By K Govindan 'FOR THE PAST 40 years, workers in Malaysia have known a model of trade unionism which is most fully co-opted in the interests of the ruling elite. Yet as Dass goes on to illustrate things have not always been this way.
When plantation workers rebelled against British planters by organising themselves into estate unions they found friends among the budding communist movement.
In the aftermath of World War 2 state sponsored unions were set up with a hand picked bureaucracy. The banning of the Malayan Communist Party and the severing of its influence over organised labour However Dass believes that the trade union moverent is "not beyond repair. He justifies his optimism by his own involvement in a transport and machinists union.
Here the old leadership were forced to leave en bloc and young activists elected with the confidence of the members.
The union became not only a collective for wage negotiation but also to help workers wah better nousin. to explain medical problems and so on.
'For us to have any real impact on workers we had to become entwined with the joys and sorrows of their lives, not remain mechanically connected to the most hated part of their existence, the factory:' This original and unique sible to all. it inspired this reviewer.
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