Cacerolazos: The Night Will Not Be Silenced
Protest to the military coup in Myanmar has taken many forms, and the response from Burmese artists has been one of the most compelling and inspiring. As Myanmar Mix recently reported,
Myanmar bands The Rebel Riot, Kultureshock, The Outcast and The Slingshot, as well as several international bands, have formed a collective called Cacerolazo – the Spanish word for “casserole” and a form of protest popularized in 1971 when women banged empty pots on the streets to demonstrate against food shortages in Chile.
This news came following our interview with Diego Prieto, a meditator from Chile who has traveled throughout Myanmar and who is now completing a documentary based on the teachings of the Buddha called Tathagata. Amazed at the synchronicity and inspired by how Burmese are now using this native Chilean concept, Diego and his partner have written the following essay:
“Throughout history, humanity has undergone endless conflicts between its inhabitants, but unlike past times and largely thanks to technological developments, now people have new tools to access information and to communicate with each other, which has helped to achieve a series of social changes on a global level.
A clear example was the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, where through a Facebook group more than a million people coordinated to march in front of the government palace, forcing the exit of a corrupt president who had been in power for over 30 years.
Something similar happened here in Chile in 2019, where an increase in the price of the subway triggered a series of demonstrations throughout the country where its inhabitants were already tired of years of inequality and abuse. During this period, social networks were a deciding factor, not only by showing what the National TV was not broadcasting but also by helping people to organize many protests in which more than a million people gathered to demonstrate peacefully at the center of the capital city. This was counteracted by violence and repression in hands of the police, but the people did not stop. The marches and strikes of different social organizations went on for some months, causing both the president and the senate to finally agree to start the process of rewriting the Constitution, this time by direct representatives of the Chilean people instead of the political party in command.
Another important factor in the Chilean revolution of 2019 were the famous “cacerolazos”, which comes from the Spanish word casserole and it basically consists of banging an empty pot or pan with a spoon as hard as possible. These are a strong and loud symbolism of inequity and scarcity of resources that came from other historical manifestations of the country. And although this resource has nothing technological, it was integrated and strengthened in an organic way with the new mass communication resources.
A more complex case is what is happening today in Myanmar where the army has taken the power by force after years of negotiation for a return to democracy. History repeats itself; a small group that concentrates the power is not willing to give it up. But the conditions are different now, since all the atrocities that dictatorships commit in times of oppression can now be recorded and instantly shared by everyone. Therefore it was to be expected that the Myanmar armed forces attempted to shut down all communications in the country. What they did not count on was that without them, the Military themselves would not be able to organize either, putting in this way their dominance at stake. So far they have only managed to restrict them to the minimum possible, which has made it difficult for the people of Myanmar to organize massively against the regime.
Nevertheless, they have managed to find a way to express their dissatisfaction and at the same time hold together. After many pacific protests and many encounters with the police and army, they have also found inspiration from the Chilean revolution of 2019, and now they are raising their voices once again and taking the streets with the bangings of cacerolas. In this measure, it is not necessary to send WhatsApp to the neighbors, the message spreads by its noise and travels in all directions in a simple but powerful way.
Today more than ever the people of Myanmar need international support in order to exert pressure on the armed forces. It is also possible to collaborate with various humanitarian groups and support networks that are directly helping the victims of this humanitarian catastrophe. From Chile, we send this message to the world to awaken the solidarity of those who want to collaborate with the inhabitants of one of the most incredible and pristine countries that we have had the opportunity to visit.
We send our love, support and a message of hope for its people, as the proverb says: In unity there is strength.
Diego Prieto & Camila Arias, founders of BeHappy NGO.”