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Workshop on Labor in a Time of Revolution
13 September 2025, 9:00AM-4:00PM, Myanmar GMT +6:30

After four years of military rule in Myanmar, the lives of workers have been reshaped by the collapse of the formal economy, widespread factory closures, mass layoffs, lack of employment opportunities, inflation, and political repression. There is no effective means to address workers’ grievances; employers ask authorities to intervene when there is a workplace dispute, and soldiers threaten workers. The hindrance of employers and authorities have weakened the leading role of the Myanmar labour movement against the coup. However, workers have continued their struggle under these restrictive conditions and continue to organize to fight back under military rule. For instance, in October 2022, Myanmar Pou Chen Co in Shwepyithar Township, Yangon, fired 27 trade union leaders after nearly 2,000 workers struck for a pay increase. Similarly, seven strike leaders at the Hoseng Factory in Shwepyithar were dismissed, with five arrested. Workers continued to face arrests.

The country has also deteriorated on various fronts, facing major problems such as an economic crisis, violent oppression by the military against the resistance movement, and intense armed conflicts. Workers had to flee the country for economic, social and political reasons, especially after the enactment of the conscription law in early 2024. Thailand became the destination for the exodus of thousands of Myanmar people. The count of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand has rapidly increased. As of December 2020, the labour registration system recorded 1,574,324 Burmese workers. By two years later, that number rose to 1,981,739. Many more are believed to be working informally without registration. After the recent regional attention on online scamming businesses along the Thai-Myanmar borderland, more arrests of Myanmar migrant youths were reported in the local media.

Questions about labour and workers’ lives around industrial zones in Myanmar and outside of Myanmar have faded as there is an urgent need to find a solution to the current Myanmar political crisis. News media has also neglected workers’ efforts to make their workplaces more democratic and their significant role in the Spring Revolution. However, the struggle of Myanmar workers is ongoing, and it is not just to restore the pre-coup conditions.

The “Labor in a Time of Revolution” workshop organized by the Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship (IJBS) will foster research articles and interviews with labour organizers working on the ground.

The following topics will be discussed:

• The role of social reproductive labour in the lives of Myanmar women migrant workers
• Policies and broader regulations related to migrant workers in Thailand
• The Myanmar junta’s response to labor disputes in the garment sector: repression, tactics, and consequences
• Organizing experiences with Myanmar migrant workers in Mae Sot’s industrial zones
• Organizing experiences with Myanmar migrant workers in the fishery sector

This workshop will lead to a special issue to help us understand Myanmar workers’ experiences and resistance inside and outside the country. By raising these topics, we hope to contribute to broader conversations about Myanmar workers, economic justice, and political changes in the country.

The writing workshop will be held in September 2025 to enhance authors’ academic writing skills and to finalize the article by addressing feedback. Discussions among researchers and labour organisers will generate ideas for further studies and identify the problems that need to be addressed for fundamental changes in society. The workshop will be hybrid and take place in-person in Mae Sot.

IJBS welcomes abstracts in Burmese or English languages for this workshop. For more information, please contact IJBS.