Category Archives: Games

People power in Thailand undermining government support among the Thai army

It appears that the Thai government has offered a reconciliation plan that includes an election on November 14th.  The Guardian says that the Red Shirts have accepted the proposal, while the BBC says that the Red Shirts are willing to talk.

There seems to be a group called the Multi-Colored Shirts who are opposing the Red Shirts, though other sources refer to them as Yellow Shirts, the group that used nonviolence to overthrow the previous government, and wants to limit who can actually be in parliament.

The Red Shirts had fortified their positions in Bangkok and halted army forces from entering Bangkok (New York Times though "thailand protest train" gets 405 hits in news.google.com):

… antigovernment demonstrators in the northeast stopped a train carrying military vehicles, underlining the impunity of the protest movement and the government’s weakening control of the populous hinterland.

While the Guardian wrote that army soldiers may not be reliable:

However, there has been speculation that the army is reluctant to move against the protesters again after a failed attempt to clear them from the streets a week ago. The army chief, Anupong Paochinda, has said an election is the only solution to Thailand's political crisis.

Many soldiers, particularly in the lower ranks, are openly supportive of the red shirts' cause. Protesters have nicknamed them "watermelon soldiers", for their green uniforms on the outside and red sympathies within.

Looks like the Red Shirts are undermining the support of the government.

Nonviolence in Palestine

Here
are a set of recent articles/press releases about some efforts at
nonviolence in Palestine & Israel:

Opposition protesters in Thailand continue campaign. Success in the air?

In Thailand, the Red Shirt anti-government protesters (United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, aka UDD) have continued their campaign to oust the current government.  This included retaking a pro-opposition tv station that the government attempted to censor.  One of their tactics was to occupy a commercial shopping district in Bangkok causing the shutdown of various malls.

Unfortunately for all, twenty one people have died including four soldiers and eight hundred have been injured when the military attempted to remove protesters from the area they are occupying.

According to the BBC, the head of the army has called for the government to be dissolved and expressed his reluctance to use force.  In a replay of what happened in January of 2009, the Election Commission has decided that the prime minister's Democratic Party should be dissolved due because they failed to declare an $8 million donation from a company during the 2005 election.  The case will be referred to the Constitutional Court as in early 2009.  The UDD brought the case.

The current government may fall soon since it no longer seems to have the support of the military.

Pictures:

Thailand Red protests heat up

I cannot say that Thailand has been quiet since the last time I posted, but with the recent protests by the Red-shirted demonstrators who are protesting the current government things have moved up in their intensity.  NPR reported 100,000 anti-government non-violent protesters have taken to demonstrating outside of government buildings. 

Recently, many protesters gave a little bit of their blood so that they could pelt government buildings with bags of the blood.  The news reports I have heard indicate that the protesters are sending a message that they are willing to shed blood in violent opposition to the current government. An alternative interpretation could be that they are showing that they are willing to withstand violent attacks by the government nonviolently.  Not being there or knowing Thai, it is hard to discern the truth.

The military at least does not appear to be attempting to escalate their own violence, but is hoping the protesters tire and leave.

By Will Alone: The Game

This site came about because of a nonviolent direct action miniatures game I have been working on.  I haven't done much with it since 2007, but if you want you can find the rules I wrote:

I have play tested it a few times, pictures of which you can see from the front page.

Send comments to me via jokeefe at jamesokeefe dot org or voice/txt to (617) 863-0385. 

That will have to do until I get around to updating them.

Resistance to Chinese Censorship Goes Virtual

Boing Boing reported that an hour long video satire of Chinese government censorship, called War of Internet Addiction, has had 10 million views by Chinese netizens.  It was filmed entirely in World of Warcraft.

You can find commentary at DigiCha and YouKu Buzz

The original video is at the YouKu Buzz link, but the speed is very slow.  You can find an English subtitled version at YouTube in seven installments.

The Army of Amazons

Midtowng has another history lesson in nonviolent economic resistance from the US' past:

On a cold Sunday morning, December 11, 1921, in the tiny frontier town of Franklin, Kansas, five hundred women
crowded into a church hall. Men were excluded. They were mostly
immigrants from eastern Europe. They were hungry, angry, and desperate.
After a heated discussion they resolved on a course of action – they
would march.

By the following day women from miles around had come
to join them. Their numbers swelled to somewhere between 3,000 and
6,000. Some marched while carrying infants in their arms. The local
sheriff and his deputies was overwhelmed.

By December 15th the Governor of Kansas had sent in three companies of
cavalry and a machine gun company, to stop the "Army of Amazons", as
the newspapers had dubbed them.

You can find the rest of the article at The Economic Populist.