Zaw Win @ Justice For Nate Buckley Event - Burning Books, Buffalo, NY (2012-01-04): Part 2
Channel: Anzevuil
Date: 2012-01-06

(CONTINUED FROM PART 1 OF VIDEO:  "Freedom Fighters" by Andrew Blake (ARTVOICE, May 19, 2010)

http://artvoice.com/issues/v9n20/freedom_fighters#ixzz1iw9arWhZ

" 'There was no student union and we wanted to organize,' Zaw says. 'We needed a union so we could have more power.'

"Organizing of any sort, whether a labor union or a high school student group, is illegal in Burma. The last time a student union had been formed at Zaw's school, the military destroyed several buildings on campus with dynamite. In 1991, when Zaw tried to organize a student union, his punishment was prison. 

"After serving four years behind bars, Zaw fled to Thailand, where he lived for several years illegally, without proper identification or documentation. Even still, he managed to form a worker's union for migrant workers in hopes of establishing equality and rights for his peers. He helped operate a clinic, was sold against his will into a human trafficking ring, escaped into Malaysia, and, like a few thousand others, ended up, somehow, in Buffalo, 12,000 miles from home. 

"Once he gained official status as a refugee, Zaw worked hard to bring the rest of his family out of Asia and into Buffalo. He's lived on Massachusetts Avenue, around the corner from his laundromat, for four and a half years now. 

"Burma's political leaders installed a new constitution in 2008 in an attempt to construct a façade of democracy atop its continuing program of repression. 'The constitution is not right,' Zaw says. 'It tells the people to write down this one, this one, and this one and this one, and then you're voting by force. The people are like, "Yes or no?" and they say, "Yes, yes, yes!" We don't like this election or this constitution.'

"Reworking the constitution in hopes of installing a new governing system is among the goals toward which the attendees at next week's conference will be working.

" 'Unfortunately, right now, we cannot change anything for the people,' Zaw says. 'The country's situation is worse and worse. Right now, we know a lot of people across the country and some people from abroad who are interested in changing the country to democracy. That's why, right now, we are trying to change. A lot of opposition leaders, they try to find so many ways to change the country. We want to fight against the military dictatorship now.'..." 

FOR THE CONCLUSION OF THE ARTICLE, GO TO PART 3 OF THE VIDEO

To learn more about the weekend's conference, visit http://buffaloconference.weebly.com/

The International Institute Of Buffalo (including links to refugee resettlement and education services):
http://www.iibuff.org/


Links for Burning Books (located at 420 Connecticut Street, Buffalo, NY ):
http://burningbooksbuffalo.com/
http://artvoice.com/issues/v10n36/burning_books
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burning-Books/263128823706195
http://www.thegoodneighborhood.com/2012/01/03/where-the-heart-is-burning-books-brings-activism-to-west-side-store/