The politics of the poor: class, identity and struggle in Thailand's Assembly of the Poor

The Assembly of the Poor (AoP) is an emblematic national poor people's and peasant movement in Thailand, and a long-standing member of La Via Campesina. Organized as a horizontal assembly of local struggles in rural and urban Thailand, AoP mobilizes around a transversal identity as ‘the poor,’ confronting land and a constitutional order shaped by repeated coups. Peter Rosset and Sayamol Charoenratana interview Baramee Chaiyarat, the last of AoP's founders still active in its national leadership, on his life history, the movement's mobilization strategy, the ‘community culture’ versus ‘political economy’ debate concerning Thai social movements, and AoP's experiences with agroecology and peasant autonomy.