Enough poverty. Enough malnutrition. Enough civil war, torture, arbitrary arrest and incarceration. Enough repression, fear, and censorship.

That’s what the current protest is about, but its roots stretch back to 1962 when the Burmese armed forces, led by General Ne Win, usurped power from Burma’s democratically elected government of Prime Minister U Nu. General Ne Win ruled the country by fear, informers, propaganda and isolation. A civil war has waged since then, with estimates of the loss of life at up to 10,000 each year.

The country which had been the rice-basket of Asia became classified by the United Nations (UN) as a Least Developed Country. And the nation that had produced international leaders such as UN Secretary General, U Thant, could not bear a succession from the aging Ne Win to a younger generation of military officers.

In 1988 the population had had enough. Led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its charismatic Secretary, Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation poured onto the streets of the cities and towns and demanded democracy.

The army fired upon these unarmed civilians and the hospitals overflowed with the dead and dying. Somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 people lost their life. A group of army officers with the decidedly Orwellian name, the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) came to power and was succeeded in 1997 by the less interestingly-named SPDC (State Peace and Development Committee). The SLORC and SPDC have ruled Burma through the strategic use of political violence and a highly successful policy of utter repression through violence and incarceration.

Students had been at the forefront of many of these marches for democracy and some escaped to neighbouring countries but others went to jail. Some have been released over the last three years. They call themselves the ‘88 student generation.’ Now middle-aged, these students have had a long time to plan what they were going to do upon release. In this current attempted “Saffron Revolution,” we see the fruits of their plans.

Today’s street protests are the culmination of a campaign for democracy being coordinated by the ’88 Student Generation, the activist movement in exile, the labor movement (embodied by Su Su Nway, now in hiding), monks, and the National League for Democracy. It is the first time since 1988 that a true “coalition of the willing” has been able to emerge and, if the military doesn’t open fire on them, it has along way to go yet.

Coordination is difficult given that most mobile phones are illegal as well as use of the internet. Burma’s first blog appeared last week showing the first day of the monk protest in Rangoon. It only took the military regime 24 hours to shut it down. And so the coordination of a nationwide movement by the “Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks” is continuing.

As I write this, riot police and soldiers are surrounding the key protest sites in Rangoon in preparation for today’s demonstrations. The Minister for Religious Affairs has warned monks that they will be subject to the law. Every time in the past that this phrase has been used, the security forces have moved in and arrests have followed.

The curfew yesterday imposed upon Rangoon (9pm to 5am) for 60 days was accompanied by the announcement that assemblies of more than five is banned in Burma and again, action will be taken against anyone violating this law. With dialogue only a distant possibility the scene is set for bloodshed or revolution or possibly both.

Rangoon residents have often told me that “when I’m starving, I’ll fight.” The recent fuel and cost of living rises, in conjunction with this broad coalition of pro-democracy groups, means that the Burmese people are trying to overcome their real fear of another bloodbath on the streets and tell the Generals, once again, that they’ve had enough.