The Burma Socialist Party (), initially known as the People's Freedom (Socialist) Party or PF(S)P, was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

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 ...

. It was the dominant party in Burmese politics after 1948, and the dominant political force inside the

Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League 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 ...

(AFPFL - ).Win, Kyaw Zaw.
A history of the Burma Socialist Party (1930-1964)
' Because of its inclusion in AFPFL, it was colloquially known as (''AF Social''). The party was a successor to the wartime People's Revolutionary Party and founded by

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 ...

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� ...

and five others in order to counter the influence of the

Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought ag ...

within the AFPFL and to prevent a communist take-over of the umbrella organization.Rose, Saul. ''Socialism in Southern Asia''. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. p. 106 For the same reason, to counter the communist All Burma Trade Union Congress, the socialists also launched the Trade Union Congress (Burma) in November 1945. Before the foundation of the PF(S)P, the communists had openly emerged as a bloc inside AFPFL. The ideological rivalry extended to the politicized military. Non-communists within the military supported the build-up of the socialist party as a counter force since many communists most prominently Kyaw Zaw were also in leading positions within the military. In 1945, Thakin Mya became the chairman of the party. Ba Swe served as general secretary and Kyaw Nyein as joint secretary. In 1947, after Thakin Mya was murdered alongside

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goa ...

, Ko Ko Gyi became the new party chairman in July 1947. In the summer of 1948, he was asked to resign from his positions in both the party and government. After his resignation, Ko Ko Gyi joined the underground insurgency. The post of chairman was abolished and the party was from then on led by Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein. In 1948 the name of the party was changed to 'Burma Socialist Party'. In 1949, it became the 'Union of Socialist Party'. From 1950 onwards it was again called the 'Burma Socialist Party'. The party published ''The Socialist Front Weekly Journal''. The party initially relied on support from affiliated mass organizations such as the Workers' Asiayone, Peasants' Asiayone, Women's Asiayone, etc. After 1950, the party developed more into a cadre party but retained strong links to the Trade Union Congress (Burma). In December 1950 an extreme left-wing of the party broke away and formed the Burma Workers and Peasants Party. The membership of the Burma Socialist Party is estimated to have dropped from around 2,000 to just 200 as a consequence of the split.Rose, Saul. ''Socialism in Southern Asia''. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. p. 116 The party recovered and its membership was estimated of having reached 6,000 in 1956. In 1964 the party was banned by decree of the

Union Revolutionary Council The Union Revolutionary Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော်တော်လှန်ရေးကောင်စီ), officially the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာန ...

led by Ne Win.

References

{{Burmese political parties 1945 establishments in Burma 1964 disestablishments in Burma Burma in World War II Defunct political parties in Myanmar Political parties disestablished in 1964 Political parties established in 1945 Socialist parties in Myanmar