Miner strike in Burma.

A volatile combination of food shortages and soaring inflation is sparking labor protests throughout Burma.

In February, in one of the largest protests since the Burmese government crushed a prodemocracy uprising in 1988, 8,000 mine workers and their families gathered at Nanmatu silver mine in eastern Burma to call for improved wages and working conditions. The Burmese regime, called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), owns and operates the giant mine.

The mine workers say they are working long hours for low wages and are suffering from high inflation, which leaves them unable to afford basic goods. The miners presented several demands to the SPDC's mining ministry: the abolition of the current piece-work system, better wages and accommodations, and cheaper rice.

The Nanmatu incident is only the latest in a string of labor actions. In November, Burma Debate, a publication of the Open Society Institute, reported that nearly 1,000 textile workers in the city of Pegu went on strike to demand more pay and better working conditions. Workers and farmers have also staged protests recently in response to factory closures, the government's state monopoly on agricultural prices, and the heavy taxation of rice farmers.

Asia's financial woes have also exposed the fault lines in Burma's economy. Inflation is soaring and the value of Burma's currency has plunged.

Burma's economy is "based mainly on the reckless printing of money to meet the regime's expenditures, especially the payment of soldiers in an inflated army," says Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe, a veteran Shan soldier and a well-known Shan scholar. "There does not exist any real economic or monetary policy in Burma."

The mine workers were daring. "There is always a heavy risk in staging strikes," says Chao-Tzang.

The Nanmatu strikers have made use of the international media to help their cause. The BBC, Democratic Voice of Burma Radio, and Radio Free Asia all picked up the story from Internet dispatches. Even so, Burma's deputy minister of mines agreed to meet only one of the miners' demands. Except for the promise of enough rice at fair prices, Nanmatu employees are back at work under virtually the same conditions.

"Workers have struck and will strike again, as making ends meet is becoming impossible," says Chao-Tzang.

One Burmese exile and member of the Free Burma Coalition who asked not to be named says these worker protests are indicative of larger unrest. "Let's just say things are moving. People are seriously feeling the pressures of a food shortage."