Freedom Bloc

Freedom Bloc
Burmese name	ဗမာ့ထွက်ရပ်ဂိုဏ်း
Leader	Ba Maw Aung San U Nu Thakin Than Tun Thakin Mya Thein Maung
President	Ba Maw
General Secretary	Aung San
Founded	October 1939[1]
Dissolved	1944
Merger of	Dobama Asiayone Poor Man's Party All-Burma Students Association
Succeeded by	Greater Burma Party
Ideology	Marxism[2] Burmese independence[3] Anti-British sentiment Anti-fascism Socialism
Politics of Burma Political parties Elections

The Freedom Bloc (Burmese: ဗမာ့ထွက်ရပ်ဂိုဏ်း), later known as Dobama-Sinyetha Asiayone (Burmese: တို့ဗမာဆင်းရဲသားအစည်းအရုံး), was a political party in Burma during World War II.

History

The party was established by a merger of Dobama Asiayone (DAA), Ba Maw's Poor Man's Party and the All-Burma Students Association, and was known as the "Htwet Yat Gain" (Burmese: ထွက်ရပ်ဂိုဏ်း, "Association of the Way Out"),^[4] although DAA leaders secretly formed the People's Revolutionary Party at the time of the merger.^[3] It opposed cooperation with the British war effort unless Burma was guaranteed independence immediately after the war, and threatened to increase its anti-British and anti-war campaign.^[3] As a result, the Governor ordered the arrest of the Bloc's leadership in 1940, most of whom remained in prison until the Japanese invasion of 1942.^[3]

Following the onset of the Japanese occupation, the party was renamed Dobama-Sinyetha Asiayone and dropped its anti-fascist and socialist outlook due to the Japanese presence. Ba Maw became Head of State and leader of the renamed party.^[3]

In 1944 the party was dissolved, with the Greater Burma Party formed to replace it.^[3]

References

1. Maw, Ba (1968). Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939-1946. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 59.
2. Maw, Ba (1968). Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939-1946. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 73.
3. Fukui, p129
4. Haruhiro Fukui (1985) Political parties of Asia and the Pacific, Greenwood Press, p130