trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
organization in
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 ...
. The TUC(B) was founded by 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 November 1945, in an attempt to counter the influence of the
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
-led All Burma Trade Union Congress.Rose, Saul. ''Socialism in Southern Asia''. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. p. 106
Ba Cho
Ba Cho ( my, ဘချို, ; 24 April 1893 – 19 July 1947) was a Burma, Burmese newspaper publisher and politician who served as the Minister of Information in Myanmar's pre-independence government. Ba Cho and six other cabinet ministers ...
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 t ...
.
In 1949 Thakin Lwin became the president of the TUC(B).Lintner, Bertil. Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) '. Southeast Asia Program series, no. 6. Ithaca, N.Y.: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1990. p. 62 Under Lwin's leadership, the TUC(B) steered towards an openly communist line. This shift could be seen in debates on whether the TUC(B) should join 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 ...
. At 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 ...
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) ...
. In his speech at the rally, Lwin publicly declared that TUC(B) followed the 'communist party line' and said that the organisation should join the WFTU. He harshly condemned the policy of the Burmese government of accepting
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
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'.Seabury Thomson, John. ''Marxism in Burma'', in Trager, Frank N (ed.). Marxism in Southeast Asia; A Study of Four Countries '. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1959. p. 43Fleischmann, 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
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, 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. Lwin's speech made the ongoing division in the Socialist Party public.
Lwin's May Day speech had political repercussions, but did not result in any immediate disciplinary action from the Socialist Party or the AFPFL. However, when the TUC(B) vice-president and AFPFL Member of Parliament Thakin Hla Kywe lashed out at the governments support for the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
in September 1950, the AFPFL decided to suspend the TUC(B) from the AFPFL. The AFPFL demanded that Lwin and Hla Kywe be removed from their positions in order for the TUC(B) to be reintegrated into the AFPFL. The TUC(B) complied and demoted Lwin and Hla Kywe. Following this, Lwin and other leftists broke with the Socialist Party and formed the Burma Workers and Peasants Party. In 1951, the socialist leader
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 ...
became the President of TUC(B).Rose, Saul. ''Socialism in Southern Asia''. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. p. 117