Thakin Soe


Thakin Soe was a founding member of the Communist Party of Burma, formed in 1939 and a leader of Anti-Fascist Organisation. He is regarded as one of Burma's most prominent Communist leaders.

Early life

Soe was an ethnic Mon and was born in Moulmein. He worked for the Burmah Oil Company.

Movement

Before independence

Soe joined the nationalist Dobama Asiayone in 1930s. Soe together with Thakin Ba Tin and other nationalists founded the Communist Party of Burma in 1939.
Communist leaders Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe, and Socialist leaders Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein and the Burma National Army led by General Aung San founded the Anti-Fascist Organisation in August 1944 at a secret meeting of the CPB, the PRP and the BNA in Pegu. The AFO was later renamed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League.
- From left to right - Bo Htun Lwin, Leader of the People's Liberation Army; Thakin Than Tun, Chairman of the Communist Party of Burma; Thakin Soe, Secretary General of the Communist Party
Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe, while in Insein prison in July 1941, had co-authored the Insein Manifesto which, against the prevailing opinion in the Dobama movement, identified world fascism as the main enemy in the coming war and called for temporary co-operation with the British in a broad allied coalition which should include the Soviet Union. Soe had already gone underground to organise resistance against the Japanese occupation, and Than Tun was able to pass on Japanese intelligence to Soe, while other Communist leaders Thakin Thein Pe and Tin Shwe made contact with the exiled colonial government in Simla, India.

Post-independence

Thakin Soe spent most of his life underground and for a time led the Red Flag Communist Party. He was captured by government forces in November 1970 near the Arakan Yoma but released in a 1980 amnesty by the socialist government. After nationwide demonstrations against Ne Win's government in 1988, Soe re-entered the 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.