The Burma Workers Party, until 1958 the Burma Workers and Peasants Party, was a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, formed on 8 December 1950 by leftist elements of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. In December 1962 it merged with the People's Comrade Party to form the United Workers Party. In March 1964, it was among the many parties banned by decree of the

Revolutionary Council A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...

.Bečka, Jan (1995) "Burma Workers' and Peasants' Party (BWPP)" ''Historical Dictionary of Myanmar'' Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey, p. 55,

History

The founders of the BWPP were 42 leading cadres of the Socialist Party, who denounced the leadership of

Ba Swe Ba Swe ( my, ဘဆွေ, ; 17 October 1915 – 6 December 1987) was the second Prime Minister of Burma. He was a leading Burmese politician during the decade after the country gained its independence from Britain in 1948. He held the position ...

and

Kyaw Nyein Kyaw Nyein ( my, ကျော်ငြိမ်း; ; 19 January 1913 – 29 June 1986), called honorifically U Kyaw Nyein ( my, ဦးကျော်ငြိမ်း;), was a Burmese lawyer and anti-colonial revolutionary, a leader in Burma’ ...

. These included

Thakin Chit Maung Thakin Chit Maung ( my, ချစ်မောင်; 1915 – 3 March 2005), also known as Widuya Thakin Chit Maung, was a veteran Burmese politician. Political career His political career in Burma (also called Myanmar) began as a teenager in t ...

, Thakin Hla Kywe, Thakin Lwin and U Ba Nyein. Within the Socialist Party discussions had emerged on issues like the affiliation of the Trade Union Congress (Burma) to the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation of ...

. Under the leadership of Thakin Lwin, the TUC(B) had steered towards an openly communist line. In the

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

rally of 1950, TUC(B) demonstrators had carried large portraits of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

. Thakin Lwin had publicly declared that TUC(B) followed the 'communist party line', but denounced the White Flag Communist Party, Red Flag Communist Party and

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...

as 'deviationists'. Except for Thakin Lwin, a major leader amongst the founders of the BWPP was Thakin Chit Maung who was a leader of the All Burma Peasants Organisation.Fleischmann, Klaus. ''Die Kommunistische Partei Birmas - Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart''.

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

: Institut für Asienkunde, 1989. p. 165.Josey, Alex.
The Political Significance of the Burma Workers Party
' in ''Pacific Affairs'', Vol. 31, No. 4. (Dec. 1958), pp. 372-379. The BWPP formed a new trade union centre, the Burma Trade Union Congress (BTUC). The BWPP was a

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

party. It considered the

AFPFL The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), ; abbreviated , ''hpa hsa pa la'' was the dominant political alliance in Burma from 1945 to 1958. It consisted of political parties and mass and class organizations. The league evolved out of ...

government as servants of

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

. However, unlike the White Flag and Red Flag communist parties the BWPP worked as a legal political parties. The party was sometimes nicknamed as 'Red Socialists'. At the time of its foundation, the party had ten MPs amongst its members. In the 1951 election, the strength of the BWPP parliamentary faction increased to twelve. Ahead of the 1956 legislative election, the BWPP launched the

National United Front The National United Front ( my, အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေး တပ်ပေါင်းစု) was a political alliance in Myanmar, Burma. History The alliance was formed in 1955 as a successor to the People's Democr ...

in 1955. In the elections the NUF won 48 seats.Fleischmann, Klaus. ''Die Kommunistische Partei Birmas - Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart''.

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

: Institut für Asienkunde, 1989. p. 166. In June 1957 Prime Minister

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

made a deal with the BWPP to be able to defeat a no confidence vote in the parliament. The first party congress of the BWPP has held in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

27 December 1957 – 2 January 1958, during which the name 'Burma Workers Party' was adopted. At the congress 259 delegates, representing 22 districts and around 3000 party members, were present. The congress adopted five main slogans: "(1) One party our strength, one party our aim!; (2) Let us separate ourselves from Capitalists and their like; Let us form alliance with those who are true to us and our Cause!; (3) Let us define our political aim clearly and keep Democracy in view!; (4) Internal Peace through Democracy!; (5) Afro-Asian Alliance for world peace!" The congress elected various leadership committees: *

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

: Thakin Chit Maung, Thakin Lwin, U Ba Nyein, Boh Mya Thway, Thakin Ba Han, Aung Ban. * Party Unification Commission: Thakin Hla Kyway, Sein Mya, Than (Prome), Than Myint, Tin Tun. * Propaganda Commission: Thakin Lu Aye, Thu, Thakin Aye-Che, Than Lay, Aung Than. * Treasury Commission: Thakin Ba Han, Thakin Lay Maung, Thakin Than. After the declaration of '

Burmese Way to Socialism The Burmese Way to Socialism ( my, မြန်မာ့နည်းမြန်မာ့ဟန် ဆိုရှယ်လစ်စနစ်), also known as the Burmese Road to Socialism, was the state ideology of the Socialist Republic of the ...

' by the

Ne Win Ne Win ( my, နေဝင်း ; 10 July 1910, or 14 or 24 May 1911 – 5 December 2002) was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also President of Burma ...

regime, the BWP was marginalised. At the end of 1962, the BWP and the People's Comrade Party merged into the United Workers Party.Schism and Secession: The Split Parties
/ref>

References

{{Authority control 1950 establishments in Burma 1962 disestablishments in Burma Banned communist parties Communist parties in Myanmar Defunct socialist parties in Asia Defunct communist parties Defunct political parties in Myanmar Political parties disestablished in 1962 Political parties established in 1950