MYANMAR WORKERS ON STRIKE
Tens of thousands hope economic paralysis will put pressure on wealthy generals
TENS of thousands of Myanmar workers have gone on strike over the past two months, hoping that economic paralysis will force the hand of the wealthy generals who ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1.
Bank employees, doctors, engineers, Customs officers, dockers, railway staff and textile workers have all downed tools as part of a civil disobedience movement.
Striking workers are among the 550 people killed in the military’s crackdown on anti-coup protests, while many others have been arrested or gone missing.
They say the junta has forced them to take radical action, even if they cannot march in the streets with many of their compatriots.
“I have no more money, I am terrified, but I have no choice. We must destroy the dictatorship,” said Aye, 26, a bank employee in Yangon. “We don’t demonstrate in the street, we are too afraid to be on the military lists and to be arrested. Our revolution is silent.”
This resistance comes despite repeated appeals and threats from the military in state media for people to get back to work, and strikers say they are getting stronger.
“Our movement is growing,” said Thaung, a civil aviation employee, adding that more than half of the 400 people in his department have not returned to work.
The chaos is already undermining one of Asia’s poorest countries. The World Bank forecasts a 10 per cent contraction in gross domestic product this year, a huge step backwards for a country that had seen considerable growth during the democratic transition led by Suu Kyi’s civilian government.
With the banking sector paralysed, employees are having problems getting paid and cash machines are empty.
The garment sector, which was flourishing with some 500,000 employees, is collapsing.
Foreign companies like Sweden’s H&M and Italy’s Benetton said they were suspending their orders, while Chinese-owned textile factories working for Western brands have been set on fire.
As a result, thousands of female workers have gone unpaid and had to return to their villages.
Palm oil price has risen by 20 per cent in Yangon since the coup and rice by more than 30 per cent in parts of poor Kachin state. The price of fuel oil in Yangon rose by nearly 50 per cent last month.
Meanwhile, anti-coup demonstrators decorated boiled eggs on Easter Sunday in the latest protest against the military junta.
Eggs were decorated with political messages and left on neighbours’ doorsteps and hanging in bags on front gates.
Pictures posted on social media showed eggs adorned with Suu Kyi’s likeness and three-finger salutes, while others said “save our people” and “democracy”.
“I am Buddhist, but I joined this campaign because it is easy to get eggs. I spent almost one hour decorating my eggs,” one Yangon-based egg decorator said.
One Facebook group promoting the egg protest urged people to be respectful of Christian traditions on Easter Sunday.
Myanmar’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal Charles Bo, posted an Easter message on Twitter: “Jesus has risen: Hallelujah — Myanmar will rise again!”