Communist Party of Thailand

The Communist Party of Thailand (Abrv: CPT; Thai: พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์แห่งประเทศไทย, RTGS: Phak Khommiwnit Haeng Prathet Thai) was a communist party in Thailand active from 1942 until the early 1990s.

The CPT was officially founded on 1 December 1942, although communist activism in Thailand began as early as 1927. In the 1960s, the party expanded its membership and influence. By the early 1970s, it had become one of the largest communist movements in mainland Southeast Asia, following the success of Vietnam. The CPT launched a guerrilla insurgency against the Thai government in 1965. At its peak, the party operated semi-autonomously in rural areas, with an estimated 10 to 12,000 armed fighters and a significant network of sympathizers, possibly numbering in the millions. Its influence was concentrated in northeastern, northern, and southern Thailand. The CPT declined following a combination of internal divisions, changes in international communist alliances, effective counter-insurgency campaigns by the Thai government (including amnesty programs for party cadres), and the end of the Cold War. By the early 1990s, the party had largely ceased to exist as an organized political force.

Early years

The origins of the communist movement in Thailand can be traced to the Siam Special Committee of the South Seas Communist Party, established around 1926 to 1927 The arrival of leftist activists fleeing China after the 1927 split between the Communist and the Nationalists further bolstered communist activity in Thailand. Sources indicate that between late 1929 and early 1930, the Communist Party of Siam was formally established, laying the foundation for later communist organization in the country.

During its early years, the Communist Party of Siam remained a small organization, primarily composed of intellectuals in Bangkok. By early 1948, British intelligence described reports claiming the party had 3.000 members nationwide as “exaggerated.” The party was briefly legal between 1946 and 1948. Its secret headquarters were located in a wooden building on Si Phraya Road in Bangkok.

Key figures during this period included Udom Srisuwan, the party’s principal theorist.

In February 1951, a CPT delegation attended the second national congress of the Vietnam Workers’ Party (VPW) in Tuyên Quang.The CPT subsequently held its second party congress in 1952.

Another prominent leader was Phayom Chulanont, a former Thai Army general and Member of Parliament for Phetburi. In 1957, he defected to go underground, adopting the nom de guerre Comrade Too Khamtan (สหายตู้คำตัน).

He later became a member of the CPT’s Central Committee and Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army of Thailand. His son, Surayud Chulanont, would later become a general and political leader in Thailand.

Insurgency

The CPT held its third party congress in September 1961. Ideologically, the party aligned with Maoism and formulated a policy of armed struggle along the lines of the Chinese experience, which was made public in 1964. The party condemned the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as revisionist and socially imperialist. As of 1966, relations with the Communist Party of Vietnam began to deteriorate, as the CPT criticized the CPV for failing to take a clear pro-CCP stance.

The party launched the Thai Patriotic Front (TPF) on 1 January 1965. The TPF had a six-point programme for peace and neutrality. The Front called for the formation of a patriotic and democratic government, and opposed the Thai government and US troop presence in Thailand. The TPF was poised to fill the role of the united front in the triangular setting of the people's war strategy (party-army-front). He had translated The Communist Manifesto into Thai in the 1950s, and had been jailed from 1957 to 1963 under the Sarit dictatorship. Upon his release he joined the party and took part in its struggle in the Sakhon Nakhon Province. He was killed by government officials on May 5, 1966 but went on to become an iconic figure in Thailand's left-wing movement.

In February and August 1967, the Thai government conducted a number of counter-insurgency raids in Bangkok and Thonburi, arresting 30 CPT members including secretary-general Thong Chaemsri.

Opposition to US military presence in Thailand was a key element of the CPT during the Vietnam War. The CPT alleged that Thailand was a neocolonial country under US control. Emphasis was thus given to the struggle for national independence.

In 1969, the Supreme Command of the People's Liberation Army of Thailand was formed, marking a new phase in the build-up of guerrilla forces.

Peak

From 1970 on, the People's Liberation Army of Thailand (PLAT) received significant logistical support from China and Vietnam. PLAT forces intensified their operations, including attacks on US Air Force bomber bases in the country.

The political folk-rock group Caravan also fled to the jungles to link-up with the CPT at this time. Another who fled was Phumtham Wechayachai, who some 50 years later served as Thailand's acting prime minister.

In many cases, students accustomed to urban life had difficulties adapting to the harsh realities of guerrilla struggle, and thus the party decided to place many of them in villages rather deep in the jungle. The new student recruits were divided into groups of five to ten, which were distributed along the approximately 250 "liberated villages" of the country.

Initially, the CPT adopted a neutral stance in the conflict between Vietnam and Kampuchea, causing relations to deteriorate with both the Chinese and the Vietnamese parties. However, as Vietnam intervened militarily in Kampuchea, the CPT condemned the Vietnamese action in a statement issued on 7 June 1979. Communist cadres were eventually granted amnesty.

In March 1981, the Socialist Party of Thailand broke off relations with the CPT, claiming that CPT was controlled by foreign influences.

In 1982–1983, CPT experienced mass defections of its cadres, and its military potential was severely reduced.

Before the 2019 election, a group filed documents to establish a party with the name "Communist Party of Thailand" (CPOT) but this was denied by the Election Commission of Thailand due to the name indicating undemocratic ideology.

Party organization

The party was led by a seven-member politburo, elected by a 25-member Central Committee. Under the Central Committee were various provincial (changwat) committees and under them district (amphoe) committees. At the local level there were tambon (subdistrict) and muban (village) party structures. Other sources mention "Comrade Samanan" (Jaroen Wanngam) as the party leader during the same period.

References

External links

List of incidents attributed to the Communist Party of Thailand on the START database
The Road to victory : documents from the Communist Party of Thailand Chicago : Liberator Press, 1978