Since 1962, the Burma Socialist Programme Party had ruled the country as a totalitarian one-party state, headed by General Ne Win.

Under the government agenda, called the Burmese Way to Socialism, which involved economic isolation and the strengthening of the military, Burma became one of the world's most impoverished countries.

[12][13][14] Many firms in the formal sector of the economy were nationalised, and the government combined Soviet-style central planning with Buddhist and traditional beliefs and superstition.

[19] However, the military junta refused to recognise the results and continued to rule the country as the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

Roughly 60–80% of circulated legal tender was declared invalid without warning, and millions of Burmese citizens had their savings eliminated by this action.

[24] With the re-opening of schools in late October 1987, underground groups in Rangoon and Mandalay produced dissident leaflets which culminated in bombs exploding in November.

[32][page needed] The protests were fanned by public letters to Ne Win by former second in command Brigadier General Aung Gyi from July 1987, reminding him of the 1967 riots and condemning lack of economic reform, describing Burma as "almost a joke" compared to other Southeast Asian nations.

[25][33] On 12 March 1988, students from the Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT) were arguing with out-of-school youths inside the Sanda Win tea shop about music playing on a sound system.

[34] A brawl followed in which one youth, who was the son of a Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) official, was arrested and later released for injuring a student.

[30] There was growing resentment towards military rule and there were no channels to address grievances, further exacerbated by police brutality, economic mismanagement and corruption within the government.

Large scale protests were reported in Pegu, Mandalay, Tavoy, Toungoo, Sittwe, Pakokku, Mergui, Minbu and Myitkyina.

[39][page needed] Demonstrators in larger numbers demanded multi-party democracy, which marked Ne Win's resignation on 23 July 1988.

"[27] He also promised a multi-party system, but he had appointed the largely disliked Sein Lwin, known as the "Butcher of Rangoon"[40][page needed] to head a new government.

[44] The students were quickly joined by Burmese citizens from all walks of life, including government workers, Buddhist monks, air force and navy personnel, customs officers, teachers and hospital staff.

[46] Across Burma, people poured out in thousands to join the protests – not just students but also teachers, monks, children, professionals, and trade unionists of every shade.

[49][page needed] In Mandalay Division, a more organised strike committee was headed by lawyers and discussion focused on multi-party democracy and human rights.

[45][page needed] Protesters responded by throwing Molotov cocktails, swords, knives, rocks, poisoned darts and bicycle spokes.

[33] Estimates of the number of casualties surrounding the 8-8-88 demonstrations range from hundreds to 10,000;[5][4][6] military authorities put the figures at about 95 people killed and 240 wounded.

[53][page needed] Maung was a legal scholar and the only non-military individual to serve in the Burma Socialist Programme Party(BSPP).

[3] Two days later, doctors, monks, musicians, actors, lawyers, army veterans and government office workers joined the protests.

[56] On 26 August, Aung San Suu Kyi, who had watched the demonstrations from her mother's bedside,[57][page needed] entered the political arena by addressing half a million people at Shwedagon Pagoda.

[59][page needed] Suu Kyi urged the crowd not to turn on the army but find peace through non-violent means.

The government announced on the state-run radio that the military had assumed power in the people's interest, "in order to bring a timely halt to the deteriorating conditions on all sides all over the country.

[6][page needed] Many in Burma believed that the regime would have collapsed if the United Nations and neighbouring countries had refused to recognise the legitimacy of the coup.

[74] By 1989, 6,000 NLD supporters had been detained and those who fled to the ethnic border areas, such as Kawthoolei, formed groups with those who sought greater self-determination.

[75] It was estimated 10,000 had fled to mountains which were controlled by ethnic insurgents such as the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and many of them later trained to become soldiers.

[78] Intelligence Chief General Khin Nyunt, held English-language press conferences which were aimed at giving foreign diplomats and the media a favourable account of the SLORC's response to the protests.

[78][79] During this period, more restrictions were imposed upon the Burmese media, denying it the relative freedom to report news which it had been able to exercise at the peak of the protests.

From 1988 to 2012, the military and the police illegally detained and imprisoned tens of thousands of leaders of the Burmese pro-democracy movement, as well as intellectuals, artists, students, and human rights activists.

The 88 Generation Students Group, which is named after the events of 8 August 1988, organised one of the first protests which eventually culminated in the Saffron Revolution.