Sixty fighting years

The Communist Party of Burma (CPB) celebrated its 60th anniversary on 
August 15, 1999. We publish below a short outline of the history from a 
leading member of the CPB, an account of 60 years of unrelenting and often 
bloody struggle.

In the early 19th century, Britain, already in control of India, began to 
covet the neighbouring kingdom of Burma. The British encouraged a movement 
(based in Bengal) for the "independence" of the Burmese province of Arakan.

The British plans were thwarted, however, by the military successes of the 
Burmese general Maha Bandula. This prompted a British naval attack, 
launching the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826).

The Treaty of Yandabo which ended the war left the British in control not 
only of Arakan (to the west of the Irrawaddy delta) but also of Tenasserim 
to the east of it.

Britain had only paused in its conquest, however, and the remainder of the 
delta was annexed in the Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852).

British commercial ambition, heightened by imperialist rivalry with France 
in the region, precipitated the final annexation of the rest of the kingdom 
when Mandalay fell after a brief battle in 1885. Since that time, the 
Burmese people have never given up their fight to regain their 
independence.

Independence struggle

This struggle reached a peak in 1938, when an anti-British general strike -
- the biggest and broadest in Burma's history — overran the whole country. 
The striking workers were joined by the peasants who marched on Rangoon. 
Students deserted their class rooms and joined the workers and peasants.

It was this unprecedented anti-British movement in Burma, a national and 
class struggle, which, combined with the movement to disseminate Marxist 
ideology, provided the preconditions for the emergence of a Communist 
Party.

The Communist Party of Burma (CPB) was officially founded on 15th August 
1939, by uniting all the Marxist groups in Burma. The core of the CPB 
leadership led the anti-British struggles until 1941.

In 1941, after the Hitlerites treacherously attacked the Soviet-Union, the 
CPB changed its tactics and took up the anti-Fascist struggle. In 1942, 
Burma was invaded by Japan.

[Although some Burmese nationalists were initially taken in by the Japanese 
pose as "liberators" from European colonialism,] the CPB worked untiringly 
to oppose the Japanese Fascists and actively prepared for armed struggle 
against them.

Anti-fascist struggle

In 1944, under the leadership of the CPB, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom 
League (AFPFL) was formed, incorporating the nationalist Burma Independence 
Army under General Aung San and other patriotic forces.

Many Party members were killed or maimed in the torture chambers of the 
Japanese military police. But the lives and blood sacrificed by the Burmese 
Communists and the revolutionary conduct shown by them before the enemy 
served as a great stimulus for smashing Japanese Fascism in Burma.

On 27th March, 1945, the Burmese people, under the leadership of the CPB, 
started their armed uprising against the Japanese in Burma. From that day 
to the end of the war in the Burma theatre, the CPB's armed forces 
accounted for more than 60 percent of the total casualties suffered by the 
Japanese Fascists in Burma (a fact acknowledged by the British South-East 
Asia Command).

In May 1945, the CPB for the first time in its history was permitted to 
work as an open legal party.

Communist Party legalised

The now legal CPB once again turned to struggling against British 
imperialism which had regained possession of Burma. The AFPFL, now openly 
organised under the leadership of the CPB, launched many political and 
economic struggles with the aim of gaining complete independence from 
Britain.

In August 1946, the CPB led the greatest general strike in the post-war 
period, in which workers, peasants, servicemen and even the police took 
part. The British now manoeuvred to split the AFPFL.

In September, they asked the AFPFL to form a cabinet. The first AFPFL 
Cabinet included a Communist as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry but in 
October 1946, British manoeuvres were successful and the AFPFL expelled the 
Communists.

After the expulsion of the Communists, the AFPFL under Aung San compromised 
with British imperialism and signed the Aung San-Atlee agreement which 
granted formal independence to Burma, while perpetuating Britain's economic 
grip on the country.

Peasants' and workers' struggles

From May 1945 until March 1948, the CPB led various strikes by the workers' 
and peasants' movements in the countryside. During this period, all the 
trade union organisations in Burma were organised by the CPB which also 
organised a Peasant Union whose paid up membership reached a total of 
nearly one million.

In the first parliamentary elections in April 1947, the CPB emerged as the 
biggest opposition Party and the leader of the CPB Parliamentary group 
became Leader of the Opposition. The CPB continued to combine parliamentary 
struggles with extra-parliamentary struggles. 

[In July 1947, U Saw, a nationalist political rival of Aung San, had him 
and six Ministers of the new government assassinated. U Nu, a former 
student leader and the Foreign Minister in the wartime government of Ba 
Maw, was asked to head the AFPFL and the government.] In 1948, another mass 
upsurge began. The workers of the Burma Oil Company (BOC) went on strike. 
The peasants in the countryside began carrying out wide-spread mass 
struggles against the landlords and usurers, campaigning against evictions 
and organising hunger marches. Office workers and white-collar employees 
also prepared for a general strike.

In order to suppress this revolutionary upsurge of the masses, the ruling 
class of Burma, at the instigation of British imperialism, cracked down on 
the CPB, national minorities and other democratic forces. The Government 
launched an armed attack against the CPB on March 28, 1948.

Military coups

This began the Burmese civil war. Unfortunately, despite subsequent changes 
in government including three military coups, the civil war continues, 
contrary to the desire of the people. Started by the ruling class of Burma 
with British backing, it has been going on for 43 years.

[In 1958, U Nu was ousted by a "caretaker army government" (led by General 
Ne Win) for 18 months. The 1960 election gave a resounding victory to U Nu 
but his return to power was short-lived: he was deposed in a coup that re-
established military rule under Ne Win in March 1962.] In June, 1963, 
NeWin's military government was compelled by mass pressure to start peace 
talks with the CPB. The negotiations lasted until November, when they were 
finally broken up by the Burmese Government making totally unreasonable 
demands.

On November 10 a hundred thousand people demonstrated in Rangoon for an end 
to the civil war. The next day, the Burmese Government gave the CPB 
delegation an ultimatum to agree to the Government's demands or the 
negotiations would be broken off.

The Government demanded that:

(a) the CPB, before a cease-fire, inform the Government of the whereabouts 
of all CPB troops and party members and of mass organisations;

(b) the CPB assemble by a specified date all their armed troops and their 
party members inside an area to be stipulated by the Government, which they 
were then not to leave;

(c) CPB members (including leaders) must obtain permission from the 
Government if they wanted to move from one stipulated area to another;

(d) the CPB stop all organisational activities of the Party and other mass 
organisations;

(e) the CPB cease raising funds.

The CPB delegation proposed that such political demands be discussed when 
the full delegation of the CPB came out for the final negotiation with the 
Government but the Burmese Government refused to consider the proposals and 
broke off the negotiations unilaterally.

After breaking off the negotiations, the Government launched a wide-spread 
military offensive against the CPB and its allied forces. The CPB was 
compelled to defend itself against the military and thus the civil war 
rages on in Burma.

Today, the ruling class of Burma is still waging an unjust war, whereas the 
CPB and other democratic forces are waging a just war — to safeguard 
complete national and economic independence, to restore the people's 
democratic rights, for peace and for satisfying the demands of the peasants 
for land.

Civil war

The civil war in Burma has resulted in enormous loss of lives and property, 
consuming over 60 percent of the annual state budget. The Burmese national 
economy has been whittled away and Burma reduced to one of the least 
developed countries in the world.

Political, economic and social conditions in Burma are deteriorating day by 
day, due to the civil war. For many years now the CPB has called for an end 
to the civil war through negotiation on a democratic basis.

The communists have left no stone unturned in their efforts to stop the 
civil war. They know that without the ending of the civil war, no 
political, economic and social problems can be solved in the interests of 
the people.

In 1980, Ne Win's government was once again compelled to agree to the 
proposal of the CPB for new peace negotiations, which lasted from 1980 into 
1981. In the interests of peace and the basic interests of the people, the 
CPB made concessions to the Government.

However, Ne Win's government demanded that the Communist Party abolish 
itself, its armed forces and it's base areas and accept the one-party 
dictatorship of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). It was crystal 
clear that the Government had no intention of abandoning its one-party 
dictatorship or the continuation of civil war.

The Government unilaterally declared that it had dissolved the peace 
negotiations once and for all. For its part, the CPB reiterated that it was 
still all in favour of continuing peace talks. It was up to the Government 
to change the reactionary policy of continuing the civil war.

In 1988, an unprecedented mass upsurge swept over the whole country. 
Beginning with the students' movement it quickly spread to become a 
country-wide political mass struggle which embraced all classes and strata 
of the population.

It was the manifestation of the contradiction between the multi-national 
population and the one-party dictatorship of the military regime.

A series of demonstrations, popularly known as the "8888" movement, 
revealed that the whole people of Burma were dissatisfied with the line and 
policies pursued by the country's ruling class, including continuing the 
civil war.

The people could no longer tolerate the deteriorating conditions of the 
country or the 26 years of tyrannical one-party military dictatorship.

CPB's demands

The CPB, having analysed the concrete situation in the country, had put 
forward as early as March 1988, the following proposal to the patriotic 
democratic forces and the entire people:

(a) To abolish the one-party dictatorship of the BSPP and form a 
provisional government;

(b) To abrogate Burma's existing constitution and draw up a new 
constitution guaranteeing democratic rights and satisfying the demands of 
the people;

(c) To give the provisional government the tasks of:

"Abolish the one-party dictatorship of the BSPP and replace it with a 
provisional government" became the slogan of the entire Burmese people.

[Anti-government protests in March and June 1988 led Ne Win to resign as 
BSPP chairman in July. In August a national strike was declared and the 
BSPP Government was forced to resign and agree to new elections.

[Hundreds of new political parties were formed, including the National 
League for Democracy (NLD) formed by a number of disabused ex-military 
officers and Aung San's daughter, Suu Kyi, recently returned from 23 years 
living abroad.]

Faced with the imminent downfall of the BSPP, the military leadership 
headed by General Saw Maung, chief of staff under Ne Win, and Khin Nyunt 
seized power in September 1988 with the purpose of perpetuating their 
tyrannical rule.

SLORC: brutal suppression

They formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and 
brutally suppressed the mass movement, massacring students, monks, and 
patriotic elements all over the country.

It was known to everybody that the military takeover was planned by the 
BSPP leadership and the prime mover was none other than Ne Win, pulling the 
strings from behind the scenes.

[On 20 July 1989, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. When 
elections were finally held in May 1990, the NLD won an overwhelming 
victory but the SLORC refused to allow the People's Assembly to convene, 
effectively annulling the elections.

Aung San Suu Kyi's support for Western-style democracy and lack of any 
socialist "taint" has made her NLD a viable alternative to the Burmese 
military in the eyes of many Western governments. In October 1991 she was 
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.]The CPB believes that the main task of the 
Burmese people today is to put an end to the military dictatorship and the 
military bureaucratic apparatus and to institute multi-party democracy.

All the patriotic and democratic forces must be mobilised to this end.

The CPB believes without reservation that, although this task requires a 
protracted, arduous struggle, it conforms to the wishes of the Burmese 
people and therefore it can be achieved at whatever price it may be given.

During the 60 years of its existence, the CPB has tried its best to fulfill 
the historical mission placed on the proletariat of Burma, in the struggle 
for complete national and economic independence, democracy, peace and 
socialism.

The CPB, since its inception, has led all anti-imperialist and anti-fascist 
struggles in Burma. It has led both the national and class struggle in 
Burma and will continue to do so.

The CPB has resolutely fought for all genuine struggles of the working 
class and for the realisation of land to the tiller.

In co-operation with other fraternal parties, the CPB will resolutely take 
its place in the detachment of the international working class in the final 
onslaught against international capital and all forms of reaction, internal 
as well as external, and for the liberation of the whole of humanity.

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