DinDeng

In the last episode, we focused on the brutality of the Thai para-political, and para-military apparatuses, generally speaking, we can call that the stick. Today we will also be looking more deeply into the carrot of counterinsurgency. That is to say, the social services, state welfare and rural development infrastructure programs that were written by western academics to be dangled in one hand, while the barbarity of the stick was to be wielded in the other. 

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All music we used can be found in this playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E6imAcIOd2AjxZ3wgE1AA?si=3f0ce435ee4f4e77

The peasants rise again, though they are no longer confined to the local province, but spread throughout the entire nation, as a national peasant class consciousness is shaped and formed in opposition to both the bourgeoise reformists in parliament and the demented bloodthirsty military. But lest we forget what the purpose of our investigation is, for this series. That of counter-insurgency. As such, today, we will focus on those modes of reaction, as we explore and expose Thailand's strategy of tension and its years of lead. 

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All music we used can be found in this playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E6imAcIOd2AjxZ3wgE1AA?si=3f0ce435ee4f4e77

Or: How The Reactionary State & Capital Couped The Common Forest

We witness more revolts and examine the Siamese state's response. We follow the development of the dual architecture of state and capital as a means of labour extraction. That is to say, the mechanisms by which the Thai state developed into the neo-mandala system that we still see today. 

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All music we used can be found in this playlist.

Or: How The Reactionary State & Capital Couped The Common Forest

We begin our investigation by laying the foundations of our enquiry. We explore the deep roots of imperial forestry practices as the earliest days of enclosure of the common forest and witness the birth of the first armed forest insurgency in Siam.

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All music we used can be found in this playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E6imAcIOd2AjxZ3wgE1AA?si=61945fc24c124820

Counterinsurgency. Or: How The Reactionary State & Capital Couped The Common Forest

At the turn of the 20th century, capital utilised the state to enforce a program of counterinsurgency. This program had two targets: 

Target 1. Communism. 

Target 2. Anything else antithetical to market relations, be it natural farmers, or peasants utilising common forest land.

Both are targets, which are inextricably tied to the forest.

In this series, we intend to investigate and demonstrate how deforestation, modern social sciences, contemporary farming practices and yankee imperialism developed market forces via counterinsurgency in the 20th century, leading to the mass enclosure of a once wild and free landscape, the forest, a space that was once sanctum and a refuge for those fleeing subjugation.

In short, this will be, for the most part, a political ecology reading of counterinsurgency, what we call, the coup of the forest.

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In this episode, we will introduce the series and spend the rest of the time reading a short story from one of Isaan’s greatest writers, Phu Kradat, who graciously permitted us to read from his book. 

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All music we used can be found in this playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E6imAcIOd2AjxZ3wgE1AA?si=3f0ce435ee4f4e77

The Communist Party Thailand gets KMT'd. Khun Sa gets kicked out of Thailand-- hijinks ensue. The Communist Party Burma go to shit. The CIA moves to Colombia. Opium moves to Afghanistan. Cornfields erupt in the hills and a handful of guys make meth.

We will be back with a new series on counterinsurgency either next week or the week after.

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The Communist Party Burma explodes in Shan State. Khun Sa goes large. The DEA get gaslight. We hit peak opium.

It's finally the CIA episode. Featuring: Missionaries, Chiang Mai Zoo, Wild Bill Donovan, Sarit, Air America, Corsican mafias, Frank Lucas, more missionaries and a whole lot of dope.

p.s we found a lot more on Donovan's time in Thailand since recording, which we covererd in the next series

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We witness the explosion of revolutionary civil war in Burma, chart the early days of The Opium King and the royal narco generals in Laos, as well as keep up with the KMT.

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We begin our series on The Golden Triangle by examining the forested hills that Western academics have dubbed Zomia. We brace ourselves for the tsunami of the Kuomintang invasion and take a walk through the blooming poppy fields.

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All the songs we use are in this playlist:

⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E6imAcIOd2AjxZ3wgE1AA?si=bz_XlenSR-ypmY7YUcDZhw&pi=LWeMUia3SaqJ0

Books:

Land of Jade - Bertil Lindtner

Burma in Revolt - Bertil Lindtner

The Politics of Heroin - Alfred McCoy

War On Drugs - Studies In The Failure Of US Narcotics Policy - Alfred McCoy

Thailand Drugs, the U.S and Khun Sa - Francis W. Belanger

The Opium Queen - Gabrielle Paluch

The Rise and Fall of The Communist Party Burma - Bertil Lindtner