The 88 Generation Students group kicked off their new campaign, 'Open Heart', on January 4th, the 59th anniversary of Burma's independence from Britian. The campaign will run for one month, and will involve sending out letters and envelopes to the people of Burma - a letter from the 88 Generation Students to Than Shwe, and a message to the people, encouraging them to write their own letters expressing their feelings and troubles and returning them to the activist group in the envelopes to be sent on to the junta.

In 2006, the 88 Generation Students ran two campaigns, a petition calling for the release of five detained student leaders, and the White Expression campaign. The petition, which also called for democratic reforms and the release of all political prisoners, ultimately gathered 535,580 signatures. The White Expression campaign, also succussful in garnering wide-spread participation, called on individuals to wear white in an expression of support for the student movement, and the call for reforms and national reconciliation. The choice of white showed the strategic astuteness of the campaign leaders. Being the color of choice of the government lackeys belonging to the Union Solidarity and Development Associations, as well as government school uniforms and lay-residents of Buddhist monasteries, white as the campaign color not only created a somewhat safe public space for the expression of dissent, but one might also presume created an air of uncertianty for the government and its supporters. One would never know for sure if the person wearing white was expressing dissent or not - and pro-junta individuals wearing white would inadvertantly find themselves providing a sort of camoflauge protecting anti-junta dissidents.

It's easy to become cynical when it comes to Burma, as the same good and bad news seems to be recycled year after year, with very little change. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the potential significance of what the 88 Generation Students are now doing with their campaigns. They are slowly carving out a public space for the expression of dissent, and their level of coordination and planning has made it possible for masses of people to participate at once, without creating a target for the military in the way that a public demonstrations or protests would. They've also created a means of raising politics in the public consciousness - that is, politics as something that can be acted on and participated in, and not politics as a dirty word implying corruption and futility. But, there is still a long way to go - they've certianly created momentum in what seems like the right direction, let's hope they can keep it moving.