Uprising Against the Coup: Myanmar and the Regional Struggle for Democracy

Join Haymarket Books and Spectre for a discussion of the ongoing struggle for democracy in Myanmar and beyond. On February 1st, the military in Myanmar annulled democratic elections and seized power in a coup. In response, the country’s people have risen up, staging an unending wave of mass protests and strikes against the regime. The military has responded with brutal repression, killing hundreds throughout the country. This struggle comes on the heels of similar uprisings in Hong Kong and Thailand. Join this Spectre Live! webinar to hear speakers discuss the uprising and its implications for the fight for democracy throughout the region. Speakers: Thiti Jamkajornkeiat is a Ph.D. candidate in South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently involved with the Association for Thai Democracy (ATD) based in the US. His doctoral research investigates anti-capitalist praxis, decolonization, and leftist internationalism in post-war Indonesia with an endeavor to conceptualize Marxism from the periphery. Me Me Khant is from Yangon, Myanmar and is a candidate for Master’s in International Policy (MIP) and Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University. She began her activism for democratic cause in Myanmar as a Students’ Union leader before coming to the United States. A poet and activist, she has written and spoken out about human rights challenges in Myanmar – especially regarding women’s rights, ethnic minority issues, and freedom of speech. She's a co-founder of Virtual Demonstrations Movement and has been organizing both virtual and in-person rallies in the Myanmar diaspora community, including Milk Tea Alliance rallies and global protests. Kevin Lin writes about China's labor movement and the Hong Kong protest movement. Geoffrey Aung is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. Zachary Levenson is an editor of Spectre. He teaches sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and is a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. This event is sponsored by Spectre Journal and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/1DnxfeAcRKI Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks