It has been 60 years since the July 7, 1962 uprising, when student unions were not allowed to operate openly, and there were cases of student unions being arrested and going into hiding.
Although unions have re-emerged since the 2012 political changes, government authorities have not officially recognized them or allowed them to participate in university administration.
In fact, student unions have been at the forefront of Myanmar politics and have been at the forefront of political changes.
Some lesser-known facts about union activities:
(1) It is not known for sure when the word “union” was first used. It was used before the war, but it was also used interchangeably with “union”. It is believed that it was first used at that time, when Rangoon University was renamed as a university and the union was established in the 1930s.
In the book “My ICAC” by U Chantha, it is written that before the establishment of the University Student Union, college student unions were established in Rangoon and Japsin Colleges.
The position of president of the Rangoon College Student Union was won by students from Tagaung and Pyidaungsu, who voted for it.
It is also said that the University Union came into being after the college union elections were held first.
The Treasure of Myanmar
Although the university union building was built, there was still no active union, and some of the students and intellectual leaders in the city tried to form one.
The earliest labor unions that emerged in Burma in the 1920s were called labor unions, and U Myo Nyunt of Yenangyaung is known as Labor Union U Myo Nyunt.
Student organizations were established in high schools since the 1910s, when Thakin Mya was a student.
(2) It is said that the union led the independence of Burma. It is also said that the union gave birth to the Tatmadaw. A group of student leaders who instigated the second university strike in 1936 set out an armed path for independence, and the search for help for this was based on the union.
The group of students who moved from Mandalay Upasa College to Yangon, including Ko Thein Pe, Ko Nyo Mya, Ko Kyaw Nyein, Ko Hla Maung, and Ko Htun On, joined forces with students from Yangon, Ko Nu, Ko Aung San, and Ko Ya Shik, and put down the second strike.
After that, the All Burma Students Union (BKU) and the Student Iron Army, the National University, and the Student Parliament were formed, and their group also founded the Red Dragon Book Club outside the university.
Burma and the Left One Hundred Years
After the students became leaders of the Burma Association, the independence movement became stronger, and union leaders were included among the leaders of the Burma Liberation Front and the Burma Army, such as the BIA and BDA.
Behind these movements were old and new union leaders, who after independence became leaders of political parties such as socialists and communists, as well as government and rebel leaders.
Before the war, there were no women representatives in the university union, but after the war, they were included.
Some high schools had student unions even before the war.
3) There is also a lesser-known group within the student movement, the Iron Guard.
After the third strike of the student movement led by Bo Aung Kyaw was crushed in 1939, the Iron Guard was formed when the leaders of the inner circle began an underground movement to wage armed revolution when World War II broke out in Europe.
Colonel Chit Myaing passed away
Like Ko Chit Myaing, who became a member of the Revolutionary Council as a general in the Iron Guard, other student leaders such as Maung Maung and CPB Yebaw Htay also conducted military training as Iron Guard members without weapons.
All students over the age of 8 were accepted and provided with military education.
The uniform was a green-and-white short-sleeved shirt and trousers.
As the Japanese approached, underground movements called units were organized by students and political leaders.
Among those who provided training in armed methods without weapons was Ko Maung Maung, a leader of the Medical College Union, who later expanded and built the Myanmar Army as Brigadier General Maung Maung.
Many student leaders joined the army during the BIA.
(4) In the reconstruction of the student unions that emerged at Yangon University, both the ARF and the communists competed for control. Due to the student movements that were concentrated in the University Union, the Yangon District Student Union, and the BKA, the communists were sometimes strong and sometimes strong on the government side.
In the 1950s, the so-called Tatmadaw dominated the union movement. During the communist retreat, there were union leaders who went into the jungle with the communists, and there were union leaders who fought on the government side and were killed, and there were union leaders who became government ministers.
Between 1945 and 1958, many BKTA groups emerged, including the BKTA Headquarters, BKTA Jungle, BKTA League, BKTA Clean, BKTA Ko Ko Gyi Ko Ko Lay Group, BKTA DSO, BKTA League, and BKTA New League.
When the military took power in 1962, it was also the time when China and the Soviet Union split in the world communist movement.
Before the takeover, Ko Ko Maung Gyi wrote that while he was going to sign a border agreement in China, General Ne Win had gone to China to overthrow the government and take power.
Although many leftist parties on the ground, which were close to the Soviets, supported the takeover, the two communist parties in the jungle did not accept it. Similarly, the disagreements between China and the Burmese military government led to the Sino-Burmese conflict and China’s massive support for the Communist Party of Burma.
The student union movement and the coup military clashed on the ground near the forest, and the union building was demolished and the movement was crushed.
(5) In 1950, Thein Pe Myint, a member of the university council and a member of the National Assembly, requested that students at Yangon University be taught Marxism.
This was rejected by some members of the university student union, who said that it should not be taught without the will of the students and under fascist orders.
Thein Pe Myint was a leader who had left the communist party due to disagreements with Than Htun and Goshal.
However, the socialist leader U Ba Swe, who was the Minister of Defense at the time, ordered that a select group of students be gathered at the university to study Marxism.
Later, under General Ne Win, Dr. Nyi Nyi, Deputy Minister of Finance U Chit Maung, and Director-General of the Education Department U Than Oo were taught by scholars such as Thein Pe Myint, Kyaw Sein, and Tin Ae from Shan State.
Before that, in 1946, In 1947, students were given political training in the Takatha building by socialist and communist leaders.
July 7th Facts
