8888 Uprising

The 8888 Nationwide Popular Pro-Democracy Protests (MLCTS: hrac le: lum:) also known as the People Power Uprising was a series of marches, demonstrations, protests, and riots in Burma (Myanmar). Key events occurred on 8 August 1988, and therefore it is known as the 8888 Uprising.

Since 1962, the country had been ruled by the Burma Socialist Programme Party regime as a one-party state, headed by General Ne Win. The catastrophic Burmese Way to Socialism had turned Burma into one of the world's most impoverished countries. Many firms in the formal sector of the economy were nationalised and the government combined Soviet-style central planning, although the process was rather ineffective, with Buddhist and superstitious beliefs.

The 8888 uprising was started by students in Yangon (Rangoon) on 8 August 1988. Student protests spread throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands of ochre-robed monks, children, youngsters, university students, housewives, doctors and people from all walks of life demonstrated against the regime. The uprising ended on 18 September, after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Thousands of deaths have been attributed to the military during this uprising, while authorities in Myanmar put the figure at around 350 people killed.