Thakin Soe

Movement

Soe first got involved in politics through the nationalist Dobama Asiayone in the 1930s. Along with Thakin Ba Tin and other nationalists, he helped establish the Communist Party of Burma in 1939. While locked up in Insein prison in July 1941, Soe and Thakin Than Tun co-authored the Insein Manifesto. This document broke with the Dobama movement's mainstream view by declaring fascism the primary threat in the upcoming war and urging short-term collaboration with the British, as part of a larger alliance that would include the Soviet Union. Soe then went underground to organize resistance against the Japanese occupation, while Than Tun passed on Japanese intelligence to him. Other communist leaders Thakin Thein Pe and Tin Shwe made contact with the exiled colonial government in Simla, India. In August 1944, at a secret meeting in Pegu of the CPB, the PRP, and the Burma National Army (BNA) led by General Aung San, Soe and Than Tun joined socialist leaders Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein to create the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO), later renamed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL). Soe spent most of his life underground and for a time led the Red Flag Communist Party. Government forces captured him in November 1970 near the Arakan Yoma, but he was released in a 1980 amnesty by the socialist government. After nationwide demonstrations against Ne Win's government in 1988, Soe re-entered politics in August 1988 and became the patron of the Unity and Peace Party in September 1988, which he hoped would contest in the 1990 elections.