On the 8th of august in 1988, a general strike began in Myanmar (Burma) as part of the 8888 Uprising, with mass anti-government demonstrations throughout the country demanding multi-party democracy from the ruling one-party state. Over the following days, the mass demonstrations devolved into violent riots as the military fired into crowds of protesters.

The 8888 Uprising, also known as the People Power Uprising, took place in the context of an economic crisis in the country, governed as a one-party state by the Burma Socialist Programme Party, led by General Ne Win. Students and farmers had been engaging in protest and campaigns of rebellion against various state economic policies since 1985.

On August 8th, 1988 (thus the uprising's name) mass anti-government demonstrations took place throughout the country. Participants came from a wide variety of demographics - Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, students, workers, young and old participated.

The protests began relatively peacefully, with only one casualty reported on the first day, the result of a frightened traffic cop who fired into the crowd and fled. Over the next few days, the protests devolved into violent riots as the military and police fired on the protesters, at one point even shooting doctors and nurses tending to the wounded.

Protesters responded by throwing Molotov cocktails, swords, knives, rocks, poisoned darts and bicycle spokes. In one incident, rioters burned a police station and killed four fleeing police officers.

On August 26th, Aung San Suu Kyi (eventual leader of the country and complicit in the rohingya genocide), the daughter of anti-imperialist revolutionary Aung San, addressed half a million people at Shwedagon Pagoda, becoming an international figure in the uprising, supported by the West. Her party would later go on to win elections in 1990, however these results were ignored by the military government and she was arrested.

On September 18th, the military retook power in the country, with General Saw Maung repealing the 1974 constitution and imposing martial law. The demonstrations were violently suppressed and, by the end of September, at least 3,000 people were killed, however estimates of casualties vary widely.

Eventually after another mass protests in the saffron revolution and the 2010-2015 reforms Aung San party the NLD would take power in 2015 and be overthrown by a coup in 2021 and banned 2 years later.

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  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    4 months ago

    I am going back in time to mock every american celebrating america's return to space by reminding them that 20th century Soviet rockets are still better and more reliable than any 21st century American rocket.

    • someone [comrade/them, they/them]
      ·
      4 months ago

      To be fair, the actual rocket involved in the Starliner flight, Atlas V, did its job perfectly. The funny thing is that it was originally designed and operated by Boeing competitor Lockheed Martin.

      Atlas V is operated by a company owned 50/50 by Lockheed Martin and Boeing called United Launch Alliance. ULA was the result of a shotgun marriage arranged by a thoroughly pissed-off US government. A few decades ago the two companies were engaged in vicious industrial espionage. The US government was worried this would threaten domestic heavy launch capabilities, like for spy sats. So they basically told both companies that a new company would be formed that they jointly owned, but would really only be answerable to the US government in practice.

        • someone [comrade/them, they/them]
          ·
          4 months ago

          That RD-180 is a masterpiece of engineering. Literally the only reason ULA won't be using them in the future is political, not technical.

          Maybe the only mass-produced engine that competed with the RD-180 in terms of reliability was the American F-1, the absolute beast that powered the first stage of the legendary Saturn V. There were 65 F-1 engines that went through a launch, and every single one of them worked perfectly from ignition to planned shutdown. To this day they're the most powerful engines to fly. Their fuel pumps were more powerful than most rocket engines! A great missed opportunity was the never-built Jarvis concept from the 1980s, which would have used proven Saturn V technology in a medium-lift rocket. Its first stage would have used two of those proven and powerful F-1 engines.

          The youtuber Tim Dodd (aka "everyday astronaut") did an excellent history of Soviet rocket engines a few years back. The article is here, and video version is here. It's a very long video (94 minutes!) but it's extremely technically detailed. And it's very complimentary towards the Soviet scientists and engineers who developed and built those engines.