Browsing Tag
protest
45 posts
Remembrances of Red Trauma (24) – Rebuilding shattered dreams of democracy
The bloody crackdown on protesters in 2010 is seared into the mind of Thanat Thammakaew. For the writer, known by his pen name Phu Kradat, the traumatic events became a political awakening and a source of inspiration for his writing.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (23) – Lessons of the defeat of the Red Shirts
“Back in 2010, I thought the protests were taking us close to a change towards a democratic system, where everyone would be under the constitution.” “But it didn’t turn out like that. We lost. We failed,” says Thanat Thammakaew, who is known by his pen name Phu Kradat. The prolific Isaan writer reflects on the Red Shirt movement.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (22) – The forgotten art of the Red Shirts
Artistic expression had an undisputed place in the Red Shirt movement. But little of the art of the Red Shirts has been preserved. Not only because it was destroyed by the 2010 crackdown, but also because it wasn’t seen as art in the first place, says art critic and curator Thanom Chapakdee.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (20) – A fire burning down below
“There has never been a time, no other era, where the ordinary villager has cursed the ruling class so much as now. There’s a fire burning down below and the military coup has only poured fuel onto that fire.” Teerapol Anmai speaks about the aftermath of the 2010 protests and the state’s violent response.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (19) – Ten years after the crackdown, the reckoning awaits
Ten years after the violence of 2010, the rattle of gunfire and the smoke of battle is still the mind’s eye of Teerapol Anmai, a professor at Ubon Ratchathani University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts. Back then he visited the Red Shirt protest sites which would eventually become the killing grounds for, as Teerapol puts it, “people who are seen as less than people.”
Remembrances of Red Trauma (17) – Killings in the capital, impossible to unremember
“It’s no small thing. If you know that people died at the hands of the state, if you know they were shot with bullets paid for with our taxes, it’s quite a different matter than being shot by a common robber,” says Dueanwad Phimwana, author and S.E.A. Write Award winner of 2003. [VIDEO]
Remembrances of Red Trauma (16) – To the Isaan people who died in Bangkok in 2010
The political violence of 2010 claimed the lives of at least 94 people. Out of that number, 36 were confirmed to be from Isaan. Adithep Chanthet takes a look at the lives of five of those killed, what took them to the capital, their economic backgrounds, and their political ideas.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (15) – The Isaan people killed in the April – May 2010 clashes
The clashes of April-May 2010 in Bangkok left at least 94 people dead. Of those killed, 36 people had home addresses in the Northeast. The Isaan Record has put together an infographic map showing who these people were and how they died.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (11) – A war of words: ‘red buffaloes’
Linguist Saowanee T. Alexander talks about the evolution of the term “red buffaloes” that had been used pejoratively to describe Red Shirts and supporters of the Pheu Thai Party. But in recent years, pro-democracy activists have reclaimed the slur, partly shifting its derogatory usage.
Remembrances of Red Trauma (4) – The lingering violence of Bloody May 2010
Ten years have passed since the killings of Bloody May, yet those responsible are still walking free and blameless in the eyes of the law. Out of the 94 killed, 26 were from Isaan. Today, justice is still waiting to be served, writes Wirawat Somnuek.
