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…Myanmar’s Spring Revolution: A Forgotten

Revolution Ongoing

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The world media and the establishment have forgotten about the Myanmar revolution,
commonly referred to as the Spring revolution. Myanmar's people is using Spring�eld
style weapons to retaliate against the military government and is also requesting military
weapons to defend themselves. By targeting educational institutions, places of worship,
and civilians, the Myanmar military has committed numerous war crimes. The
inhabitants, however, were unable to defend themselves since they lacked air defence
weapons. All national liberation movements should not be ignored but handled with
dignity in light of this revolution, where the ethnic majority Bamar and other numerous
ethnic groups have the same objective of removing the military.

Author: Hein Htet Kyaw

Submitted by heinhtetkyaw on October 28, 2022

The revolution in Myanmar has continued after two years of courageous mass resistance.
While the protest movement transitioned from large-scale strikes and rallies to localised
guerrilla protests and nationwide military con�icts, the administration is still cracking

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down brutally.

2021 Coup and Mass Strike

The Myanmar military leadership decided to conduct a coup against the result of a
popular vote election. The National Democratic League, a centre-right neoliberal party
under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, won the election in the 2020 Myanmar general
election under the 2008 constitution, a constitution developed by the military leadership
and its puppets since 2007.
The military junta made sure the electricity and internet were shut down during the
coup attempt. To quell the public's provoked uprisings, they utilised deceitful
propaganda and insincere hopes. It claimed that "if the people don't carry out the strikes
within 72 hours, the United Nations will deploy 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) to
Myanmar in order to overthrow the military regime." Even though this kind of
psychological warfare was initiated by the military junta, it was mainly echoed by some
of the NLD leaders and activists. However, the civil disobedience movement (CDM),
which was organised by students and medical professionals, refuted this "72-hour
propaganda." CDM is a movement where all the peaceful means of resistance are taken
into consideration, ranging from small-scale labour strikes to simply not showing up to
the government jobs.
The very �rst mass movement in Yangon is credited to the Federation of Garment
Workers Myanmar, consisting of thousands of members. The public was inspired by their
initial strike to take to the streets to denounce the new junta. Unfortunately, some well-
known opportunists concealed these facts from the public. Liberals attempted to depict
the workers as followers of a populist politician named Ei Thinzar Maung, a centre-left
civil rights campaigner who was barely there taking photos and was reported to have
disappeared from the crowd afterwards.

The establishment of an exiled government

Inside a Naypyidaw government housing complex, 400 elected members of parliament
(MPs) were placed under house arrest. Social media users started urging MPs to hold a
parliamentary meeting in a government guesthouse because the group had the quorum
necessary to do so. The military responded by issuing a second order granting MPs 24
hours to vacate the guesthouse grounds.
In the meantime, the NLD members who were not arrested and the elected of�cials from
the 2020 general election who were not arrested managed to form an exile committee,
"Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw". Later, CRPH was transformed into an
exiled government called the National Unity Government, along with some other ethnic
leaders and popular �gures.

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Armed struggle for Federal Democratic Union

Several protests were organised by several groups, ranging from student unions to
labour unions, and civil society organisations as well as political parties. The military
junta didn’t hesitate to brutally crack down on the peaceful protests with smoke bombs
and weapons. After a few days, the military junta has ordered to shoot the peaceful
protesters in the head with Uzis, other submachine guns, and even snipers. Despite not
having any military grade weapons or guns to defend themselves, people produced the
metal shield to protect themselves from the bullets, smoke bombs, and so on. Even
though there were some radical youths who wanted to attack back with Molotov
cocktails, the older generations were a bit too reactionary to allow that.
People cannot lawfully possess �rearms in Myanmar. However, some rural communities
have residents who possess hunting ri�es since they rely on hunting for their survival
needs. With their hunting ri�es, locals and hunters began to annoy the professional-
grade soldiers. Due to this, the entire villages were destroyed by airstrikes. The military
junta also used rape as a weapon to terrify the villagers. They didn’t even spare the
disabled women and old women from the rape terror.
Out of anger against the military junta, young adults with college degrees from the metro
region �ed the cities and enlisted in the ethnic army to receive military instructions.
Some folks were forced to sell everything they had to get a �rearm. Early in April 2021,
loosely organised associations began to emerge, primarily in the Chin State's western
and Sagaing Region's north-western hinterlands. The �rst spontaneous movement, the
Chin Land Defense Force (CDF), announced its existence on April 4th.
By the middle of July 2021, more than 125 different urban and rural groups had formally
declared their opposition to the military junta. In late April and early May, there had been
a large increase in the number of groups with diverse skills. These loosely af�liated
militias all swore allegiance to one another and elected to go by the name "People's
Defense Force."

Counter-Revolutionary Violence
The military junta arrested a number of peaceful protestors. Moreover, it’s reported that
if the military junta failed to �nd the people they were looking for, they arrested their
family members at their registered residential address and blackmailed the actual
protestors to turn themselves in to save their family members. Similar situations
happened to the people who had connections with PDF and who had fundraised for
them. Recently, in 2022, the military junta announced that every individual citizen who
has contributed a minimum of 1 Myanmar kyat can be arrested under the terrorism act.
Police brutality is worse for those who have connections with PDFs as they can be
tortured to retrieve sensitive information against them. The military junta used rape and
sexual harassment as a weapon in the prisons against the prisoners. Rape was widely

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sexual harassment as a weapon in the prisons against the prisoners. Rape was widely
perceived as a weapon used against female prisoners by the majority of the population.
However, there was a reporter called Ye Mon who worked for an international media
outlet called "Frontier Myanmar" who testi�ed that he was forced to rape a female
prisoner and had been raped by the soldiers during his prison time. According to a
statement from the All-Burma Federation of Student Unions on February 22, 2022,
soldiers sexually abused a woman and two men while they were being held at Mandalay
Palace. Similar occurrences occurred in numerous other prisons run by the military
dictatorship.According to women's rights campaigner Ei Ei Moe, who was imprisoned
during the military junta, women were surrounded by four or �ve male jail of�cers, made
to kneel, and then hit on the hip while being recorded. In addition, several racist,
homophobic, and transphobic acts were carried out by the soldiers against the prisoners
during their prison time. One of the female prisoners has a Nigerian lover. About �ve or
six of them showed her their male private parts when the interrogators learned of it.
They questioned her, "Do you exclusively prefer a foreigner's private area?" In addition,
she was told to get down on her hands and knees and had cane sticks tapped against her
hip while being photographed. According to the LGBT Alliance-Myanmar, a jail guard
sexually assaulted a transgender prisoner who had been incarcerated in the Monywa
Prison in the Sagaing Region for anti-junta activities.

We need military weapons to defend ourselves

The PDF forces are currently employing Lee-En�eld-style weapons against an army
ranked 39th out of 142 in terms of military power. Even though they can still �ght a
professional army that's equipped with Heckler & Koch G3, IMI Galil, and Type 95
automatic ri�es, PDFs cannot compete with the military's air force. Recently, the military
junta decided to attack a school full of students and teachers with their air force. At least
11 children and 2 adults died as a result.
The military junta justi�ed their attack by claiming that there were PDFs hiding inside
the school to attack their convoy. Myanmar's resistance desperately needs weapons by
any means. Currently, China is unof�cially selling weapons to the ethnic armed groups.
The EAOs sell back to the PDF and resistance forces at an expensive price.

Imperialist Camps in Spring revolution

On the other hand, Myanmar's military is supplied by Russia's imperialist camp, Israel
military contractors, and China's imperialist camp. Yet, it’s important to note that China
still exists as a neutral imperialist camp that hasn’t decided to take a side in this
revolution. They're willing to protect their economic zones as China has a lot of
economic investment and interests. China is vocal about the security and health of Aung
San Suu Kyi. In contrast, China never hesitated to block UN Security Council statements
condemning the military coup in Myanmar. On the other hand, Russia openly supports

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condemning the military coup in Myanmar. On the other hand, Russia openly supports
military juntas by any means possible. Myanmar's ultranationalist Buddhist monks, as
well as top-ranking military of�cers, including the military junta's leader, Min Aung
Hlaing, are welcomed in Russia. Russia is still supplying weapons to the military junta
that will be used to attack civilians, public buildings, and private properties.
The National Unity Government (NUG) and its Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) have
been asking the Federal Reserve to endorse their bid to use $1 billion in funds frozen by
the US. With such budgets, PDF militias can be properly armed and prepared to defend
against the air strikes of the military junta. Moreover, NUG and NUCC are also seeking
western liberal democratic countries to sell military grade weapons at a cheap price.
There is a belief among the public in Myanmar that since Burmese are not white like the
Ukrainians, Burmese are being ignored and will never get military support from the west.
Politically, it’s right to an extent, even though it has nothing to do with race. The western
imperialist camp has nothing to gain from doing so.
Nonetheless, it’s been two years since NUG and NUCC have been begging for western
imperialist camps to help them with military supplies or intervention. But the western
imperialist camp was more reactive than proactive. Recently, some fractions of NUCC
have decided to endorse Chinese imperialism over western imperialism against the
military. They try to compromise with China that China’s economic interests will be
protected and prosperous under their administration. In a statement published by NUCC
in the wake of the 20th national congress of the CPC, NUCC calls for strengthening the
"Pauk-Paw" relationship between the two countries, which means Myanmar will endorse
China’s imperialism. The statement also mentioned that NUCC is eager to work with
China towards restoring peace and stability in Myanmar.

Tinyism: a possible future to a grassroot democratic communes

Ironically, these NUCC factions were critical of the NUG and the previous NLD
administration for keeping quiet about the Rohingya genocide. They accused some
members of the NUG and NLD administration of keeping quiet to work closely with the
military junta in the hope of avoiding a possible coup. In 2022, the same fractions that
managed to get into NUCC decided to ignore the Uyghur genocide to get support from
the Chinese imperialist camp against the military junta. This kind of hypocrisy reveals
that the NUCC leadership is full of opportunistic liberals who are not taking social
justice, human rights, and grass-root democracy seriously.
Myanmar is well-known for having the longest civil war among the ethnic groups for
their independent state rights since its independence. Since the military dictatorships
and the last pseudo-democratic governments under the 2008 constitution, Myanmar has
been divided into seven regions, seven ethnic states, one union territory, one self-
administered division, and �ve self-administered zones. Under the leadership of NUG

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administered division, and �ve self-administered zones. Under the leadership of NUG
and NUCC, the concept of having eight ethnic states with variable self-administered
division as well as zones has been introduced. Seven regions and one union territory will
be merged into a single state for Bamar ethnic people. Super�cially, this seems to be the
solution that will put an end to all the ethnic con�icts in Myanmar. 
Myanmar has 135 distinct ethnic groups but only has 7-8 ethnic states. When the
national question is seriously considered, tinyism is the only solution to a grass-roots
democratic confederation with such diverse ethnic groups. For example, Shan ethnic
state is a state for the Shan ethnic majority in Myanmar. However, Shan itself is a
majority of several minority ethnic groups. For example, within Shan states, there are
several ethnic armed organisations that represent different ethnic groups, such as Shan,
Wa, Pa-O, Ta'ang, and so on. The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) is one of the
largest EAOs in Shan state. RCSS is based on Shan nationalism and is calling for a Shan
independent administration that includes the whole Shan territory. However, the United
Wa State Army, an ethnic military split from the People’s Liberation Army of the
Communist Party of Burma, claims that the Wa ethnic group is different from the Shan
ethnic majority and is demanding an independent administration from the Shan region
itself. Similarly, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed organisation
representing the Ta’ang ethnic group, is also echoing the similar demand that Ta'ang
ethnic groups demand an independent region that’s free from Shan administrations.
Similarly, the Shan ethnic state shares a long borderline with the Kachin ethnic state.
Since they shared a long border, there were a lot of migrations between each state. As a
result, there are some Shan ethnic people in Kachin state and some Kachin ethnic people
in the Shan region. Thus, these areas are historically claimable by both sides. Some Shan
ethnic people inside Kachin state are demanding those Shan-condensed areas from the
Kachin state be a part of the Shan region. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which
represents Kachin nationalism, refused to accept such a split. Due to these disputes, the
KIA itself became divided, and the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) was created to
liberate those areas from the Kachin ethnic group.
Such kinds of nationalist con�icts among diverse ethnic groups might be solved by
having autonomous regions for every ethnic group. Then, if the neighbouring ethnic
states still insist on forming a federal administration or confederal administration, such
an alliance should be conducted voluntarily. Neither ready-made band-aid solutions
from liberal leadership of having eight ethnic states within a union nor the Bamar
chauvinist solution of maintaining the status quo by force will solve such complex
nationalist ethnic liberation movements. Advocacy movements should be carried out to
replace nationalism with communal consciousness in a near future to achieve the
legitimate communal tinyism that will put an end to the spooky concepts known as the
state and nationalist organisations. Such movements shouldn’t limit themselves within

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state and nationalist organisations. Such movements shouldn’t limit themselves within

Myanmar region and extend to neighbouring states to weaken the imperialist nature of
neighbouring countries. 

Summary
Summing up, the concept of having eight ethnic states within a union under some
neoliberal government is more likely to be the result of this revolution if the people failed
to organise themselves spontaneously to create democratic autonomous regions that are
run communally. In the worst-case scenario, the military junta might be able to maintain
the status quo if the PDFs didn’t get enough military supports.

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