'Spirit To Fight': Inside The Labor, Minority Rights Roots Of Myanmar's Protests

When minority rights activist Esther Ze Naw prepared for Yangon's first major anti-coup protest on Feb. 6, she was well aware of the possibility that security forces might open fire, as they had done in the past.

"There is no one who is not afraid of that, but at the time I was more afraid that people would not turn out. I was more afraid that people would not come out on the streets if something happened that day," she says.

Fears of a low turnout were unfounded. Following that protest, which drew a crowd of some 5,000, Yangon and other parts of Myanmar exploded in weeks of mass demonstrations as millions took to the streets to demand democracy and defy the Feb. 1 military coup, launched the day before the new parliament was set to be sworn in.

The majority of Myanmar's protesters are supporters of the National League for Democracy party and its detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet many of those responsible for igniting and maintaining the protests in Yangon were not members of NLD, most of whose senior leaders are in detention. Instead, the first protest was led by minority rights activists like Esther Ze Naw, labor unions, garment workers, students' groups and other organizations that had butted heads with the NLD during its short time in power.