Munawar Musso on the impact of the Chinese Revolution on Chinese migrants in Thailand, as well as Communist exiles from Indonesia.

‘Siam Feels the First Touch of the Workers’ Movement’ by M. Musso from Pan-Pacific Monthly (San Francisco). No. 35. April, 1930.

SINCE the close of the war considerable headway has been made by Siam in capitalist development: it has signed 12 treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation with leading capitalist countries.

Agriculture and to a lesser extent fishing is, by far, the most important occupation of the people. As in other countries of Southern Asia, Chinese immigrants have acquired practical control of the retail business, as is also the case in British Malaya and Indonesia. The small Chinese shop is much in evidence and a number of wholesale important export firms are also of Chinese nationality. The Chinese were the first to work the tin mines of Siam and they own and operate many of the rice mills.

In 1928 out of 90,102 foreigners immigrating to Siam 88,045 were Chinese.

Siam also cultivates on a more or less limited scale cotton, Kopak, pepper, tea, cocoanuts, maize and other tropical products. Tin is the second most important item of export and is mined in Lower Siam, which is part of the worlds’ richest tin district. The annual yield of metallic tin is approximately 7,700 tons, and practically the whole of the production is marketed in Singapore in the form of ore.

Rubber tree planting in Siam is expanding and in 1927-1928 exports of rubber reached 12,230,000 lb. Siam is also an exporter of the valuable teakwood.

The world crisis, however, affected the economic position of Siam exceedingly and concerning this general depression the “Bangkok Times” of November says the following:

“Since from 1920 Siam had never experienced such a disastrous trade as nowadays. Nearly 60 per cent of the total rice mills could not work this year. Also the navigation was undergoing a blow. Most of the steamers left Bangkok only with the half cargo or less. Several of them were compelled to wait a couple of weeks for cargo in order to cover the expenses of the voyage.”

With regard to revolutionary activities it can be stated that it has found its foothold among a part of the Chinese population. The natives being mostly engaged in agriculture remain still inactive and the communist propaganda is not yet penetrating among them. Regarding Communist activities in Bangkok the Singapore Free Press of December 5, 1929, contains the following reports:

“Happily the police are on the track of the leaders and some ten arrests have been made. It is disappointing to find that the Hailam community is again implicated. An association illegal, of course, and unregistered bearing the title: “Association of Employees of Europeans” has been busily at work. It has included among its members employees of Europeans and boys working at the Rajdhani Hotel and the Sport Clubs.”

Further it was reported that several leaders of that organization have been already placed under lock and key. Their deportation to China will be asked for when they come before the Court.

Siam was formerly a country where the Chinese immigrants could enter and leave freely without any hindrances, and the Chinese population was granted full freedom to organize. In 1926 when the Kuomintang was maintaining close connections with the Communists, even in the streets one could see the red flag flying near the Kuomintang one, and portraits of Lenin and Marx were to be seen everywhere. But when the Chinese generals had already betrayed the revolutionary movements of the proletariat, also Siam began to take a hostile attitude towards Communism. It was certainly also encouraged in this course by the British imperialism, which practically has the dominant influence over the country.

Moreover, the king of Siam recently visited Indonesia, and during his stay there he also made a special agreement with the Dutch to act together against the “Red Danger.”

This agreement was made, because the Dutch knew that several persecuted Indonesian Communists had fled to Siam and remain there up to the present.

As a direct result of these counter-revolutionary relations, an Indonesian Communist who managed to escape to Bangkok, was arrested by the Siamese authorities and handed over to the Dutch Government.

It is clear that no country in the Far East is now free from Communist influence. China, the Philippines, Indo-China, Siam, the Straits-Settlements, Indonesia and India, these countries form today one link, where the exploited working and peasant· classes, under the leadership of the Communists, are firmly opposing their subjugation by the national bourgeoisie and the imperialists.

It should be noted that the movements of the proletariat in those countries are separated from one another, while the nationalist bourgeoisie and imperialists have already formed a united bloc to fight Communism. Therefore, the most burning task confronting the revolutionary proletariat in the East today is to form a close united front and to maintain regular connections, in order to enhance and to facilitate the combined struggle against imperialism.

The Pan-Pacific Monthly was the official organ of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat (PPTUS), a subdivision of the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profitern. Established first in China in May 1927, the PPTUS had to move its offices, and the production of the Monthly to San Francisco after the fall of the Shanghai Commune in 1927. Earl Browder was an early Secretary of tge PPTUS, having been in China during its establishment. Harrison George was the editor of the Monthly. Constituents of the PPTUC included the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Indonesian Labor Federation, the Japanese Trade Union Council, the National Minority Movement (UK Colonies), the Confédération Générale du Travail Unitaire (French Colonies), the Korean Workers and Peasants Federation, the Philippine Labor Congress, the National Confederation of Farm Laborers and Tenants of the Philippines, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions of the Soviet Union, and the Trade Union Educational League of the U.S. With only two international conferences, the second in 1929, the PPTUS never took off as a force capable of coordinating trade union activity in the Pacific Basis, as was its charge. However, despite its short run, the Monthly is an invaluable English-language resource on a crucial period in the Communist movement in the Pacific, the beginnings of the ‘Third Period.’

PDF of full issue: https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A32147/datastream/OBJ/download/The_Pan-Pacific_Monthly_No__35.pdf