Mass Strikes and Need for Communism here ♦ Islamophobia and Racism obstacles here ♦
Striking garment workers in Myanmar
Mass Strikes and Street Protests in Myanmar (Burma): Let’s Fight Everywhere for the Communist World Workers Need
March 27—Thousands of young garment workers are bravely leading mass resistance to the Tatmadaw military that seized power in a coup on February 1. Close to half a million workers toil in Myanmar’s 600+ garment sweatshops.
In Hlaingthaya, a garment district outside Yangon, some have burned down the Chinese-owned factories where their super-exploited labor produced clothes for brands like Zara and L.L. Bean.
Day after day, protesters confront soldiers who have already killed hundreds of people, including children. Strikes have also shut down banks, government offices and more.
We are inspired by the bravery of the Myanmar masses. Before 2017, the Tatmadaw – the main section of the Burmese capitalist class – ruled as an open dictatorship. The masses refuse to return to that time. But are they ready to move forward to communist workers’ power? Are we?
Need Armed Insurrection for Communism, Not Civil Disobedience for Democracy
The anti-coup movement started as mass “civil disobedience” demanding freedom for the jailed Suu Kyi and the return of civilian government.
Some workers see their strike as a personal decision to stay away from the job, rather than as a collective struggle to shut down production. But this is a political strike that openly aims to “restore democracy” – that is, to change the form of the capitalist state. Over nearly eight weeks, it has come close to its goal of making it impossible for the Tatmadaw to rule.
There is a real and immediate potential for armed insurrection in Myanmar. Some soldiers have refused to follow orders to shoot unarmed protesters. They have fled across the border to Bangladesh.
Ethnic minorities are about one-third of Myanmar’s mainly-Buddhist population. Historically divided by different and sometimes competing interests, they are now uniting against the military rulers. The Arakan Army (AA) is one of the largest among two dozen ethnic armed groups in Myanmar. This week it declared support for the popular movement. The AA has fought army troops since 2018 for greater autonomy for the western Rakhine State, home to the Rohingya Muslims (see box).
Another armed group, the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army – South (RCSS), also denounced the coup. It warned the military that it would no longer stand by as it killed civilian protesters.
But this movement does not aim to abolish capitalism. A political strike or an armed nationalist insurrection isn’t the communist revolution needed by urban and rural workers of all ethnicities and religions.
Our International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) must find ways of taking advantage of situations like that in Myanmar to mobilize and recruit soldiers, workers, and youth specifically for the goal of communism.
For a society without money or profits, without borders or exploitation. A world where the working masses feel and understand ourselves to be one family, undivided by religion or ethnicity. Where we ourselves, collectively, make and carry out all the decisions affecting our lives.
Communism: The Way Forward
The ICWP is one international party, not a coalition of national communist parties. We have no “national sections.” Wherever communism takes power, it will eliminate all national borders within liberated areas. When it triumphs worldwide, there will be no nations and no refugees.
The ICWP is a mass party, open to all who choose to work collectively toward our shared communist goal. That includes those who identify with any religious faith or heritage. At the same time, our party fights for a dialectical and historical materialist understanding of the world.
In the long run, we think, masses will find less and less need of religion. We will find power and connection in our shared work and community. We will create on earth the world of which we once could only dream.
For more about Myanmar, see Red Flag v. 12 #2 here
Islamophobia and Racism Hold Back Mass Struggle
The Tatmadaw has terrorized Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority with a genocidal campaign since 2017.
The civilian figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi (now imprisoned) was hailed by US and European human rights groups as a “humanitarian hero.” But she, too, enforced anti-Rohingya laws. She now seems to be losing prestige among the masses.
Rohingya people have taken extraordinary risks to escape this genocide. But countries like Australia and India have often intercepted them. The government of Manipur (northeast India) has prohibited local authorities and the civil society from feeding or sheltering them.
Over a million Rohingya people, adults and children, have been stuck for years in squalid refugee camps, mainly in Bangladesh, without work or hope.
On March 22, a devastating fire swept through the huge Cox’s Bazar refugee camp. Hundreds are injured, missing, or dead. Tens of thousands are without shelter.
Some non-Rohingya workers, youth and others in Myanmar are openly self-critical for failing to support their Muslim neighbors. This is changing. Since the coup, Rohingya in Bangladesh and in Myanmar – notably including the AA — support the mainly non-Rohingya anti-coup protests.
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