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A civil disobedience movement opposing the military regime in Myanmar has paralyzed the economy, as workers go on strike, companies withhold taxes, and the overthrown government urges foreign investors to shun the junta.

The movement has received mass support from tens of thousands of government and private employees who opposed Min Aung Hlaing’s February 1 coup in which he ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s National Democracy League. Railroad workers, bank employees, medics and officials have joined a general strike that disrupted transportation, logistics, banking, commerce and Myanmar’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

However, the growing chaos is raising the alarm among business people, most of whom support the right of their employees to protest. But privately, they warn that the turmoil threatens to wipe out a decade of economic gains.

“The CDM succeeds in bringing things to a standstill,” said a director of the Financial Times. “I think that’s its purpose, but it’s a dangerous game.”

The apparel supply chain, a sector that employs 500,000 people, mostly women, is collapsing as foreign companies suspend orders. Goods are piling up in ports because there aren’t enough customs agents to clear them.

Most banks have closed since the coup, disrupting corporate payroll and international invoicing, and prompting consumers to hoard cash. Farmers struggle to get their crops to market while the prices of seeds and fertilizers rise.

The United Nations World Food Program warned this week that higher prices for food and other essentials would increase the risk of starving poor families already in trouble due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese-owned factories in Yangon were set on fire Sunday while the regime’s use of deadly force resulted in the deaths of at least 39 people, a one-day record for protest-related deaths. Japanese brand Uniqlo announced Tuesday that two of its clothing factories had also been set on fire. “We don’t have any further details right now, but we’re trying to find out more,” the company said.

183 people have been killed and 2,175 arrested by security forces since the coup, the human rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said on Tuesday.

The Eurasia Group, the Risk Advisory Service, warned of a growing risk that Myanmar could become a failed state. “If Myanmar collapses in chaos, it would have significant destabilizing effects on neighboring Thailand and regional supply chains,” wrote analyst Peter Mumford.

Businesspeople tend to remain silent about their economic worries because they fear being publicly branded as supporters of the junta.

“Larger boycotts and ‘social punishment’ through peer pressure and Facebook are damaging the overall economy, particularly through its impact on banking and logistics,” a Myanmar business analyst told the FT. “This means employers cannot pay suppliers or employees, even those they have tacitly allowed to skip work and participate in protests.”

The economic paralysis underscores a profound challenge to the protesters and foreign governments and activists who support the Myanmar people’s quest to regain their democracy: mass actions to combat the coup are starting to hurt millions of ordinary people, business people say, and could tarnish people’s strength the protest movement too.

The US and several other western countries have sanctioned the leaders, families and businesses of the junta that control them, saying they want to avoid harming ordinary people. However, the regime’s willingness to use violence, internet shutdowns and other tactics to quell protests has sparked an increasingly angry response from protesters who, together, are damaging the business climate.

“We want to have maximum impact on the junta and minimal impact on the people of Myanmar,” said Tom Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar.

Human rights groups want governments and corporations to sanction MEHL and MEC, two military-controlled conglomerates whose subsidiaries include more than a hundred manufacturing, insurance and banking companies, according to Andrews.

The US has also imposed sanctions on three subsidiaries. Human rights groups are calling for further action against the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, a state-owned company now under the control of the junta that Andrews recently described as “the state’s greatest source of income”.

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In Myanmar, the civil disobedience movement has urged businesses to withhold tax payments and avoid dealing with the junta or military affiliates. Over the weekend, a parallel government set up by hidden NLD officials said that Myanmar State Investment Commission permits “will not be recognized if the legitimate government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar returns to power”.

The unrest has put increasing pressure on multinational companies.

“In February we asked brands not to leave the country, but then no people were killed,” said Khaing Zar Aung, president of the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar. Now she added, “If companies stay in the country, they support the military by paying taxes.”

The clothing chains H & M, C & A and Inditex said they are suspending new orders from Myanmar.

Thulsi Narayanasamy, chief labor rights officer at the Business & Human Rights Resource Center, said local unions have come together to support sanctions to restore democracy. “They are already risking their lives and work to protest, so they want to go all the way,” she said.

Unions are calling for brands to stop production in Myanmar to publicly support textile workers’ right to protest without the risk of job loss or other threats.

“Brands need to use the tremendous leverage they now have to support workers who are protesting enormous personal risk to themselves,” said Narayanasamy.