Over the past two days the news for the current anti-government movement hasn't been encouraging. By most accounts the regime's soldiers and police have largely succeeded in neutralizing the Buddhist monks who gave such a powerful impetus to the opposition when they joined street protests earlier this month. The security forces have cordoned off monasteries, confining some monks inside and arresting hundreds, if not thousands, of others. Many demonstrators have been beaten and detained; dozens of people (no one knows the precise number) have been shot. And the government's success in curtailing the flow of information to the outside world has also made its work easier. Small wonder that some media accounts are making it sound as though the government has already triumphed.

However, there now appears to be a move towards using the General Strike as a weapon against the brutality of the incumbent regime. The events in Burma seem to portray a popular revolution unfolding right now and this is is an issue which deserves a place on our website, so that socialists within and around our movement remain informed.

Neither the popular press nor the mass media would dare to suggest that the road to democracy in Burma and the resolution of this crisis, might be acheivable through the mobilisation of the Burmese working class but this now seems a distinct possibility. Of course we recognise as socialists that democracy can only be guarenteed by workers organising against their oppressors.