Hi David: yes, I caught the Marxian "dialectic."
Translating terms like this into English, for Western audiences, requires a comparable historical, cultural and socioeconomic context. I think that feudal Europe seems to fit the bill much more aptly. The terms อำมาตย์ and ไพร่ date to the Thai feudal system; they refer pretty clearly to feudal lords and serfs, nobility and slaves.
But Marx's "bourgeoisie" would also include a helluva lot of people who are waging this revolution, and they are certainly not fighting against their own desire to be bourgeois. They're trying to overthrow "the lords of the manor," according to their own rhetoric.
No doubt a few Reds, like Dr Weng, would like to think of what is going on as a titanic Marxist struggle (even though he himself is about as far from "lumpen" as it ever gets). But I doubt that most agree, and certainly not the real leader. No matter: everyone is free to interpret words as best suits his own purposes.
I'm only concerned with what the terms อำมาตย์ and ไพร่ describe in the historical Thai context, and how to translate that into a comparable Western context, without taking sides.
Thanks.