Thakin Lwin
|
Thakhin Lwin |
|
|---|---|
| Native name | သခင်လွင် |
| Born |
5 November 1914 Zigon, Tharrawaddy District, British Burma |
| Died | 20 December 1996 (aged 82) Yangon, Myanmar |
| Nationality | Burmese |
| Occupation | Politician, writer |
Thakin Lwin (Burmese: သခင်လွင်, pronounced [θəkʰɪ̀ɴ lwɪ̀ɴ]; 5 November 1914 – 20 December 1996) was a Burmese politician and trade unionist, writer and journalist. He was a leading member of the anti-colonial Dobama Asiayone movement, a parliamentarian, the president of the Trade Union Congress (Burma) and a prominent leader of the Burma Workers and Peasants Party.
Lwin was born in Zigon, Tharrawaddy District, in 1914 to a family of traders. He finished high school in 1936.
Lwin served as the secretary of the Oilfield Workers' Association between 1938 and 1941. Lwin's discourse for organising workers was based on a combination of nationalism and communalism. He and other revolutionary leftwing Thakins mobilized support for the oilworkers' strike of 1938, giving revolutionary speeches in favour of Marxism-Leninism. Basing themselves of the experiences of the oilworkers' strike, a preparatory committee to set up a 'All Burma Workers Asiayone' was formed in 1939. Lwin was one of the members of the preparatory committee.
During the Second World War, Lwin was put in charge of the Pakokku District by the People's Revolutionary Party.
In 1945, Lwin became a Central Executive Committee member of the People's Freedom (Socialist) Party. In 1947 he was elected as a member of parliament.
In 1949 he became the president of the Trade Union Congress. Under Lwin's leadership, the TUC(B) steered towards an openly communist line. At the May Day rally of 1950, TUC(B) demonstrators had carried large portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. In his speech at the rally, Lwin publicly declared that TUC(B) followed the 'communist party line' and said that the organisation should join the World Federation of Trade Unions. He harshly condemned the policy of the Burmese government of accepting British financial aid. But he also denounced the White Flag Communist Party, Red Flag Communist Party and Josip Broz Tito as 'deviationists'. Lwin's speech made the ongoing division in the Socialist Party public.
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