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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  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    33·
    3 months ago

    Vibe check this: borrow a white guy

    You call up your friendly local mutual aid people and say “i’ve got a medical appointment/have to go to a mechanic/have to deal with government bureaucracy, i would like to have a mediocre white guy help me out”

    And then this white guy, who has been vetted, sits down with you and you tell him what your problems are, how you’ve been shut down or ignored in the past, what your goals are, and how you want him to help.

    And then you go to your doctor’s appointment and every time the doctor ignores you or tells you it’s normal or tells you to loose weight your white guy interupts the doctor and is all “now, i’m concerned about (thing from the list you gave the white guy) and we need a solutioon blah blah blah” and white guy’s the doctor, who will presumably be more likely to take the white guy seriously.

    And so the idea is, you could get your own mediocre white man pokemon to help you out in situations where a mediocre white guy can apply white male privilege to your advantage.

    I have no intention of ever trying to set something like this up, i’m just curious whether it seems like it’d be useful