The Spreading And Influence Of Marxism In Thailand

This dissertation aims to make an attempt to clarify the development of the spreading of Marxism in Thailand,mainly focusing on the two subjects and their three basic forces including the Communist Party of Thailand,the 1950's left-wing intelligentsia and the 1970's left-wing intelligentsia.Through an analysis and examination of the achievements and failures of the spreading of Marxist thoughts and revolutionary practices in analyzing and resolving major social conflicts in Thailand,this dissertation claims that the fundamental cause of the failure of the Communist Movement in Thailand was the ignorance and destruction of the integrity of Marxism and that Thailand during its 1970s' revolutionary climax was the second most active country of left-wing forces after Vietnam so that some Asian and western scholars at different times believe that Socialism is an alternative for Thailand,thus refuting the one-sided view popular in western academia that Thailand is immune to Marxism.Meanwhile,by further studying the current political deadlock between western democratic model and Thaksin's populist approach for Thailand and examiningthe modern Thai society via Marxist class analysis method,it ultimately puts forward some reflections on and arguments for a socialist alternative for Thailand,hopefully to provide the global Marxist spreading and Communist Movement with some historical reflections,useful summaries and future expectations from the Thai cases.This dissertation adopts both documentary and interdisciplinary research methods based on the sorting,reading and research of a plenty of near-contemporary Thailand's works inChinese,English and Thai languages,and ranging from literatures,history,politics,economics,religions,anthropology,ethnology,military science,communication and so on.Meanwhile,this dissertation,by mainly applying the Marxistanalysis methods of social conflicts,discusses the particularity of Thailand's near-contemporary class conflicts,and provides materialist philosophical foundations for examining the effectiveness of Marxist spreading in Thailand and the socialist alternative for modern Thailand.This dissertation probes into the spreading and influence of Marxism in Thailand,namely,the process ofthe Siamization of Marxism in Thailandthrough a historical clarification of the threads of modern Thai radical thoughts in the 20 thcentury from “inquiring of Marxism” to “abandoning Marxism” and then to “rethinking Marxism” and even “back to Marxism”.In the 20 thcentury,the left-wing thoughts represented by Marxism always went shoulder by shoulderwith the radical social movements,coming through the rises and falls of social movements and ideological debates.The climaxes of Marxist spreading always came with the liberal periods during the 20 thcentury characterized with more democratic political atmosphere,a looser press censorship,and transforming foreign policies.First of all,this dissertation sorts the particular characteristics and historical trajectory unfolded gradually during the spreading of Marxism in Thailand with its unique historical and social backgrounds,explores the general principle of Marxist spreading in the Third World,examines the achievements of Marxist spreading in Thailand and its influences upon Thai society,summarizes some successful experience in Marxist spreading in Thailand,and reveals the critical factors leading to the final failure of the localization of Marxism in Thailand.Accordingly,in Chapter I some key concepts are clarified.In Chapter II,the social conditions,the historical process and the main forces of the spreading of Marxism in Thailand are considered and discussed,a historical landscape of the Siamization of Marxism is sketched,and the inevitability and particularity of the Siamization of Marxism is revealed.In Chapters III,IV and V,the varied experiences and historical contributions of the three main forces including the Communist Party of Thailand,the Mainstream Thai Marxists in the 1950 s,and the “Octoberists” in the 1970 s,are discussed respectively.All of the three main forces kept pushing forward social movements in modern Thailand via associations and publishing.As associations could gather contemporaries together and bring about convergences and confrontations of ideas,and as publishing could realize the cross-generational spreading and inheritance of Marxist theories and ideologies via publications,the former transient direct local struggles have been transformed into lasting national indirect modern social movements.In Chapter VI,the causes of the staged successes and the final failure of the Siamization of Marxism and their positive and negative heritages to the modern society of Thailand are analyzed.In Chapter VII,the social dilemmas and the solutions to contemporary Thailand are discussed from a socialist perspective and furthermore a bold hypothesis about socialist alternative for Thailand is put forward based on a standpoint of Marxism in terms of class conflicts.Undoubtedly,the turnover from “rethinking Marxism” to “back to Marxism” is an ideological revolution and a reasonable return for the suffering Thai workers and farmers who have abandoned thoroughly their own proletarian class consciousness and political parties after the disillusionment of their revolutionary aspiration since the 20 th century.