iieiiei1eWrkers - Leicester Research Archive - University of Leicester

office). This unbroken family tie plays a key role in his decisions concerning
work and his involvement with the Union. He became a union member only
after receiving approval from his aunt who is a senior supervisor in the
spinning room but was told to "stay out of militant activities". As a result,
he keeps largely to his entertaining roic as a guitarist. Whilst joining the
Union is legitimised, the connection with external oppositional groups is not.
He follows the line of division between the economic and the political struggle
held in his family. His view of the student movement (as he was taught by
his grandmother) for example, coincides with the conservatism of the Right.
Despite the close relation of the Union and the present Student Movement, for
him the political upheaval led by the student in 1973-1976 is part of the
Communist plot to destroy the 'nation'.
The political positions adopted by respondents (1) and (5) exemplifies the polarity
between radicals and conservatives among members of the Union in general
and, not least, within the leadership. This also overlaps with the dichotomy
between serious versus entertainment in the workers' media activities. In this
case however, the gender hierarchy is reversed. Although the 'radicals' dismiss
popular culture as trivial and avoid discussing the topic as much as possible,
outside of the structured sessions, we observed their continued loyalty to certain
forms of pop culture. They are fans of Thai films just as their colleagues
are. Respondent (2) for example, goes to the Union office to listen to her
favourite romance and thriller dramas in private. Respondents (1) and (3) on
the other hand, listen to the prime-time dramas with one of their room-mates
who tunes in on the drama station, War Por Tot Radio, most of the time.
Nonetheless, the 'radicals' emphasised their distance from the politically
indifferent pop fans by recruiting six extras respondents for me to talk to.
These were either room-mates, relatives, or friends from the sanie alternative
network. They were all enthusiastic consumers of pop culture such as Pleng
Luktoong, radio drama, and women's magazines. But unfortunately, they were
somewhat overshadowed by their recruiters so the discussion with them was
limited to one session on general patterns of media consumption.
The changing pattern of media activities
From the information provided by the workers and my own observations, the
structural control of production and the level of income limited the range and
pattern of media activities, The weekly rotation of shift work for example. -
hinders the regular consumption of certain forms of the media such as radio
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