- May 4, 2021
- 3,519
Thai Municipalist Association
The Thai Municipalist Association (TMA) is a decentralist communist front of the Libertarian Socialist Front in the National Assembly, influenced by anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian municipalism. The mass organization has 5.8 million registered members; more than half came from shared membership with its parent communist party. Although generally as critical of the state as the Anarcho-Communist Federation, the TMA advocates for a system of federated self-management as a practical form of a communist society. The communist front favors the current constitutional confederal system and pushes for deeper devolution, where decision-making power is maximally devolved to the local level, including military and foreign affairs.
The TMA heavily influenced Thailand’s current radically decentralized democratic confederal system, where the national institutions merely serve as a voluntary convening point for coordination. This perimeter occurred because the mass organization was the driving force behind the 1998 Thai Revolution. The TMA advocates abolishing distinctions between workers’ councils and community assemblies, instead arguing that the political and economic spheres must be the same. Workers’ councils and community assemblies are separate entities, with the former managing the economic organization and the latter serving as a grassroots democratic sovereign polity with internal checks and balances. The mass organization believes one should be subjected to another and work concurrently.
The communist front is credited with influencing the Thai collectivist paradigm with extensive protections for individual liberties. The TMA is passionate in its defense of individual freedoms through collective decision-making and asserts that such freedom in capitalist countries is deceptive, a sentiment most Thais share. The mass organization often cooperative with the Accelerationist Advocacy Group of the Democrat Party, as the TMA believes in the ‘liberty-enhancing technology’ that also facilitates decentralized decision-making. Community Assemblies or Provincial Federations under direct control of TMA-aligned coordinators often experiment with intentional communities. Such a strategy serves prefigurative politics in allowing freedom to self-govern and self-determination under the future communist society.
The TMA heavily influenced Thailand’s current radically decentralized democratic confederal system, where the national institutions merely serve as a voluntary convening point for coordination. This perimeter occurred because the mass organization was the driving force behind the 1998 Thai Revolution. The TMA advocates abolishing distinctions between workers’ councils and community assemblies, instead arguing that the political and economic spheres must be the same. Workers’ councils and community assemblies are separate entities, with the former managing the economic organization and the latter serving as a grassroots democratic sovereign polity with internal checks and balances. The mass organization believes one should be subjected to another and work concurrently.
The communist front is credited with influencing the Thai collectivist paradigm with extensive protections for individual liberties. The TMA is passionate in its defense of individual freedoms through collective decision-making and asserts that such freedom in capitalist countries is deceptive, a sentiment most Thais share. The mass organization often cooperative with the Accelerationist Advocacy Group of the Democrat Party, as the TMA believes in the ‘liberty-enhancing technology’ that also facilitates decentralized decision-making. Community Assemblies or Provincial Federations under direct control of TMA-aligned coordinators often experiment with intentional communities. Such a strategy serves prefigurative politics in allowing freedom to self-govern and self-determination under the future communist society.
