Kok Edoi: Emblematic Case of Peasant Autonomy and Re-Peasantization in the Struggle for Land in Thailand

We document and analyze an emblematic case study of non-indigenous peasant autonomy and re-peasantization in Sa Kaeo province in the Issan region of Thailand, using a mostly qualitative, single case-study methodology. The Kok Edoi autonomous community, whose members engage in community forest management and increasingly in agroecological farming, was founded more than twenty-five years ago as the product of a land occupation by landless peasants associated with the national Thai social movement, the Assembly of the Poor (AoP), which is part of the global peasant movement, La Via Campesina (LVC). Partially inspired by opportunities given to the community and to AoP by LVC to learn and gain inspiration from Latin American experiences such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, Kok Edoi autonomy exemplifies how the exchange of social movement knowledge and experience can help shape and strengthen local struggles, and it is also suggestive of autonomy as an alternative pathway of resistance and sustainable development in Thailand. We review the literature on territorial autonomy, re-peasantization, and community forestry and autonomy in Thailand and the world. Situating Kok Edoi in Thai history concerning policies and conflicts around land and forests, we examine the type, dimensions, and facets of autonomy and re-peasantization present in Kok Edoi to demonstrate how these factors contribute to the community being considered an emblematic case of peasant autonomy, peasant land occupation, peasant management of and livelihood derived from natural resources, more autonomous alternative markets, collective accumulation, and political training and mobilization that contributes to a class-based national movement. This is novel in an academic literature that has to date focused principally on indigenous autonomy, largely in Latin America.