Communist Party of Thailand
The Communist Party of Thailand (Abrv: CPT; Thai: พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์แห่งประเทศไทย, RTGS: phak khommiwnit haeng prathet thai) was a communist party in Thailand active from 1942 until the 1990s.
Communist Party of Thailand พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์แห่งประเทศไทย | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | CPT |
| Founded | 1942 |
| Dissolved | Last active in the 1990s |
| Split from | South Seas Communist Party |
| Newspaper | Mahachon |
| Militant wing | People's Liberation Army of Thailand |
| Radio | Voice of the People of Thailand |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism Stalinism Maoism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Anthem | Phuphan Partiwat
(The Revolutionary Mountain) |
| Party flag | |
| |
Initially known as the Communist Party of Siam, the party was founded officially on 1 December 1942, although communist activism in the country began as early as 1927. In the 1960s, the CPT grew in membership and support and by the early 1970s was the second largest communist movement in mainland Southeast Asia (after Vietnam). The party launched a guerrilla war against the Thai government in 1965. Even though the CPT suffered internal divisions, at its political peak the party effectively acted as a state within the state. Its rural support is estimated to have been at least four million people; its military arm consisted of 10–14,000 armed fighters. Its influence was concentrated in the northeastern, northern and southern Thailand. Following a series of internal party disputes, changes in international communist alliances, successful counter-insurgency policies of Thailand's government including a widely accepted offer of amnesty for party cadres, and the Cold War coming to its conclusion, the party disappeared from the political scene in the early-1990s.