128 Sanam Luang

Today is 6th October.

Sanam Luang is the Royal Field where for nearly three centuries they have cremated kings.

 

Sanam Luang 1976, a place where and a time when students and the conscious working class protested for modern civil representation, democracy and an objective justice system to try military tyrants.

 

Sanam Luang and the trees in front of Thammasat University, 6th October 1976, where and when students were stamped on, shot dead, lynched and tortured by ultra right wing forces, fanatical ultra royalist groups, the Village Scouts, the Red Guar, the police and the military - as the photo below shows.

 

 

In 2014 the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority is demolishing the building on the left of the photograph above. They are erasing the Supreme Court Building from memory. The Court is built in the style of the People's Party in the 1930s. In the next years we're going to get a "more Thai" court building, one that is "more in keeping" with the royal area and less in a style that jolts peoples' memories and signifies peoples' histories that occurred three decades ago.

 

 

 

 



 

 1940s Italian Anti Fascist Song - Bella Ciao !

 

One morning I woke up,  good bye my beautiful,

Good bye my beautiful, good bye my beautiful,
Good bye.
One morning I woke up,
And I found the invader.

Oh partisan take me away,
Good bye my beautiful,
Good bye my  beautiful, good bye my beautiful,
Good bye.
Oh partisan take me away,
That I'm feeling like dying.

And if I die as partisan, good bye my beautiful,
Good bye my beautiful, good bye my beautiful, good bye
And if I die as partisan you must bury me.
You will bury me over there, on the mountain,
Good bye my beautiful,
Good bye my beautiful, good bye my beautiful, good bye.
You will bury me over there
On the mountain under the shadow of a wonderful flower,

And all the people passing by, goodbye my beautiful,
Good bye my beautiful, good bye my beautiful, good bye.
And all the people passing by will say "What a Wonderful Flower!"

And this is the flower of the partisan, good bye my beautiful,
Good bye my  beautiful, good bye my beautiful, good bye.
Dead for our freedom,
And this is the flower of the partisan
Dead for our freedom.

 

 

A 1970s Thai version...

The Boddhi Tree at Thammasat University...

 

 

Here's a relevant today Russian cartoon from 1910. It shows the pyramidal structure of fascism... The notes read, from the top to the bottom; they are reigning over you, ruling you, fooling you, shooting you.

 

 

 

Some people may think that not much has changed from revolutionary Russia, antifascist 1940s Italy, 6th October 1970 Thailand, May 2010 through to today.

   

Bella Ciao, spontaneously sung in Genova 2012...

 

 

 

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