Red Shirts and Tea Parties
warning: I don't know much about Thailand so this may be rot.
But it doesn't stop me from opining that the Thai upheaval and the Tea Party Patriots (along with several other "anti-establishment" movements) have some things in common, foremost a sentimental, nostalgic longing for a mythical past and strong authority figures. Just as much of the Red Shirt position boils down to a reverence for the billionaire strongman Thaskin, I think the Tea Party would rally behind Sam Walton, a God-like symbol of Down Home Goodness and unbridled capitalism. They mythologize (mysticize?) the Constitution and Founding Fathers and play down what was really going down in Boston Harbor. The Red Shirts also dream of an illusionary imperial greatness that ain't gonna happen. Corruption rules the day.
Like Imelda Marcos, Berlasconi, Ronald Reagan, or any number of absurd, charismatic clowns, people will gravitate to a savior like moths to a flame. On the other side of the spectrum but no less absurd are the so-called "Anarchist" punks who rampage in a place like Santa Cruz California breaking boutique windows and upsetting espresso carts as a revolutionary uprising. Debord was right.
Expect to be hearing pop-country hits like The Ballad of Sheriff Joe. New heroes will be created and book deals signed. Look out for Strange Alliances like Torie- Liberal Democrat and wild swings in stock prices, oil sludge covering the beaches of Haiti and strings of volcanic eruptions. Take me down little Susie take me down.
posted by troutsky @ 9:08 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
The movement in Thailand, is no Tea Party.
When you look at the class makeup, ideology and even the age of Tea Partiers, you see the Republican Party rebranded. The Republican name is discredited, just like Blackwater, which changed its name.
The Red Shirt Movement flows from the crisis of capitalism. In politics just like nature, voids need to be filled. In the absents of a working class movement in Thailand, the void was filled by peasantry. In that country, they still use water buffalo for farming.
The masses in Thailand, have no working class party since the demise of the Communist Party with fall of Stalinism.
You are on thin ice, comparing the Red Shirts with all of its contradictions, to the reactionary, racist Tea Party movement.
Is Sheriff Joe like that Buford Pusser guy? I vaguely remember him, cleaned up big swaths of America if I recall.
Have to agree with Ren. One thing about the Baggers is the heavy presence of petit bourgeois. It's not a working class movement.
Again, I have only limited sources but some say there are very reactionary elements in Red Shirt Movement and little class analysis. The posters of Thaskin are problematic and all that is "peasant" is not emancipatory, as we're all aware.
As in Iran and Colored Revolutions, things are incredibly opaque.
Well, the volcanic ash hasn't cleared from yesterday's election. Ol' "Single Bullet" was finally sent packing, real change is here (sarcasm flag is in the UP position).
Yeah, real change. We might have real change if this wave of anti incumbent sentiment leads to nothing (which it will) and people realize that we have to really shake this up and get power out of the hands of the oligarchy.
Yeah, Rand Paul. I can smell change in the air.
Troutsky: See this.
With any popular leader as Thaksin Shinawatra, instead of calling him reactionary, you make positive demands. It's like this; you say your for this, than why don't you.... It's the same method, whether its Obama, Chavez or whoever.
Troutsky: As for Iran, the Green Movement is revolutionary. It's important to know the difference between the first and ninth month in a pregnancy.
For security reasons I don't talk much about the Iranian movement leaders. Even bourgeoise democracy and secularism would have great implications throughout the Middle East.
Way off topic but I do wish Cannes would shut it down in response to this situation. Get some honesty back in the film world. There has been requests to put first things first but business is business. Just thought the situation might interest you.
Latest declaration of Jafar Panahi since the beginning of his hunger strike.
I hereby declare that I have been subject to ill treatment in Evin prison.
On Saturday May 15, 2010, prison guards suddenly entered our cell, n° 56. They took us away, my cell mates and I, made us strip and kept us in the cold for an hour and a half.
Sunday morning, they brought me to the interrogation room and accused me of having filmed the interior of my cell, which is completely untrue. Then they threatened to imprison my entire family at Evin and to mistreat my daughter in an unsafe prison in the city of Rejayi Shahr.
I have eaten and drunk nothing since Sunday morning, and I declare that if my wishes are not respected, I will continue to abstain from drinking and eating. I do not want to be a rat in a laboratory, victim of their sick games, threatened and psychologically tortured.
My wishes are :
- The possibility to contact and see my family, and the complete assurance that they are safe.
- The right to retain and communicate with an attorney, after 77 days of imprisonment.
- Unconditional liberty until the day of my judgment and the final verdict
- Finally, I swear upon what I believe in, the cinema : I will not cease my hunger strike until my wishes are satisfied.
My final wish is that my remains be returned to my family, so that they may bury me in the place they choose.
Source : Centre culturel Pouya, Tuesday, May 18, 2010, Cannes
If you want to analyse the Thai conflict in Marxist terms, it's a draw.
The Red Shirt are poor peasants, led by a Thai Berlusconi, against the urban working class, led by labor unions (but in alliance with the Army and the King).
Essentially, the Red Shirt movement is more corrupt, more illiterate, more democratic, more supportive of private enterprises and more radical in their tactics.
Their opponents are pro-government, pro-labor unions, pro-military, royalist and more nationalistic.
It's a mixed bag. It's rural vs urban, democratic vs royalist, anarchist vs military, corrupt vs bureaucratic, private enterprise vs labor unions.
Make your pick....
What Sonia said about Thailand, is true of every mass movement. All full of contradictions.
The Red Shirts should be supported against repression, while not agreeing with every move they make.
;-)
Again, with the caveat that I could use more sources, I think Sonia is correct that there is no unified platform. ("democratic" elections perhaps, but how deep is the civil society?)
Giles Ji Ungpokom,from whom the bulk of the argument originates, appears to be a marginal analyst to me.
Where were the students nationwide, the workers?
My broader point was about ideological confusion which indeed seems to be a theme for the new millenium. Iran included.
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