THAILAND Peoples' Liberation Army: Strategy of Self-Reliance Peter Kistemaker AN earlier dispatch from Thailand (Report from Phuphun, EPW, August 23) had mainly focused on the peasants' participation in the struggle that is being waged by the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) and its armed wing, the People's Liberation Army of Thailand (PLAT), In recent years, however, the support-base of the PLAT has broadened considerably, Marxism was introduced in Thailand by urban intellectuals. In the 1930s the Communist Party was driven from the cities by a repressive apparatus which was increasingly cast in an American mould. The 'historical rup- turo' between urban intellectual and peasant elements was repaired in the autumn of 1976, when the extreme right-wing coup violently destroyed the students' hope of peaceful social transformation. Literally thousands of radicalised students then went to the guerilla camps of the CPT in the jungle, They diligently helped to improve material conditions and the political-educational work of the Party.
