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Bloody October

On October 6th, 1976 the Thai military returned to power in a violent coup. It was the bloodiest of several coups in Thai history, and marked the end of the brief 3-year attempt at a Western-style parliamentary democracy.

This brief democracy itself began in October — three years earlier in 1973 — when students and other patriotic Thais reacted against 30 years of military dictatorship. On that occasion they staged massive demonstrations (500,000-strong) and protests ; they were shot at by tanks and soldiers (several hundred were killed) ; but their courage helped topple the already — weakened dictatorship of Field-Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn.

In the ensuing three years, students, workers and peasants combined in many programmes to improve the literacy and standard of living of the Thai people. They received some measure of support in this from liberal-minded business and parliamentary leaders and achieved some success. They also waged massive campaigns against the presence of the many US military bases in their country. These had existed since the early stays of the Vietnam War, during which they were used by the US as a springboard for their aerial-borne devastation of Indo-China.

Although the liberal parliamentarians were willing to get rid of these US bases and to work at improving the lot of the people, the right-wing military forces who had once ruled the country were still very active. Since they had invited the Americans there in the first instance, they were liathe to see them kicked out, as they relied on them for support, arms and equipment. The military encouraged the growth of right-wing paramilitary groups and aided and abetted them in their frequent physical attacks on the students and workers. They also received patronage from members of the Thai Royal Family.

From mid-1976 till October, the students campaigned vigorously against the remaining US Bases and also against former military dictators who had begun returning to Thailand. At the same time right-wing groups like the 'Red Guars' and 'Nawapol' mounted increasingly vicious assaults on them. Things came to a head with the return to Thailand in late September of Thanom, the former dictator.

It was at one of the many large demonstrations against him (in this case, on the morning of October 6th, Inside Thammasat University) that the police and army attacked the students, killing up to three hundred of them, according to eye-witness sources. Within six hours of this attack on unarmed students the army formally took over control of the government.

The fate of many of the patriotic Thai people is still unknown. Apart from those brutally murdered, thousands more have been wounded and/or imprisoned. We do know that many others escaped the fascist military's dragnet and made their way into the jungle and mountain areas where they have joined other patriotic, anti-fascist groups — notably the Communist Party of Thailand.

Although most of these people are not themselves Communsts, they realise that their people's democracy cannot be fought for, nor defended, without meeting the military dictatorship's armed force with the people's own armed force.

In a recent letter received from leaders of the National Student Centre of Thailand (NSCT) fighting in the jungles the following statement is made . . .

"We, the NSCT leaders who have escaped from the bloody suppression campaigns of the reactionary ruling class, announce here that we will not bow to the fascist dictators. We will resolutely struggle, and adopt a concrete measure to claim the blood debt which the reactionary ruling class committed against the people. We will hold high the NSCTs glorious spirit of struggling for independence and democracy. We will unite with all classes of people, political parties, political movements and organisations, patriots, democrats, and struggle to achieve genuine independence and democracy".