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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@[email protected] Finished Twin Peaks. You were right, that is one of the greatest TV finales of all time, possibly the greatest.
spoiler
Insane to think that for decades people were left with an ending that his attempt to save the woman he was in love with just left him possessed by an embodiment of pure evil forever. The whole Black Lodge sequence was top-tier Lynch surrealism, bringing the feeling of sculpture to film. I loved how Windom Earle was so obsessed with getting to the Black Lodge and using its power, and Bob just disposed of him in seconds- in the end he didn’t understand what he was getting into.
The most haunting image was the monstrous white-eyed version of Laura screaming in rage, like it’s the accumulated pain of her life of secrets and abuse and finally her murder at the hands of her own father. The Black Lodge is like a world of pain and horror, and now Coop is trapped there like the dancing dwarf. I need to see FWWM and The Return because I want him to get out.
Oh you should definitely watch the movie and the third season. The best is yet to come.
I’m looking forward to it! I’m on a David Lynch kick right now, and I want to finish his works that I haven’t seen.
When you watch fwwm also watch The Missing Pieces. It’s an extra on the blu ray but I think it’s all on YouTube as well. Lynch took a bunch of scenes cut from the final movie and makes another movie and some stuff in it is relevant to s3. Also every trigger warning for FWWM. It is something else.
Thank you for the tip, I would have missed that.
You’ll also learn about wood