointment of Major General Sudsai Husdin as a minister of Prem's office to control student and labour movement, the wind could change for the worse. Sudsai is the reputed 'God father' of the illegal ultra-right armed movement that invaded Thamassat University on October 6.

No Respite in Countryside

But in the rural areas, particularly those in which the people's resistance is strongest, the worst human rights violations have not reduced throughout. A brutal combat unit made up of thieves and thugs called the Rangers is being used increasingly by Prem in the northeast and south.

They have free rein to kill anyone they suspect as communists or "troublemakers". Their day's work consists of robbing, raping, shooting, and terrorising as their fancy takes them.

It is easy to see why those in power fear the growing opposition to the economic and political rule, not only among students, but particularly with peasants and workers.

Virginia Adams