The rise and dynamics of the 2020 youth movement in Thailand
Kanokrat Lertchoosakul's "The Rise and Dynamics of the 2020 Youth Movement in Thailand" focuses on the recent youth-driven political movements in Thailand. Young advocates for democracy are campaigning against the surveillance state and the internet "gateway" to control inappropriate websites and the flow of information from the rest of the world to Thailand. The election win of the Future Forward Party (FFP) shows how Thailand's active young generation is moving from the Internet to the ballot box. After succeeding in blocking the military government's attempts to restrict their freedom, they have moved to establish a formal political institution. In February 2020, Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolved the FFP over internal party allegations and improper financial sources. Nationwide student and school protests erupted, the largest mass youth movement since the 1970s.
This piece was produced with the support of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union. It is part of the dossier "Youth & democracy in Latin America. Young voices on the rise". It was first published on eu.boell.org
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Table of contents
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. The rise and decline of the 1970s Thai student movement
3. The small-scale and scattered student activism after the 2014 coup
4. Online campaigns against the surveillance state
5. From online to the ballot box
6. From the ballot box to the street
7. From peaceful protest to confrontation
8. Conclusion
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