Communist Party of Thailand
Communist Party of Thailand พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์แห่งประเทศไทย | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | CPT |
| Governing body | Central Committee |
| Founded | 1942 |
| Dissolved | Inactive since the early 1990s |
| Split from | South Seas Communist Party |
| Newspaper | Mahachon |
| Military wing | People's Liberation Army of Thailand |
| Radio | Voice of the People of Thailand |
| Membership | 10,000–12,000 (1970 estimates) |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism Mao Zedong Thought Revolutionary socialism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Party flag | |
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 early 1990s.
The CPT was officially founded on 1 December 1942, although communist activism in Thailand began as early as 1927. In the 1960s, the party expanded its membership and influence. By the early 1970s, it had become one of the largest communist movements in mainland Southeast Asia, following the success of Vietnam. The CPT launched a guerrilla insurgency against the Thai government in 1965. At its peak, the party operated semi-autonomously in rural areas, with an estimated 10 to 12,000 armed fighters and a significant network of sympathizers, possibly numbering in the millions. Its influence was concentrated in northeastern, northern, and southern Thailand. The CPT declined following a combination of internal divisions, changes in international communist alliances, effective counter-insurgency campaigns by the Thai government (including amnesty programs for party cadres), and the end of the Cold War. By the early 1990s, the party had largely ceased to exist as an organized political force.