Happening on August 8, 1988, 8888 uprising, known as People Uprising,was a historical severe and bloody protest with approximate one million people in Burma, including a number of students, who were cracked down by military led by Ne Win, who ruled the country dictatorially. In response to the dictatorship, the protestors carried out the demonstration against the leadership of Ne Win aimed at claiming political rights and democracy, leaving 3,000 to 10,000 people dead. The following part will describe more detail about the main root causes of 8888 uprising. - What are the main root causes of 8888 uprising in Myanmar? - Is the uprising caused by failure of Burma to socialism? - Is the uprising a consequence of economic failure? - Did …show more content…
In response to protests led by students against his dictatorial leadership, Ne Win abolished students unions and dynamited student union buildings at Rangoon University, leaving 100 university students dead. All unions immediately started to violate laws, restricting the basic civil rights of millions of people. This is considered a part of root cause of student-led protests which led to 8888 uprising. In addition to that, demonetizing three-fourth bank notes caused students unable to afford their tuition fee, resulting in the closure of universities and high schools(The Role of Students in the 8888 People’s Uprising in Burma, 2011).Consequently, the dissatisfaction of students was building, leading to a seemingly innocuous fight between students and civilian over the selection of music in a teashop near the Rangoon University,sparkinga major upheaval. The participants were,subsequently, arrested by police coming to intervene into the fight to stop the conflict, clubbing one person to death in the process. Others were left locked in the police van for hours in the midday heat, leaving 41 students dead of suffocation. Surprisingly, one protagonist who was the son of a senior Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP) member. On 21 June 1988, following the fight in tea shop, a protest led by students at Rangoon University was brutally and bloodily quelled, which left hundred people dead. After the bloody massacre of students, General Ne Win resigned as chairman of BSPP and as a member of the party and nominated SeinLwin, known as the Butcher, to replace his position; however, he still held power from behind the scenes(Kingsbery, 2005). Students believed that SeinLwin, who had advised Ne Win to dynamite student union buildings during Ne Win’s authority, would not lead to a reform which students wanted; therefore, they started to mobilize people; including labors, students, and
After the Second World War, the Soviet Union spread their political ideology among the countries of East Central Europe. Instantly, Josef Stalin spread Stalinization across each of the countries to assert Soviet control. He created totalitarian governments with limited freedoms for its citizens. Following the death of Stalin, the new leader of the Soviet Union, Nika Khrushchev, began changing the repressive policies of Stalin, opening the doors to the countries of East Central Europe to challenge the rule of the Soviets. Using the Soviet Thaw as an opportunity to reform the system of government, many countries including Hungary and Czechoslovakia had uprisings against Soviet Rule. The Hungarian Revolution and the Prague Spring were uprisings against the Soviet Union that both ended in defeat with Soviet Union. However, the outcomes for both countries differed in many ways because of the differences in the motives for the uprising, the loss of life and the differences in the leadership of the uprisings.
One of the most violent protests of the Vietnam War took place in May of 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio. Protests were common across America during the war but this was by far the most violent. On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University protesters, killing four and wounding nine of the Kent State students. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that caused many colleges and universities to shut down . This deeply divided the country politically and made ordinary citizens take notice of the protests that were taking place across the nation’s college campuses.
The perspective from the students is that there was no immediate danger, therefore the shootings were unjustified. According to John Cleary, who was one of the nine injured students, and a person very much against the war, he still feels that the guards had no reason to fire upon the students. Students do not think their action was wrong. They were not supporting invasion in Cambodia and wanted to express their thoughts by protesting. So the guardsmen had no reason to shoot them and stop them unless the national government
were put to death. Even though the original opinion of the people about the uprising wasn’t in favor of it, after the death of the leaders they were outraged. (Coogan,”Troubles” pgs. 19-25)
When 15,000 workers walk out of a factory in one day and start a picket line, it’s bound to catch the interest of the press. But when the strike lasts for 14 weeks and shuts down a shirtwaist plant, they mean business. Especially when the strike, lead by all women in the early 1900s, something completely unheard of. In the 1910s women had about as many rights as blacks did, and though they had “freedom” they were discriminated by color all the same. At the start of an industrial revolution immigration to the cities was colossal, many people lived in ghettos and learned that good, well paying jobs were often hard to find. Low income meant that large families had a hard time paying their bills. No money to pay the bills lead to women and children dropping out of school and going to work in large overcrowded factories. When the heat and the pressure of large amounts of work and not enough pay became too much for them they decided to revolt. While women were arrested and sent to workhouses slowing progression, the Uprising of the 20,000 improved working conditions for sweatshop workers and proved women could make a difference in a man’s world.
Students at the University of Missouri, specifically the Concerned Student 1950 activist group, began a resistance movement to remove the university’s president, Tim Wolfe. The university saw a rise in the number of racist incidents, but the president did not take any action. Some of the racist incidents include “a swastika, drawn in excrement” and the “screaming of racial insults, including the ‘N-word” at the head of the Missouri Students Association (“Missouri”). The students began protesting by standing in front of the president’s car at a parade, but when that didn’t garner a response they began to resist in more extreme methods. Jonathan Butler, a graduate student at the University of Missouri, went on a hunger strike, refusing to eat until the president, who took little action against the racist incidents, chose to resign. Hunger strikes, much like abortions, are a form of resistance that can be categorized by inward violence. After a week without food, Tim Wolfe resigned and Butler was able to end his hunger strike (Lowery). The students at Missouri were able to use resistance successfully to create a change in their university’s leadership. Not only did they succeed in changing the leadership, but they gained the attention of the entire nation. Their actions are causing citizens all around the country to think about existing
Malaysia is no stranger to online and offline Civil Disobedience. The most famous occurrence of violent rioting and protest in Malaysian history was the riot of 13 May 1969. Since then, the government has often used 13 May as a fear-tactic to remind and to discourage citizens from protesting and rioting. No other mass rioting had occurred in the country until 1997, amidst the Asian Financial Crisis and exacerbated by the sudden dismissal and defamation of then Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim. This was also the first known account of widely used Electronic Civil Disobedience as people utilized message-boards to communicate with each other and mobilize a mass movement.
In The Quest of Democracy, Kyi argues that human rights is what democracy is and that democracy was always in Buddhist traditions. Once democracy became known in Burma, people got interested to know what democracy more in depth. It got people wanting to learn about modern politics and the nature of democracy. The idea of democracy was getting a good response due to a guarantee for privileges and freedom. However, it was also being questioned because how can they be sure that the system will always work. The burmese people became knowledgeable through Buddha. They had gone undergone through many
Twenty five years ago, almost one million protesters, many of which were students, crowded the streets of Tiananmen Square; however, they were unaware of the tragic consequences they would be forced to face only a few weeks later. The group of protesters held daily vigils, marched, and chanted for three weeks, and then armed Chinese troops stormed through the square. Many of the student protesters tried to escape, however there were a few who chose to fight back against the Chinese forces. According to Marquand, “The victims were not only students, but ordinary people who were outraged that the soldiers of a people’s army had been given warrant to shoot the people” (Hay 47). The Tiananmen Square Massacre remains a significant historical event because it was the first major pro-democracy protest in China, and the incident ignited similar protests across the country.
Through this we see that the author’s point of view is someone who understands that the events that took place that morning in Burma, were not humane and degrading.
In order to develop a general framework with which to understand collective political violence, I examine state mass killings in Indonesia 1965-66. While acknowledging the importance of historical/cultural factors, I identify elements within the sociopolitical sphere that influence actors of collective political violence at national, local, and event- specific levels. Elements discussed are elite interests, justification for violence, formal organizations, and mobilization factors. Finally, I suggest future preventative policy measures.
This was one of the many protests that were led by the civilians of the P.R.C. in the latter half of the 1980s that protested the communistic government that was in place which sought to have a democratic government established. However, it took a turn for the worse when the Chinese military started firing on the pro-democracy protesters on June 4, 1989 and killed hundreds of them (Richelson and Evans). This massacre caused the U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush to announce sanctions on China that prevented the U.S. and China from commercially selling weapons to each other (Richelson and Evans). This differed from the past actions of former presidents in that they did not send troops over to defend the people of China like they did in sending troops to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
These conditions were clearly morally deplorable, and the coup caused a change from aristocrats to an Indonesian business class, seen as a victory over communism at the climax of the Cold War. Seeing as similar killings happened right after Indonesia’s, one would think that the generals did not learn their lesson on moral validity. The inevitability of people being killed waters down the big question of moral validities by the minute. In the end, it all comes down to the point of view; depending on the point of view, any side’s moral values could be seen
Though Burma became independent in 1948, a military junta took over in 1962. This military junta was initially a single-party socialist system. General Ne Win was the dictator at this time. He didn’t
...s which came about as a result of the riot. The workers received an increase in wages of 1 shilling per day along with a free meal. The Secret Ballot was made permanent in 1946 and there was a rebirth in the trade unions. Also, even though it took over ten years, the Burma Road riot certainly encouraged the development of political parties which came about in 1953. This riot also brought about an increase awareness of black consciousness in the hearts and minds of the black Bahamians.