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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol. 40 Number 4. March 21 1977

Anti-imperialism, anti-feudalism and the desire for national independence and self-determination

Anti-imperialism, anti-feudalism and the desire for national independence and self-determination.

In their social practices, the Thai students gradually realised that in order to solve these social problems, one has to dig deep into the "roots" of these problems—that is, the political control, military aggression, economic exploitation and cultural debasement by imperialism. The brave resistances of the Indo-Chinese peoples against the American imperialists have also inspired the Thai people. From 1974 onwards, the Thai students began to organise actively mass campaigns to fight against the American aggression, intervention, control and exploitation in the hope of achieving national determination.

In Jan. 1974, students of Chiengmai University and Thammasat University protested in front of the American Embassy for infiltration and intervention into the domestic policies of Thailand. In Feb. 1975, the NSCT organised a nation-wide campaign to put down the Temco (Thai Exploration and Mining Company). Temco was a company primarily based on American capital but also with British and Dutch shares. Operating on a highly exploitative low wage system, Temco had been receiving enormous amounts of profits annually. Yet the more important thing was that Temco had been ruthlessly exploiting the resources of Thailand. In April, 1975, slowly after the Vietnam liberation, the American imperialists once again acted against the will of the Indo-Chinese peoples. In the Mayaguez Incident, the Americans completely ignored the sovereignty of Thailand by sending fighters and bombers from the base of Utapao to invade Kampuchea. This immediately provoked great indignations among the Thai people. NSCT and the Thai people organised mass rallies. They demanded the immediate closing down of all American bases in Thailand. Henceforth, there were similar mass demonstrations urging the American Government to withdraw all their troops out of Thailand at the scheduled date. The same thing happened on the day of the bicentennial celebration of US in July, 1976. Besides mass meetings, page 10 the Thai students, by sponsoring exhibitions, tried to reveal to the people the sinster nature of American imperialism in plundering the natural resources and exploiting the cheap labour of Thailand. These activies showed that the Thai should grasp their destiny in their own hands.

Photo of bodies lying on the ground

The experiences in the countryside made the Thai students realise the feudal landlords were Land-in-glove with the bureaucratic compradores who served the imperialists. They also understood that the feudalist idealogy was still poisoning the farmers. In order to portray to the people their bright future and to encourage them to fight on, the Thai students took up literature and arts as the weapons against feudalism and imperialism. They wrote a lot of songs and plays and made a lot of performances in the cities and countryside.

Along with the victories of the Indo-Chinese peoples, the American influences in Asia was deteriorating and hence enormous changes in the Asian and world situations took place.

The expansions from another superpower, who had been longing desperately to substitute their American counterpart in scrambling for world hegemony, was also extremely interested with the strategic location of Thailand. Besides infiltrating Thai society from various aspects, this superpower also paid much attention to the Thai students by frequently offering them free trips for travelling. Of course, these ulterior aims were met with strong refusals. The Thai students were also fully alert to the ambitions of expansion from any foreign power.