[Marxism] U.S. strategy toward 1988, 2007 uprisings

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Second part of the Workers World series on
the Myanmar opposition and the changing views
of the U.S. government toward the opposition
movements which have arisen there.)
..............................................

Myanmar-Burma
U.S. strategy toward 1988, 2007 uprisings

http://www.workers.org/2007/world/myanmar-1108/

PART 2

By Sara Flounders
Published Nov 1, 2007 9:24 PM

    * PART 1
      Myanmar: Washington's geopolitics and the Straits of Malacca

Myanmar is the most ethnically diverse state in mainland Southeast Asia. The 
Burmese
nationality comprises around 68 percent of the population. A third of the 
population
are historically oppressed nationalities. The government recognizes eight major 
nationalities and 135 distinct ethnic groups.

Myanmarâs multiethnic character and the ethnic minoritiesâ struggle against 
Burmese
domination is a recurring theme in Myanmarâs history. So also was the deep 
anti-colonial
sentiment and opposition to decades of British colonial rule.

In 1989 after brutally suppressing a popular national uprising, the military 
dictatorship
renamed the country âThe Union of Myanmarâ in an effort to gain some 
popular support
and reflect the many nationalities instead of just the Burmese. Government 
officials
said the change in the countryâs name would better reflect the countryâs 
ethnic 
diversity and provide a release from the British colonial past.

Myanmar and its capital city Yangon were the original names before the British 
Colonial
Administration renamed them Burma and Rangoon.

The United Nations and many individual states have accepted Myanmar as the 
countryâs
name, as they have many other countries that renamed themselves. Only Britain, 
the
former colonial power, and the U.S. insist on using the name Burma, as do some 
opponents
of the military junta who are more closely tied to the West. In referring to the
countryâs history before 1989, Burma is the appropriate name.
Anti-colonial history

There is a long history of resistance to the British conquest and occupation of 
Burma in the 19th and 20th centuries that still resonates in Myanmar today. From
1822 until 1947 the British Empire fought five wars of conquest in Burma. 
Throughout
this struggle the British used differences among the many different national and
ethnic-linguistic groupings to benefit British rule.

As in many other national liberation struggles, the opposition to racist 
colonial
rule drew in a broad spectrum of the population. Along with millions of workers 
and small peasants, all of the liberation struggles drew in the religious 
leaders,
poets, artists, intellectuals and the local business and merchant classes. 
Buddhist
monks were the leading symbol of many protests against British rule. The current
monk-led protests are part of a tradition of Burmese/Myanmar popular action to 
unpopular
and repressive regimes.

The movement for national liberation in Burma included a broad communist 
opposition
to imperialism and a bourgeois national opposition of local business interests 
opposed
to colonial rule. Where, at the end of World War II, the British, French and 
U.S.
could no longer maintain the old colonial domination, they instead tried to 
guarantee
that bourgeois forces tied to imperialism, forces that would continue the 
established
economic relations, would be recognized as the new emerging governments.

Revolutionary communists led the political awakening that swept Asia, especially
the Chinese Revolution and the National Liberation struggles in Korea, Vietnam, 
Laos and Cambodia. In Indonesia and Malaysia, communist movements were brutally 
repressed. All of these political currents were reflected in Burma. A Burmese 
military
regime without a popular base nevertheless yielded to mass pressure and 
nationalized
most of the industries and resources. The regime suffered a series of military 
coups.

After independence there were many different uprisings and rebellions against 
the
new Burmese government. The Karen, Kachin, Shan, Mon, Arakan, Chin and other 
national
and ethnic groups fought armed struggles to assert their rights. Peace 
agreements
and ceasefires have been signed from time to time without resolving issues of 
autonomy
and federalism.

The Burmese Communist Party was active against the British and Japanese 
occupations,
and after independence in 1948 they launched a rebellion against the government 
that lasted for 40 years in the rural areas of the north along the Chinese 
border.
There were powerful urban movements, workersâ movements with socialist 
leadership,
peasant uprisings, pro-democracy protests and popular rebellions.
The â8888â Uprising

The most significant revolutionary uprising against the regime took place in 
1988.
U.S. imperialism took a much different attitude toward the 1988 uprising from 
its
support of the demonstrations last month. It showed that imperialism evaluates 
these
struggles based on whether they threaten or support imperialist interests.

Similar to this yearâs struggle, the 1988 demonstrations began with 
opposition to
sharp price increases for food and fuel and with student actions against 
political
repression and religious processions. This was known as the â8888 Uprisingâ 
because
after several months of escalating actions, the active forces set Aug. 8, 1988 
as
the beginning of a national general strike against the regime.

At eight minutes past eight on Aug. 8, dock workers in the port of Rangoon 
walked
out and began a march into the city. They were joined by processions that 
brought
the whole city into the streets. Tens of thousands of peasants came in from the 
countryside. Simultaneous demonstrations and strike actions broke out throughout
the countryâin Mandalay, Sagaing, Shwebo, Moulmein, Taunggyi and many other 
towns.
The military fired into the demonstrations and hundreds were killed.

A revolutionary upheaval followed. People established Popular Councils in cities
and towns across the country. The state apparatus disintegrated. There were 
mutinies
of military units and police forces crumbled. People stormed prisons and 
released
thousands of political prisoners, seized warehouses and distributed rice. Mass 
organizations
and revolutionary committees sprang up that took over essential tasks of urban 
lifeâfrom
running hospitals to directing traffic.

The National Democratic Frontârepresenting 10 armed guerilla organizations of 
various
oppressed nationalitiesâissued a proclamation calling for a coordinated 
military
offensive and raising their own demands of autonomy and equality and solidarity 
with the revolutionary upheaval.

Unlike their favorable coverage of the monksâ demonstrations this past 
September,
the corporate media in the U.S. warned in 1988 of rising anarchy and said that 
Burma
was spiraling into chaos. Imperialist governments ordered their embassy staffs 
to
evacuate. No one arrived from the U.N. to support this democratic movement. No 
one
called for sanctions against the generals.

The generals responded by seeking to divide the movement and regain the 
allegiance
of the property owning and middle-class elements. They promised to lift business
restrictions, open the economy to foreign investments, negotiate new loans and 
restructure
the economy. U.S. and Japanese banks quickly granted $3.8 billion in loans.

U.S. corporations such as Unocal, today Chevron, quickly moved in to take 
advantage
of the militaryâs brutal repression by getting big concessions from the 
military
dictatorship for the gas and oil fields. Myanmar has copper, tin, tungsten, 
iron,
along with petroleum and natural gas. It has large forests of hardwood trees 
andâonce
the worldâs largest exporter of riceâit has rich agricultural land. All of 
these
resources are of great interest to multinational corporations.

The generals promised new elections. The dictator U Ne Win resigned. There was a
new shuffle of faces among the generals. Then on Sept. 18, 1988, the regime 
declared
a State of Emergency. The martial law crackdown was so severe that 3,000 to 
10,000
leaders and grassroots activists were killed within days and tens of thousands 
rounded
up and imprisoned for years. Repression and military rule have continued for 19 
years.

The 1988 uprising did pave the way for the 1990 Peopleâs Assembly elections, 
the
first held in 30 years. The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu 
Kyi,
won over 60 percent of the vote and over 80 percent of parliamentary seats in 
the
election. Senior General Saw Maungâs government subsequently annulled the 
election
results.

After 1988âs brutal repression and with the more revolutionary leadership of 
the
1988 movement dead, in jail or on the run, the U.S. began funding an opposition 
to the generals that was deemed friendlier to U.S. corporate interests.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the George Soros Open Society 
Institute,
Freedom House, the Albert Einstein Institute and the U.S. State Department have 
helped in funding, training and providing material support and communication for
a new generation of opposition to the generalâs rule.

NED funds of $2.5 million annually since 2003 have focused on regime change. The
NED admits to funding the key opposition media such as New Era Journal, 
Irrawaddy
and the Democratic Voice of Burma radio. The U.S. Consulate General office in 
neighboring
Thailand, now under a dictatorship that is friendly to U.S. interests, has 
provided
key logistical support and training. Whether these subversive organizations can 
control Myanmarâs mass movement remains to be seen.

U.S. covert support for the opposition in Myanmar is based on a rapidly 
expanding
U.S. involvement back into South Asia. Growing U.S. corporate concern with 
Chinaâs
growth and the Pentagonâs drive to implant a new generation of U.S. bases to 
control
the Straits of Malacca is leading to a renewed U.S. involvement in the region. 
Some
80 percent of the oil bound for China passes through these straits.

The real attitude of U.S. imperialism toward the movement in Myanmar will not be
guided by Washingtonâs concern for democratic change. It will depend on U.S. 
economic
interests and strategic military plans in the region.

====================================
Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba
"Un paraÃso bajo el bloqueo"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
====================================

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