The People’s Will Archive

Proquestional Bailors

Kicking off a series of volunteer bailor stories with questions about the bailor “profession”

#ConForAll: A Mission to Collect 50,000 Signatures in Three Days

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. A chronicle of collective action to signal that politicians’ promises of constitutional overhaul are not to be broken nor cheapened.

John Sanam Luang: Rock to the Wind of Change

A singer and busker tells the story of his political awakening and how he uses his vocal talent to liven up political rallies (with video evidence)

Late Absolute Monarchy Redux, Part 3: To Be Fair, Woman

Three newspaper articles that reflect the circumstances of women in Thai society in the early 1920s in the home, on public transport, in Bangkok, in the provinces, and in the code of laws.

Late Absolute Monarchy Redux, Part 2: Desperate Before the Law

To what do the people turn when they can’t rely on the system? In this part 2 of selections from century-old newspapers, we offer three answers: to sacred beings, to the press, and to crime.

Late Absolute Monarchy Redux, Part 1: My Tax Money!

Three articles from century-old Thai newspapers on the aristocracy’s corruption and the double standards in taxation enforcement, both between Bangkok and outlying regions and between ordinary people and the high-born.

Late Absolute Monarchy Redux: Introducing a Collection of Century-Old Newspapers

Siamese people’s voices, 10 years before the end of absolute monarchy. Collected by Nopporn Suwanpanich. Passed down to and introduced by Chertalay Suwanpanich.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 8: Case Hotspots

We close out the report with maps showing the geographical distribution of the Fund’s assistance to defendants and accuseds

The Movement: Tam Tang, Forging a Path for Safe Abortion and a Better Life

Since 2010, the Tam Tang group has been advocating for safe abortion access in Thailand. Tam Tang translates to ‘forging a path’; the name plays on its near homophone tham thaeng ‘to have an abortion.’

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 7: Top Expenses

We continue our annual report with highlights from our bail-related expenses

The Bastille: A Molam’s Retelling

World premiere of a song written in Bangkok Remand Prison in July 2015. Eight years later, we present an eight-minute track that fuses commemoration with imagination, foreignness with familiarity.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 6: Expense Summary

At the end of 2022, bail money from the Ratsadonprasong Fund remaining in Thai courts countrywide amounted to 56,428,500 baht (over 1.6 million US dollars). This amount is the combined bail of 947 cases.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 5: Donation Drives

Four fundraising phenomenons, where the people carried the fund through danger.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 4: Donation Breakdown by Category

Small donations do become big donations by the power of multiplication.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund Part 3: Top Numbers

The convenience in keying in specific numbers to make money transfers nowadays, without the need to fumble with coins or write out the amount in words, has become an affordance for the expression of political will through symbolically charged numbers.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund Part 2: Top Donors

We highlight our top donors—without names. What makes them stand out is not their identities, but the way their donations speak. Find infographics about our biggest donors, our few donors from abroad, our most frequent donors, and our most consistent donors.

2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 1: Donation Summary

Down from the sky, rain falls to earth, amassing into a great wide current; it rocks the land with clamorous roars, unstoppable its torrential force.

Take Care, Sib: Letters from Prison to Ekkachai Hongkangwan

An expression of political will and moral support, both between Ekkachai and each prisoner, and from the letter writer to us, their fictive kin from all walks of life who may now be reading.

Worachet’s Hate Mail: Selections

Ajaan Worachet entrusted to us the letters and postcards he had received in the period of going public with the Article 112 amendment proposal ten years ago.

“112 and the Monarchy : A Decade in Retrospect” by Worachet Pakeerat

A public lecture about the lese majeste law by a scholar who spearheaded the movement to amend the law ten years ago.

SIS and the Museum of Popular History Begin Partnership with Panel Discussion “Commoner Archives”

Objects do the double work of personally aiding the memory as well as politically aiding the memorialization of important historical figures.