The mid 70s of the last century was indeed a very turbulent period in the history of one of the youngest nations in world, Malaysia. It was only ten-years-old and a little more, just beginning to learn how to be independent off its parental help, the British colonialist.

Only some twelve years ago the emergency period, started in 1948 by the British to combat and counteract the threat of a communist takeover was lifted in 1960 after three years of gaining independence for Malaya.

It was a time when Malaya was very much dependent on the plantation agriculture and mining however the prices of these commodities have fallen dramatically as demand for these products were substituted by synthetic materials and industrial plastics.

That was the time when Malaysia turned to the foot-loose industries for help. Hordes of companies from America, Japan, and Taiwan rushed into Malaya to take the opportunity of the cheap labour available. The FTZs or Free Trade Zones were established mostly in Penang and in Sungai Way in Selangor

One of the insidious agreements that the government had made with these companies was to disallow the formation of trade unions. The National Union of Electronic Workers, with 250,000 members nation-wide, never did get its registration as an official union. Hence maximum social, economic and human labour exploitation was allowed by the government of the Barisan Nasional.

Lower secondary school drop-outs in thousands lived in virtually squalid conditions in Sungai Way and in Penang to earn a monthly wage of not more than RM300. Some of them who were production supervisors, received around RM500.

The present generation of young women must understand and appreciate the human sacrifices young women of the 70s had made for this country. The 1,000,000 over factory workers then had only earned a total monthly wage of RM100,000,000 per month. This is an average of RM100 per worker.

This was the time, I was actively organising textile workers in Negeri Sembilan. There were two large factories in the Senawang Industrial Estate, the Cempaka Negeri Lakshmi Texitiles (CNLT) and Kim Fashion Knitwear. The former was owned by the National Union of Plantation Workers and Lakshmi Textiles of Coimbatore and, the latter owned by Kim Strikfabrikweren from Germany.

During that time, CNLT had around 2000 workers and Kim Fashion had employed more than 3500 workers mainly piece-rated earning not more than RM100 a month. Production operators on the average in CNLT earned around RM150 per month.

While it was much easier to organise in CNLT, it was very difficult to meet and speak to the workers in Kim Fashion.

So I took on a strategy to meet them at their homes as far way in Mambau New Village or Rasah New Village. Amidst suspicion from their parents, we were able to set up some worker cells in Kim Fashion, whose chairman was none other than the late Tun Ismail Ali.

The hard work and commitment put in by the workers in CNLT and Kim Fashion finally bore fruit and the union was registered amidst all kinds of Special Branch harassment on myself and on some of the organisers. I am still in a daze as to why the police had to interfere in the due process of organising a trade union which is allowed by the Trade Union Act of 1959.

We finally rented out two rooms on the second floor of the building owned by the former DAP stalwart and member of parliament Dr A Soorian. But we did not have a typewriter and I had to withdraw from my own savings to buy the Olivetti.

As soon as we had this machine, work took on an exceptionally faster pace. No doubt most members could not even afford the bus fare from Senawang to Seremban to attend meetings but we struggled and moved with the song, "We shall not be moved" always ringing behind us. Our workers were simply poor. Beyond the transport provided by the factory, they were basically immobile.

This was the time when one of our very enthusiastic executive council member had written a letter to one of our collegues in the Philippines about the penurious conditions of labour in the textile mills and had asked for solidarity.

The letter somehow got into the hands of the Special Branch before it could reach its destination. They showed me the letter without the knowledge of the other council members and told me to sack her from the Exco.

Lim Wat Kian was one of the great organisers we had in Kim Fashion. It was a death-knell on our union. This could have been be used as an excuse to recommend to the Registrar of Trade Unions to deregister our Union.

I concurred with the exco and amidst great pain and a feeling of non-committal solidarity, we removed her. It was a shame to all of us but the police harassment was undeniably far too extreme.

We were looked upon as an anti-national organisation.

Workers consciousness and awareness can only be given with a focus on socialist ideology. While wage increases were inevitable, human dignity and dignity of labour were equally essential.

While exploitation of the workers was so very evident, how can we merely rest with the agenda of only talking about better working conditions and a 20 cents (not sen) yearly wage increase. We looked upon a larger agenda to emancipate them from these hardships. We needed a strong ideology.

You will never believe that a trade union organiser could be picked up on the road and taken to a den-like place (God knows where in Seremban although I was born and bred there) and stripped naked and pushed on to a cold block of ice and harshly questioned.

"Are you a communist?"

"No I am not."

"Say you are not a communist!"

"No I will not."

"Then say you are a communist!"

"No I will not."

It continued again and again. However, it fostered greater strength spiritually and gave us our human dignity for our commitment to the dignity of labour. As an epileptic, it made me worse off physically and mentally.

It aggravated into one’s belief in himself. The torture was tumultuous for a trade union organiser. But the solidarity of being together amidst hardship and poverty rendered the courage to overcome the will of force with the will of sacrifice.

The dignity of labour was not given on silver platter, it was fought amidst human sacrifice like the Tolpuddle Martyrs in Surrey who were brutally killed by the police. In another instance, the brutal massacre of the Knights of Labour in Chicago 150 years ago by the police had given us International Labour Day. A day of freedom.

Workers of today must remember that sacrifices are essential and far more important than discussing about Theo Walcott and Wayne Rooney and their goals.

I can only look up to our honest journalist Tan Hoon Cheng to tell her, human dignity has no race, colour or creed barriers and it is the universal call for freedom from the clutches of those who despise the right to speak and the right to express that she must continue her struggle.

Never give up against the will of force.