Anti-Fascist Solidarity with the Revolution in Myanmar

Statement of solidarity with the multi-ethnic revolutionary struggle in Myanmar against the military dictatorship.

“We the multitude who have no position in life and everywhere face discrimination and lack equal rights lose nothing by marching into battle. The most we have to lose is the life of slavery that we have presently fallen into. We who are the true owners of the world will succeed in taking back the whole world”. -“The Ogre” -Thakin Po Hla Gyi, Burmese revolutionary anti-imperialist oil field worker, 1938

To the revolutionaries of Myanmar,

We wish you a revolutionary Thingyan and a Ramadan of liberation to our Muslim comrades who have fought and died side by side with their Buddhist, Christian and Hindu neighbors. We stand in solidarity with the popular revolution taking place against the fascist Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) regime. We watch in awe as the levels of creativity and militant resistance seem to grow daily. Our hearts break at the videos of the parents and siblings grieving over the blood drenched bodies of their fallen family members, murdered by heavily armed soldiers. We know that the Tatmadaw has the capacity for much, much worse; we also know that you, the revolutionaries, will never stop fighting, until the end of the world!

This revolution has spread throughout Myanmar society; from a massive country wide general strike to small villages banding together to defend each other with molotovs, swords, slingshots and ancient hunting rifles; facing certain death with shouts of freedom and the knowledge that life under fascist rule is completely untenable for even one moment longer. Doctors and nurses risk their lives to treat protesters while some of been imprisoned for refusing to treat the families of the military. Everyday people have come together to set up autonomous neighborhood committees to organize mutual aid distribution of food and other goods. Brave combatants have attempted to free prisoners by launching attacks against heavily armed soldiers with nothing but knives and shields. Revolutionary student committees have expressed solidarity with the Rohingya people and other ethnic minority groups who have been the victims of terror and genocide at the hands of both the military and the so called democratic regime. The youth, whether they are Kachin, Karen, Bamar, Rohingya, Chinese, Indian, Chin, Shan or any of the other over 100 ethnic minority groups are picking up what ever arms they have and defending each other to the death, hopefully taking out a few of the hated soldiers with them. They are also demanding an end to the system that promotes and maintains a racial supremacy of the Bamar majority and are, perhaps for the first time, showing tangible solidarity across racial and ethnic lines and fighting together for liberation. The youth have declared a common enemy in the military junta.

Anarchists and antifascists in Myanmar were some of the only people to defy anti-Rohingya hate and oppose genocide in Myanmar, and they are out there defying the military dictatorship as well. Peace and justice are only possible when all people are free. https://t.co/yk86ElJD8K

— New York City Antifa (@NYCAntifa) April 18, 2021

We celebrate the news of the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) who have found common cause with the revolution and are providing safe harbor for revolutionaries fleeing repression as well as launching attacks on the Tatmadaw in their areas. The Tatmadaw has waged a brutal war of terror and ethnic cleansing against these minorities in Myanmar since the country gained independence from Britain. The revolutionaries are demanding an end to the Civil War against the ethnic minority groups and for a future of racial, ethnic and religious equality. Solidarity to all the EAOs defending your people, attacking the Tatmadaw and providing safe haven for displaced people and former soldiers.

We honor the hundreds of azani (Burmese word for martyr) who died for their comrades, family and for the birth of a new world, one without fascists or military rule. Let the ghosts of the 10,000 slain by the Tatmadaw in the 1988 uprising and the untold hundreds of thousands “cleansed” in the mountains and countrysides come together to  give strength and resolve to the youth combatants in the streets today who will finally defeat these fascists, these enemies of the people.

#WhatsHappeninginMyanmar
59 days after Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, students, workers, Ⓐ and #antifa continue to fight/resist defying the deadly repression by police and the army.
At least 521 people have been killed since the protests began after the 1 Feb coup. pic.twitter.com/W1LIg7pIy4

— th1an1 (@th1an1) March 31, 2021

Sacrifice, intentionality, decisiveness, knowledge: these are the qualities that define the martyr in Myanmar political thought. They appear and reappear in public discourse every year as those annual tributes take place at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum. Aung San sacrificed his life for the nation—so the thinking goes—but death alone is not enough. A bystander killed by a bomb is no azani; one must seek the confluence of politics and sacrifice knowingly. An azani must choose a political path knowing that to do so is to risk everything. An azani is also one who can boldly—and quickly—“discriminate the proper from the improper,” being in essence “one who knows.”

-From the Pali janiya, or in Burmese, zaniya by Geoff Aung, 2021

At the time of writing this the fascist generals of the Tatmadaw have killed over 600 protesters and imprisoned and tortured thousands since the coup in February. They have indiscriminately bombed the villages and homes of ethnic minority groups killing many and forcing thousands to flee. Soldiers raid homes and shoot at families, killing babies and grand parents. There can be no doubt that the stakes of this movement are revolution or death, nothing less.

Fuck the police from Minneapolis to Mandalay!

Never Forgive Never Forget!

Long live the general strike!

Death to the Tatmadaw!
Death to fascism from Appalachia to Bago!
Long live the village revolutionaries!
Free all arrestees and prisoners!

All Power to the people!
We Will Never Stop, Until the End of the World!

Revolution or death!

-some anti-fascists in the the mountains