The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) was a broad popular front that ruled

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(now Myanmar) between 1947 and 1958. It included both

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area'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 ...

and

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

as members. The league evolved out of the anti-Japanese resistance organization

Anti-Fascist Organisation The Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) was a resistance movement against the Japanese occupation of Burma and independence of Burma during World War II. It was the forerunner of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League. History The AFO was formed ...

(AFO) founded in August 1944 during the Japanese occupation by the

Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is an underground communist party in Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fo ...

(CPB), the Burma National Army and the socialist People's Revolutionary Party (PRP). The AFO was renamed AFPFL in March 1945. An AFPFL delegation under the leadership of

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947), known honorifically as '' Bogyoke'' Aung San, was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he w ...

led the negotiations for independence in London in January 1947. After winning the elections of April 1947 for a Constitutional Assembly, the AFPFL leadership drafted the new constitution for a sovereign Burma. It initially included a Marxist faction led by Thakin Than Tun, but they were purged from the party in October 1948. The AFPFL determined Burma's post-independence politics and policies until June 1958, when the party split into two factions, the Clean AFPFL and the Stable AFPFL.

History

Fight for independence

The origins of the league go back to the clandestine anti-Japanese resistance organization AFO that was founded by the

(CPB) led by

Thakin Soe Thakin Soe (, ; 1906 – 6 May 1989) was a founding member of the Communist Party of Burma and a leader of the Anti-Fascist Organisation. He is regarded as one of Burma's most prominent communist leaders. Early life Soe was an ethnic Mon peop ...

, the Burma National Army (BNA) led by

, and three socialists from the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP), Kyaw Nyein, Thakin Chit, and Ba Swe in August 1944. The AFO was renamed Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League at a meeting held from 1–3 March 1945. The name change indicated that the aim of the organization was both to liberate Burma from the Japanese and achieve independence. The communist leaders

and Thakin Than Tun served as first president respectively general secretary of the league. Personal issues led to Thakin Soe's ouster from the CPB and consequently to his absence at the first post-war conference of the AFPFL held at the Naythurain theater on the Kandawgyi Lake from 16 to 19 August 1945 in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

. Aung San chaired the conference and eventually superseded Thakin Soe as president of the AFPFL. Dissent and ideological rifts with the communists over leadership and strategy in the independence struggle began soon to emerge within the league. Thakin Soe, after splitting from the CPB and forming the Red Flag Communist Party, started a rebellion in 1946. Though the CPB, dubbed the White Flag Communists, continued to co-operate with the AFPFL, its leader Thakin Than Tun resigned as general secretary in July 1946 after contentions with Aung San and other AFPFL leaders, and was replaced by the socialist Kyaw Nyein. When Aung San accepted in September 1946 the British governor's invitation to lead the Executive Council and became the de facto premier of Burma, the communists accused him of having sold out to the British and settled for a "sham independence". In November, the CPB was officially expelled from the AFPFL. In January 1947, Aung San and other AFPFL leaders such as Thakin Mya, Tin Tut, and Kyaw Nyein negotiated in London the independence for Burma. The British however made independence contingent upon the agreement of Burma's major

ethnic minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

. Therefore, Aung San and other AFPFL colleagues among them Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi,

Myoma U Than Kywe Myoma Than Kywe (, ; 26 December 1924 – 22 September 1983) was a Burmese politician. He was one of the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference. The signing of Panglong Agreement is now celebrated as a national holiday, Union Da ...

and Sein Mya Maung took part in the

Panglong Conference The Panglong Conference (), held in February 1947, was a historic meeting that took place at Panglong, Southern Shan State, Panglong in the Shan States in Burma between the Shan people, Shan, Kachin people, Kachin and Chin people, Chin ethnic mi ...

in February 1947 and convinced representatives from the Shan, Kachin,

Chin The chin is the forward pointed part of the anterior mandible (List_of_human_anatomical_regions#Regions, mental region) below the lower lip. A fully developed human skull has a chin of between 0.7 cm and 1.1 cm. Evolution The presence of a we ...

and Kayah to support the negotiations for independence and join the future independent

state of Burma The State of Burma (; , ''Biruma-koku'') was a Japanese puppet state established in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War II. Background During the early stages of World War II, the Empire of Japan invaded British Burma ...

General elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

for a constitutional assembly were held in April 1947, which the AFPFL won amidst an election boycott by the opposition, taking 173 of the 210 seats and running unopposed in over fifty constituencies. Aung San headed the constitutional assembly and was set to become Burma's

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, but was assassinated together with six other members of his cabinet on 19 July, a date commemorated as

Martyrs' Day Martyrs' Day are days observed in or by some countries, including the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, Canada and Australia, to recognise martyrs such as soldiers, revolutionaries or victims of genocide. Below is a list of various Martyrs' Days ...

. U Nu succeeded Aung San as leader of the AFPFL and Premier of Burma.

Independence and civil war

Burma declared independence from Britain in January 1948, and the CPB went underground the following March after U Nu ordered the arrest of its leaders for inciting rebellion. Other groups also soon dropped out of the AFPFL to join the rebellion, not only the White-band faction of the People's Volunteer Organisation (PVO) formed by Aung San as a

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

force out of the demobbed veterans, but also a large part of the

Burma Rifles The Burma Rifles were a British colonial regiment raised in British Burma. Founded in 1917 as a regiment of the British Indian Army, the regiment re-used the name of an unrelated earlier unit, the 10th Regiment (1st Burma Rifles) Madras Infantry, ...

led by communist commanders calling themselves the Revolutionary Burma Army (RBA). The AFPFL government had plunged into

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

with not only Burman insurgent groups but also

including the Karen National Union (KNU), Mon,

Pa-O The Pa'O (; , , or ; ; Eastern Poe Karen: တံင်သူ; ; also spelt Pa-O or Paoh) are an ethnic minority living in Myanmar, with a population of roughly 1,200,000 accounting for approximately 2.1% of the total population in Myanmar. Oth ...

, nationalist Rakhine and the

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

of Rakhine Muslims. The first post-independence

general elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

were held over several months in 1951 and 1952, with the AFPFL and its allies winning 199 of the 250 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

Parliamentary rule and split

Although the AFPFL was returned to office again in the

1956 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1956. Africa * 1956 Gold Coast legislative election * 1956 Italian Somaliland parliamentary election * 1956–1957 Kenyan legislative election * 1956 Nyasaland general election Asia * 1956 Burmese gene ...

, the results came as a shock as the opposition left-wing coalition, known as the National United Front (NUF) and led by Aung Than, older brother of Aung San, won 37% of the vote and 48 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. By 1958, despite an economic recovery and the unexpected success of U Nu's "Arms for Democracy" offer that saw the surrender of a large number of insurgents, most notably the PVO, the AFPFL had become riven with internal splits, which worsened following the party's congress in January 1958. In July 1958 it formally split, with one group led by Prime Minister

U Nu Nu (; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as Burmese names#Honorifics, U Nu and also by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a prominent Burmese people, Burmese statesman and the first Prime Minister of Union of Burma. He was ...

, which he named the " Clean AFPFL"; the other was led by Kyaw Nyein and Ba Swe and was known as the Stable AFPFL. The majority of AFPFL MPs were supporters of the Stable faction, but U Nu was able to narrowly escape defeat in parliamentary

motion of no-confidence In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an obse ...

by only eight votes with the support of the opposition NUF. Still dogged by the "multicoloured insurgency", the army hardliners feared the communists being allowed to rejoin mainstream politics through Nu's need for continued support by the NUF, and was compounded by the Shan Federal Movement lobbying for a loose federation. The volatile situation culminated in a military

caretaker government A caretaker government, also known as a caretaker regime, is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it co ...

under General

Ne Win Ne Win (; ; 24 May 1911 – 5 December 2002), born Shu Maung (; ), was a Burmese army general, politician and Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also President of Burma from 1962 to 1981. Ne Win was Burma's mili ...

that presided over the 1960 general elections, which were won by U Nu's Clean AFPFL. Following the restoration of multi-party democracy after the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising, also known as the People Power Uprising and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) that peaked in August 1988. Key events occurred on 8 August 1988 and ther ...

, two new parties were established using the AFPFL name, the AFPFL (founded 1988)''The Far East and Australasia 2003'', p.892 and the AFPFL (Original). Both contested the 1990 elections, but received less than 0.05% of the vote and failed to win a seat.

Policies

The league with its different political parties and mass and class organizations was held together by the common leadership of first Aung San and then

. During its time in office, the AFPFL pursued a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

policy based on unity and consensus, upheld

parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...

and presided over a

mixed economy A mixed economy is an economic system that includes both elements associated with capitalism, such as private businesses, and with socialism, such as nationalized government services. More specifically, a mixed economy may be variously de ...

comprising both

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

and

private enterprise A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

. It spent most of this period in its history fighting several communist, socialist and ethnic separatist rebel groups for control over the future of the country. It also fought a successful war against Nationalist Chinese (KMT) forces who occupied the far north of the country for several years after the KMT's defeat by the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

. Its foreign policy followed strict neutrality supporting the

Bandung Conference The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference (), also known as the Bandung Conference, was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–24 April 1955 in Bandung, We ...

of 1955, shunning the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation ( SEATO) on account of the American support of the KMT on one hand, and facing the communist insurgencies on the other.

Leadership

President

* President

(1944–1945) * President U

(1945–1947) * President

(1947–1958)

General secretary

* General Secretary Thakin Than Tun (1945–1946) * General Secretary Kyaw Nyein (1946–1956) * General Secretary Thakin Kyaw Tun (1956–1958)

Election results

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

* Woodman, Dorothy (28 February 1948)
"Burma - free and socialist"
''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''
"The House on Stilts"
''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine cover story, 30 August 1954 {{Authority control 1945 establishments in Burma 1958 disestablishments in Burma Anti-fascist organizations Buddhist socialism Burma in World War II Burmese nationalism Defunct political party alliances in Myanmar National liberation armies Nationalist parties in Myanmar Political parties disestablished in 1958 Political parties established in 1945 Socialist parties in Myanmar