The International Solidarity with Antifascists Collective recently put on a fundraiser gig in South London in solidarity with the anti-dictatorship, anti-fascist struggle in Myanmar

~ Members of ISAC ~

The conflict in Myanmar is often called the “forgotten war” due to the lack of international attention it receives. To raise awareness, we organised the gig and have also made a zine of interviews with local militants and members of the AIF about revolutionary struggle in Myanmar.

The conflict between free peoples and ethnic groups against assimilation and supremacy, currently a struggle against the fascist “State Administration Council”, has existed since Myanmar’s colonial borders were drawn up in 1948. Since then, various indigenous groups have struggled for their independence from the nation state—not without their own complex ethnic tensions. Four years ago, however, in 2021 Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup after detaining democratically elected leaders, sparking an unprecedented level of armed resistance. 

What started out as peaceful protests rapidly turned into self organised groups of people using sticks, hard hats and sling-shots to fight the regime, and with the pre-existing infrastructures for armed struggle and sheer innovation, transformed into a full scale revolution. A revolution which is closer than ever to toppling the historic power of the military, a power that has been present ever since the British colonisation of Burma in the 1800s. If the movement for freedom wins in Myanmar, we can use it as the inspiration in the fight across the whole world against rapidly intensifying fascism.

The Juntas brutal tactics include sexual violence, mass killings and torture, as well as the relentless bombing of civilian sites. Recently, the Junta carried out air strikes in villages just hours after they were decimated by the recent 7.7 scale earthquake even after resistance groups declared a ceasefire to focus on helping the people, and has interfered with aid distribution and rescue attempts in the aftermath of the earthquake.

There are estimated to be over 21,000 political prisoners in Myanmar including more than 4000 women; as prisoners they face abuse, solitary confinement and sexual violence; some are pregnant and raising newborns behind bars, and some are sentenced to the death penalty. Reports have come in of captured revolutionaries being tortured to death in horrific ways only expanding the state’s regime of fear.

Despite the Junta’s violent repression, the armed revolution which comprises various armed indigenous and ethnic groups and factions including the AIF have made significant victories including most recently last week taking back the city of Falam, the historic capital of Chin State in western Myanmar, where the AIF have been positioned for the majority of the last year. 

The creation of the Anti-Fascist Internationalist Front last year follows a long tradition of anti-fascist internationalism from Spain to Rojava. Upon seeing the people’s war in Myanmar, internationalists took it upon themselves to form an front against the fascist government just as they did in 1936 and 2014. Since then, the revolution has brought together all sectors of society, urban and rural, Burmese majority and ethnic minorities, old and young. This revolution has been started, maintained and soon may be won entirely by normal people, most who had never fired a gun and many who’d barely left school. 

The revolution is being fought ruthlessly by the fascist regime, in the battle for Falam over 1,500 bombs were dropped on the town as the battle took place up both land-mined, forested mountainside and urban streets for 6 months. A member of the AIF told us the bombing from the sky was relentless with airstrikes crashing down to earth within 50 metres of AIF positions on multiple occasions.Such a struggle is both a hope to peoples everywhere as well as putting fear in the hearts of fascists and dictators. Most notably the largest ally of the dictatorship in Myanmar is Russia, much of the ammunition used in the invasion of Ukraine was manufactured in factories in Myanmar and the Russian military actively sends technicians to teach and support the air forces’ bombing campaigns across the country.

The AIF is openly Anti-fascist and has been welcomed with open arms by the revolution in Myanmar, anarchist patches are seen fighting side by side on the frontline with the patches of the People’s Defence Force, Chin Brotherhood and a variety of revolutionary militias. It’s important Anarchists in Europe view this revolution as a real chance for liberatory victory and support just as we would a revolution in Europe or the “west”.

Although the politics of the revolution is not rooted in a clear anti-capitalist worldview, the aim of many fighting is to wrestle back control of their life from the oligarchs that have run their lives since birth and to return power directly to communities who often view village councils as far more important in their day to day lives than governments, police or politicians.