Los Angeles rally protests Myanmar dictatorship

By Deborah Liatos
September 6, 2021
Militant/Deborah Liatos

LOS ANGELES — Several dozen people rallied in front of the Myanmar Consulate here Aug. 21, the 36th rally in Los Angeles County since the military seized power Feb. 1 and moved to crush a wave of mass demonstrations and strikes against the coup. The public rallies and marches, organized by the Los Angeles Myanmar Movement, have taken place almost every week, drawing up to 500 people.

The military government has been unable to stop protests in Myanmar. On Aug. 8, the 33rd anniversary of an uprising against military rule in 1988, protests took place in the main cities of Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing and other places across the country. The modest actions happened quickly, then dispersed, with coverage posted on Facebook.

“For five years we had won partial democracy,” Ii Maung, one of the organizers of the Los Angeles protest, told the Militant. Then the coup came.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced at the beginning of August that he was now the prime minister and that the military-enforced state of emergency was extended through August 2023.

Speakers at the rally said protests will continue to support the fight of the people in Myanmar until the military government is brought down. A popular chant in Burmese at the actions is, “Our revolution must win.”