- May 4, 2021
- 3,533
2006 State of the Revolution Address
Official Transcript of Rotating Coordinator Thaksin Shinawatra
Televised National Address through the National Broadcasting Service
Friday, 1 December, 2006
Televised National Address through the National Broadcasting Service
Friday, 1 December, 2006
Comrades,
Two thousand and six is an important year for our confederation and me. It spans a calendar filled with uncertainty and counterrevolutionary threats, revealing the class struggle’s ongoing nature in post-revolutionary Thailand. We have heard the saying, ‘the state is a constructed apparatus served to protect the ruling class’s interest.’ In our Socialist Republic, the proletariat self-governs and manages the means of production, and democratically elected facilitators manage our participatory institutions to protect us from the remaining bourgeoisie and the repressive external world. The National Assembly unequivocally passed the ‘Socialist Resilience and Reform Act’ earlier this year, precisely because we must remain vigilant against capitalist and liberal infiltrations designed to reintroduce reactionary and authoritarian economic base and superstructure into our confederation.
Looking back, the attempted hostage-taking situation in February still haunted my sleep. A brainwashed man pressed a pistol against my back, sending shivers down my spine. We thought we were safe. The reactionary forces sought to neutralize the Rotating Coordinator physically and emotionally. However, such an incident also spoke volumes about the bourgeoisie's assumption. Their shallow mind could not comprehend that I was not an authoritarian executive commonly found in liberal democracies. They did not understand that the threat against me could only pose a symbolic assault against the spirit of our revolution. They struck our confederation at its most powerless part. I am proud that our voluntary federation principle prevents top-down neutralization.
More recently, the 2006 Financial Crisis harmed the working class worldwide, including our comrades across the confederation. Capitalism is a global system where developed nations engage in exploitative practices to extract surplus from the most vulnerable countries, and their laborers back home receive somewhat better living conditions. It is an inherently unsustainable and anarchic mode of production that is prone to collapse, as evidenced by the worldwide economic stagnation. Thailand is not immune to the 2006 Financial Crisis. Some community assemblies are rationing supplies and transitioning toward a temporal gift economy as the failure of the global bourgeoisie dragged us down to their level. The working people and the oppressed cannot liberate themselves without a world proletarian revolution bringing an end to capitalism and the tyranny of capital.
Still, the most deplorable assault occurred when an underground capitalist movement called The Golden Hand bombed a distribution center in September. The Phichit Provincial Federation mourned their comrades’ unwarranted demise and brought the perpetrators to stand in a fair trial. Unlike their heartless mentalities, our supreme confederal agreement, the 2003 Constitution, guarantees our former oppressors and counterrevolutionaries with dignity, due process, and the right to live without wants and fears. These are values that they would not consider granting us. However, it is ironic yet meaningful that we stay true to our principles and humanity. No one deserved to die when they hadn’t fulfilled their life purposes that they identified themselves with.
Despite the ongoing class struggle, our confederation has achieved remarkable progress toward a post-scarcity economy. The opening of four regional anaerobic digestion plants stood as a shining example of our commitment to sustainability. Thailand is now the first nation-state processing its population’s daily biodegradable waste and turning it into renewable energy. We continue investing in agricultural science and automation, genetically modifying plants nationally, and producing cutting-edge machinery to reduce socially necessary labor time to ensure food security. Unlike liberal democracies’ oligarchic governments, the confederal apparatus does not claim such achievements. We exist to coordinate the consensus on issues raised by grassroots communities, allowing us to empower ourselves. No top-down regimes could have matched our collective spirit.
Most importantly, this year witnessed the construction of parliament buildings for all federations’ Provincial Assemblies. The confederal government can only exist when all 75,086 communes entrust us with certain facilitative responsibilities. However, a single national apparatus coordinating such a vast number of grassroots entities is impractical. Therefore, they voluntarily federated into 77 autonomous provincial federations, so our path to communism remains coherent and inclusive. The new parliament buildings will allow these polities to exercise sovereignty delegated upward by local community assemblies. The working class and ordinary people are at the helm of any governance or transformation. Such is our non-negotiable principle that we will hold dear until death claims us.
Looking forward, this year’s event is my last State of the Revolution Address as the Rotating Coordinator of the Socialist Republic of Thailand. On Sunday, 18 February 2007, fifty-one million registered voters will exercise their democratic right to collectively express their preferred path toward communism for the next four years. A new cabinet and National Assembly will begin working immediately the next day. Time is a fascinating, if sometimes scary, concept. My mother gave birth to me on 26 July 1949. That year saw the NATO formation, the People’s Republic of China’s establishment, the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb, and the division of Germany into the East and the West. Nowadays, all these organizations and countries have ceased to exist. The United Nations collapsed, the Communist Party of China was overthrown, the Soviet Union met its end, and Germany reunified.
However, what remains is a new generation of people who have learnt from our ancestors’ past mistakes. We have learnt what Trotsky meant by the degeneration of workers’ states. The global communists realized that vigilance is not merely a catchphrase we use to justify legitimacy. We have understood that ‘without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement.’ Education is our greatest weapon against elitist indoctrination. It raised our class consciousness, making us aware of the systemic nature of oppression. We believe in freedom, equality, and solidarity, not because we seek greater social capital, but to raise the living standard of all people. Our species' only survival is through the Marxist scientific principles.
I do not know what will happen next, decade, or century. History is a messy concept that the victors and the ruling class wrote to glorify themselves as saviors. However, the people are more than capable of breaking the exploitative cycle and liberating themselves from wage slavery and alienation from their species-being. Through the historical and materialist understanding of dialectics, we are certain that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. We do not doubt that capitalism will fall, like when feudalism ceased to exist. In its place, a new mode of production and accompanying superstructure will emerge. It is an economic base that is classless, stateless, moneyless, and most importantly, emancipatory. That is what we call communism.
Long live the people’s revolution!
Two thousand and six is an important year for our confederation and me. It spans a calendar filled with uncertainty and counterrevolutionary threats, revealing the class struggle’s ongoing nature in post-revolutionary Thailand. We have heard the saying, ‘the state is a constructed apparatus served to protect the ruling class’s interest.’ In our Socialist Republic, the proletariat self-governs and manages the means of production, and democratically elected facilitators manage our participatory institutions to protect us from the remaining bourgeoisie and the repressive external world. The National Assembly unequivocally passed the ‘Socialist Resilience and Reform Act’ earlier this year, precisely because we must remain vigilant against capitalist and liberal infiltrations designed to reintroduce reactionary and authoritarian economic base and superstructure into our confederation.
Looking back, the attempted hostage-taking situation in February still haunted my sleep. A brainwashed man pressed a pistol against my back, sending shivers down my spine. We thought we were safe. The reactionary forces sought to neutralize the Rotating Coordinator physically and emotionally. However, such an incident also spoke volumes about the bourgeoisie's assumption. Their shallow mind could not comprehend that I was not an authoritarian executive commonly found in liberal democracies. They did not understand that the threat against me could only pose a symbolic assault against the spirit of our revolution. They struck our confederation at its most powerless part. I am proud that our voluntary federation principle prevents top-down neutralization.
More recently, the 2006 Financial Crisis harmed the working class worldwide, including our comrades across the confederation. Capitalism is a global system where developed nations engage in exploitative practices to extract surplus from the most vulnerable countries, and their laborers back home receive somewhat better living conditions. It is an inherently unsustainable and anarchic mode of production that is prone to collapse, as evidenced by the worldwide economic stagnation. Thailand is not immune to the 2006 Financial Crisis. Some community assemblies are rationing supplies and transitioning toward a temporal gift economy as the failure of the global bourgeoisie dragged us down to their level. The working people and the oppressed cannot liberate themselves without a world proletarian revolution bringing an end to capitalism and the tyranny of capital.
Still, the most deplorable assault occurred when an underground capitalist movement called The Golden Hand bombed a distribution center in September. The Phichit Provincial Federation mourned their comrades’ unwarranted demise and brought the perpetrators to stand in a fair trial. Unlike their heartless mentalities, our supreme confederal agreement, the 2003 Constitution, guarantees our former oppressors and counterrevolutionaries with dignity, due process, and the right to live without wants and fears. These are values that they would not consider granting us. However, it is ironic yet meaningful that we stay true to our principles and humanity. No one deserved to die when they hadn’t fulfilled their life purposes that they identified themselves with.
Despite the ongoing class struggle, our confederation has achieved remarkable progress toward a post-scarcity economy. The opening of four regional anaerobic digestion plants stood as a shining example of our commitment to sustainability. Thailand is now the first nation-state processing its population’s daily biodegradable waste and turning it into renewable energy. We continue investing in agricultural science and automation, genetically modifying plants nationally, and producing cutting-edge machinery to reduce socially necessary labor time to ensure food security. Unlike liberal democracies’ oligarchic governments, the confederal apparatus does not claim such achievements. We exist to coordinate the consensus on issues raised by grassroots communities, allowing us to empower ourselves. No top-down regimes could have matched our collective spirit.
Most importantly, this year witnessed the construction of parliament buildings for all federations’ Provincial Assemblies. The confederal government can only exist when all 75,086 communes entrust us with certain facilitative responsibilities. However, a single national apparatus coordinating such a vast number of grassroots entities is impractical. Therefore, they voluntarily federated into 77 autonomous provincial federations, so our path to communism remains coherent and inclusive. The new parliament buildings will allow these polities to exercise sovereignty delegated upward by local community assemblies. The working class and ordinary people are at the helm of any governance or transformation. Such is our non-negotiable principle that we will hold dear until death claims us.
Looking forward, this year’s event is my last State of the Revolution Address as the Rotating Coordinator of the Socialist Republic of Thailand. On Sunday, 18 February 2007, fifty-one million registered voters will exercise their democratic right to collectively express their preferred path toward communism for the next four years. A new cabinet and National Assembly will begin working immediately the next day. Time is a fascinating, if sometimes scary, concept. My mother gave birth to me on 26 July 1949. That year saw the NATO formation, the People’s Republic of China’s establishment, the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb, and the division of Germany into the East and the West. Nowadays, all these organizations and countries have ceased to exist. The United Nations collapsed, the Communist Party of China was overthrown, the Soviet Union met its end, and Germany reunified.
However, what remains is a new generation of people who have learnt from our ancestors’ past mistakes. We have learnt what Trotsky meant by the degeneration of workers’ states. The global communists realized that vigilance is not merely a catchphrase we use to justify legitimacy. We have understood that ‘without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement.’ Education is our greatest weapon against elitist indoctrination. It raised our class consciousness, making us aware of the systemic nature of oppression. We believe in freedom, equality, and solidarity, not because we seek greater social capital, but to raise the living standard of all people. Our species' only survival is through the Marxist scientific principles.
I do not know what will happen next, decade, or century. History is a messy concept that the victors and the ruling class wrote to glorify themselves as saviors. However, the people are more than capable of breaking the exploitative cycle and liberating themselves from wage slavery and alienation from their species-being. Through the historical and materialist understanding of dialectics, we are certain that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. We do not doubt that capitalism will fall, like when feudalism ceased to exist. In its place, a new mode of production and accompanying superstructure will emerge. It is an economic base that is classless, stateless, moneyless, and most importantly, emancipatory. That is what we call communism.
Long live the people’s revolution!
