88 Generation Students Group
organization
The 88 Generation Students (Burmese: ၈၈ မျိုးဆက် ကျောင်းသားများ) is a Burmese pro-democracy movement known for their activism against the country's military junta. Many of its members were imprisoned by the Burmese government on charges of "illegally using electronic media" and "forming an illegal organisation". A number of Western governments and human rights organisations called for the release of group members on the grounds that they were political prisoners.
8888 Uprising
The group takes its name from the 8888 Uprising, a series of student-led protests in 1988 opposing the military rule of Ne Win. In September 1987, Ne Win voided most denominations of the kyat without warning, causing many people to lose their savings overnight. Students who saved money for tuition fees were particularly affected. The announcement led to riots at several universities. The situation was further exacerbated by the shooting of protesting student Phone Maw in a 12 March 1988 clash with police. The protests continued to grow through August of that year, and on 8 August 1988 (8-8-88), a general strike began from which the uprising would later take its name.
The protests culminated in the 1990 general election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party the National League for Democracy won 392 of 492 available seats.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “88 Generation Students Group” as organization. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as organization. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2568826. The first chronological checks are 1988, 1987 and 1990.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “88 Generation Students Group” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.