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FCCT 2020.10.06Remembering the Oct 6 Thammasat University massacre
Remembering the Oct 6 Thammasat University massacre
The massacre of young protestors on Oct. 6, 1976 at Thammasat University marked a watershed moment in Thai history. The killings of university students by state forces and right-wing vigilantes put an end to a brief period of democracy, as well as pushed student activists out of mainstream political spaces and into either jail, the jungle or out of the country. The bloody crackdown also swung the Thai political pendulum towards the right for more than a decade as it ushered in a long period of direct and in-direct military rule, supported by the royalist-nationalist establishment forces. Official Thai history has also suppressed the narrative of the massacre ever since.
What is the public memory and understanding of that massacre 44 years on, now that political activism among Thai university students is once again on the rise? What is the meaning of the 1976 massacre in the current context of democratic struggle, public protest and repression in Thailand?
Speakers joining us for this discussion include:
Thongchai Winichakul, author and historian at the University of Wisconsin and a former student activist from 1976
Charnvit Kasetsiri, historian and a former rector of Thammasat University
Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon, student activist and a core leader of the Free People Movement
Puangthong Pawakapan, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University and the driving force behind the online archive on the Oct. 6 massacre
https://www.facebook.com/FCCThailand/videos/382666272903560/
