Socialist Party of Burma

   (SPB)

   Established at the end of World War II and led by Thakin Mya, its president, U Ba Swe, and U Kyaw Nyein. It was the principal rival of the Communist Party of Burma during the postwar independence struggle, and after independence was the most powerful group inside the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) united front. U Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein served in the cabinets of Prime Minister U Nu, Ba Swe also serving as prime minister in 1956-1957. The party also exercised its influence through its affiliates, the All Burma Peasants' Organization and the Trade Union Congress (Burma), the latter being the largest trade union federation in the country during the 1950s. Within the SPB, there was intense debate about what form socialism should take, Marxism or a more moderate "Burmese" version. Leftwing socialists (known as "Red Socialists"), favoring the former, broke away from the party and the AFPFL and formed the Burma Workers and Peasants Party in 1950. When the AFPFL split in 1958, the mainstream Socialists inside the League constituted the "Stable" faction, a rival to Prime Minister U Nu's "Clean" faction.