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1955 - S'pore's 'blackest' year

Benita Aw Yeong shows you why Singaporeans have zero tolerance for illegal strikes. -TNP 

Benita Aw Yeong
Tue, Dec 04, 2012
The New Paper

SINGAPORE - Newspaper reports called 1955 "Singapore's blackest year of industrial unrest", with 271 strikes recorded as of November that year.

Using recollections collected by the Oral History Centre of the National Archives, Benita Aw Yeong shows you why Singaporeans have zero tolerance for illegal strikes.

Hock Lee Bus Strikes and Riots
When: May 12, 1955
What happened: A strike broke out at the Hock Lee Bus Company after 200 members of the Singapore Bus Workers' Union were dismissed.

This later erupted into a full-scale riot between the police and striking workers, who were joined by about 2,000 Chinese middle-school students who showed up to lend their support. Four people were killed and 31 were injured. The strike lasted 142 days, making it the longest in post-war Singapore.

"There were demonstrations and riots in Alexandra area where the bus depot was... At the circus, the students put up road blocks and they stood around in a mass. Some of them moved forward... throwing stones, daring the police to retaliate.

"And this went on for about half an hour I think. Then suddenly, there was a fire... word came through the loudspeakers that they'd overturned a car... they were burning the car and attacking the passengers.

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