Myanmar Coup
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The information crack-down
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/myanmar-junta-bans-satellite-dishes-in-media-crackdown
Myanmar’s military junta has banned satellite dishes, threatening prison sentences for anyone who violates the measure,
Praying won’t make any difference but I don’t think what this other Burmese beauty queen is proposing is any good either. In fact it could be dangerous and counter-productive.
The fact is that the military are in control and have won this round.
125,000 (one in four) school teachers in Myanmar have been suspended for joining a civil disobedience movement to oppose the military coup.
Around 19,500 university staff have also been suspended
Communities increasingly take up arms to protect themselves from a relentless campaign of military violence.
We can only view such a development as counter-productive and not one to be encouraged
By the meantime many workers in the USA are approving a similar coup by the Pentagon in the USA and one of Donald Trump ex minister said that the coup should be done by the USA military command
The general who took power in a coup in Myanmar in February has named himself prime minister and said emergency rule may now extend to August 2023.
He accused those opposing the coup of deliberately spreading Covid-19…”tool of bioterrorism”.
The failure of the movements for political democracy (basically for freely elected civilian governments) in Burma, Hong Kong, Belorussia and before that in Egypt and perhaps now even in Tunisia unfortunately bears out our position on the importance of who controls the armed forces. Whoever does is in a position to control the situation, especially if it is the armed forces themselves that control the state. As long as the armed forces are united and obey their leaders then they are going to get their way.
I think it was Trotsky who once pointed out that political regimes had only been overthrown where the army was disunited or went over to the opposition (as in Russia in 1917, Portugal in 1974 or Eastern Europe in the 1990s). In none of the cases mentioned above is this likely to happen (except perhaps in Tunisia where the jury is still out).
I wonder whether this calls into question advising workers to take on even peacefully a government which is in full control of the armed forces, even more so if the armed forces are the government. We have of course always advised against using armed violence in such situations. But it seems that even mass street demonstrations can be dangerous and even counter-productive. I don’t know what those in Hong Kong who organised the trashing of the legislative assembly building thought they were doing. The demonstrations in Hong Kong seem to have resulted in the loss of the elements of political democracy that existed before.
In any event, what interests socialists at the moment about political democracy is not the election of those who make up the government and decide and implement government policies. Even the armed forces can concede that as in Algeria at present and in Turkey in the past, only intervening if the civilian government goes too far from their point of view. In fact the Burmese army did concede this and then changed their mind and seem to be envisaging it again in a couple of years.
It is rather the freedom to organise and to propagate political ideas. That’s what’s in the interest of the working class and the socialist movement as it provides the best framework within which to wage the class struggle. But how separate this from struggles for an elected civilian government of capitalism?
Britain’s decision to appoint a new ambassador to Myanmar in July will result in a de facto recognition of the military regime
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/southeast-asia/uk-myanmar-ambassador-junta-eu-b1908736.html
The National Unity Government views itself as a shadow government composed of elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power, called for a nationwide uprising.
The group’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time”
It controls no territory, does not directly control any armed force and has won no diplomatic recognition from foreign countries. Members of its shadow Cabinet are in hiding inside Myanmar and in exile.
There were no immediate signs of heightened resistance activity, although some student groups and ethnic armed organizations expressed solidarity.
The ethnic armed forces, which have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government, operate independently of the National Unity Government.
https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-e2481c051f093429700be2789c27faef
The National Unity Government (in exile) is actually a US/UK stalking horse. Its leader is an Asian version of Juan Guaido, who hopes to requisition Myanmar’s one billion dollars of frozen assets. Members of the “government” receive funding from the CIA cutout the National Endowment for Democracy. The NUG counts as its benefactors one Prince Charles of the sky fairy appointed British royal family, (the former colonial oppressors of “Burma”), warmonger Hillary Clinton and wife of Obomber- Michelle.
The coup in Myanmar was carried out o put a stop to the hostile takeover of the country by Washington/UK stooges whose mission is to aid in containing China by cutting off its trading partners and sabotaging the Belt and Road Initiative. All this is laid out very succinctly in the following short Youtube video…
This Party has never been sympathetic to Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and it was never duped by claims that the military had yielded political control.
You can speculate on the motives for the coup but Occam’s Razor applies to your conspiracy theory.
The easiest explanation is that the Tatmadaw feared that their extensive corrupt business interests were potentially being threatened.
Can we rely on either the BBC or CGTN?
You may include this as part of the anti-China media bias but I thought the article was informative
“You can speculate on the motives for the coup but Occam’s Razor applies to your conspiracy theory.”
Occam’s Razor is not a fundamental Law of the Universe but a mere rule of thumb. To pretend otherwise is childishness. Conspiracies are happening everywhere all the time. The Holocaust was a conspiracy, the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Iraq war were conspiracies. There are whole bodies of law devoted to conspiracies. Instead of throwing out ad hominem attacks why not watch the video I linked to? It’s not very long. Every single claim is sourced beneath “Show all”.
“The easiest explanation is that the Tatmadaw feared that their extensive corrupt business interests were potentially being threatened.”
And why is that a simpler explanation than the one I provided? The US is locked in a new Cold War with China. The Chinese economy will soon eclipse the US’. The US knows this and is doing everything in its power to prevent it happening just as they have always done. Pretty simple, no?
“Conspiracies are happening everywhere all the time. The Holocaust was a conspiracy, the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Iraq war were conspiracies.”
You forgot to mention the Apollo Landings, QAnon, that Dinosaurs built the pyramids, Paul McCartney is dead, the Queen is a lizzard, Adolf Hitler lives in South Shields and the Arsenal 1919 promotion debacle.
God bless Lenny Bruce
https://www.geocities.ws/dontforgetyourpubes/images/lennybruce/bruce1.jpg
Are you defending the expansionist policy of China which has shown itself equally as willing as the USA to cooperate with despots and dictatorships?
Do the interests of the Chinese state over-ride solidarity with Myanmar’s working people?
Does the development of a new trade route to service China’s growing industry take precedence over the civil and human rights of the Myanmar people?
Real Politik is already asserting itself. Regardless of the token sanctions being imposed upon certain individual Myanmar officials, every nation is eager to come to a working accommodation with the Tatmadaw. ASEAN has a pragmatic relationship with the Tatmadaw government.
In this thread, I already mentioned that the UK has defacto recognised the regime.
The way to understand the coup is simply to follow the money – Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) – through which the military and their families possess monopolistic control over core sectors of the economy and the country’s most lucrative industries.
The military detected a loosening of their hold over the NLD and pre-empted future reforms with a coup.
I apologise if I gave the impression that there are no real conspiracies.
However, I was simply trying to infer that they can be a myriad of motivations in politics and cherry-picking supposed connections gives the impression that there is one grand plot in the great scheme of things.
Remember, it was the American oligarchs that chose China to partner. It is their rival protectionists,”America First” who are calling for a trade war.
The capitalist class has never been united except in the class war against the workers.
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