On the 8th of august in 1988, a general strike began in Myanmar (Burma) as part of the 8888 Uprising, with mass anti-government demonstrations throughout the country demanding multi-party democracy from the ruling one-party state. Over the following days, the mass demonstrations devolved into violent riots as the military fired into crowds of protesters.
The 8888 Uprising, also known as the People Power Uprising, took place in the context of an economic crisis in the country, governed as a one-party state by the Burma Socialist Programme Party, led by General Ne Win. Students and farmers had been engaging in protest and campaigns of rebellion against various state economic policies since 1985.
On August 8th, 1988 (thus the uprising’s name) mass anti-government demonstrations took place throughout the country. Participants came from a wide variety of demographics - Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, students, workers, young and old participated.
The protests began relatively peacefully, with only one casualty reported on the first day, the result of a frightened traffic cop who fired into the crowd and fled. Over the next few days, the protests devolved into violent riots as the military and police fired on the protesters, at one point even shooting doctors and nurses tending to the wounded.
Protesters responded by throwing Molotov cocktails, swords, knives, rocks, poisoned darts and bicycle spokes. In one incident, rioters burned a police station and killed four fleeing police officers.
On August 26th, Aung San Suu Kyi (eventual leader of the country and complicit in the rohingya genocide), the daughter of anti-imperialist revolutionary Aung San, addressed half a million people at Shwedagon Pagoda, becoming an international figure in the uprising, supported by the West. Her party would later go on to win elections in 1990, however these results were ignored by the military government and she was arrested.
On September 18th, the military retook power in the country, with General Saw Maung repealing the 1974 constitution and imposing martial law. The demonstrations were violently suppressed and, by the end of September, at least 3,000 people were killed, however estimates of casualties vary widely.
Eventually after another mass protests in the saffron revolution and the 2010-2015 reforms Aung San party the NLD would take power in 2015 and be overthrown by a coup in 2021 and banned 2 years later.
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The lib response: So long as we feel appropriately bad about it, the bombs may drop, the blood can spill all over Gaza, millions can starve while produce ends up on heaps of trash
But, critically, all we can do is feel bad. Protesting reminds us that we can have an active role on the stage of history, if we seize it, even if that role is ultimately only sprinkling some rust to the gears of empire
Because the weapons have to ship, the bombs have to blow up, more bombs have to be made, and those have to ship off and they have to blow up, capital has to make profit and it has to concentrate in fewer hands and it doesn’t care about human interests if they are not profitable, and the entire scope or horizon of response can only either be feel bad about it or feel good in some sick way and we - the libs - have chosen to feel bad about it because we aren’t bad enough to feel good about it
Are dems something new? This feels vaguely like toe faux-humanity of British managers of empire back in the day who wrung their hands at how awful it must be to have the British book stomping your face but considered the boot good and necessary bc “civilization” or some bs.
I hope I live to see a day where you can’t accuse someone of being a “democrat” without starting a fist fight.