Uphold Democracy! No to Military Junta!

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) expresses its warmest solidarity and support to the peoples of Myanmar in their unfaltering resistance against the military junta and its atrocities against the people.

Since the junta grabbed power in February 1, more than 700 people were killed and 3,000 arrested. On April 9 alone, soldiers used machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to attack the barricades set up by protesters in the city of Bago, killing 82 people.

The military systematically uses lethal and disproportionate force against the civilian population in an attempt to eliminate any opposition and instill fear among the population.

Doctors, health workers and first-aiders are not spared from attacks. Reports have shown the military purposely preventing medical aid to injured protesters and civilians by killing, arresting and threatening anyone who provides medical aid to those injured. The military has also released a wanted list of well-known personalities in Myanmar who are opposed to junta.

Despite the attacks, the people continue to heroically resist and take to the streets to protest against the military rule. Meanwhile, guerilla forces of ethnic groups such as Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have organized offensives of their own against the police and military, attacking military outposts and cutting off supply routes. The military has been retaliating through bombing territories in the Karen region and KIA bases, killing and wounding several people, and displacing thousands.

Internationally, the military junta is becoming increasingly isolated as solidarity protests around the world put pressure to governments to condemn the coup, the military junta and the massacres and mass arrest it perpetuates.

As the political situation in Myanmar unravels, imperialists’ interests are also exposed with China leading the pack of having the largest share in foreign economic and political influence in Myanmar. A third of all garment factories, the booming sector in Myanmar, are Chinese-owned. Throughout the years, China has built its control in Myanmar that it considers as an important gateway to the Indian Ocean. It has forged with Myanmar the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and has also promised Myanmar’s cooperation for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), both of which will cause environmental destruction and the expulsion of indigenous groups from their ancestral lands.

China also remains the main supplier of arms, with the five biggest suppliers are listed as China North Industries Group (NORINCO), the Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp. (CASIC), and the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC).  

Imperialist contradictions dictate for the US and the EU to condemn the repression in Myanmar. China, however, is not the only one with bloody hands as imperialist support to the ruling system that has prevailed over Myanmar meant the oppression of people to pave the way for plunder of its resources, control of economy, and enrichment of ruling cliques as the Tatmadaw. These happen at the expense of the people including the various indigenous peoples and, more recently, the Rohingya Moslems who have been killed, rounded up or massively displaced to bordering countries which made their lands conveniently available for military appropriation after their villages were razed to the ground.

The democratic struggles of the people of Myanmar are just and their democratic demands will not be met by the fascist military junta. The democratic rights of all people in Myanmar will not be achieved without also the dismantling of the economic, political and social system that benefits elites and their foreign patrons,

As the people struggle to end the military regime, the fight for a genuinely democratic society that is without any foreign influences or dictates is also before the people’s movement in Myanmar. We in the ILPS believe the struggles of workers, peasants, youth and indigenous peoples will push on until a truly free, democratic, peaceful and just Myanmar is achieved.

Long live the Myanmar people!

Long liver international solidarity!