The Last Great Strike

The UNTOLD story of the strike that closed The Straits Times

Veteran journalist Clement Mesenas looks back on eight eventful days in 1971 when a group of young reporters staged a historic strike that shut down The Straits Times, a company that had the proud tradition of never being off the streets in its 120 years of existence, not even during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. “Clement has written a cracker of a book. Even if you don’t love that national institution called The Straits Times, he tells a gripping tale of idealism, bravado and table-banging drama featuring indignant young journalists who take their battle against their parsimonious, disdainful, white-dominated Straits Times management to the streets two days before Christmas in 1971.”Tan Wang Joo, former editor of The Sunday Nation, and a deputy editor of The Straits Times.“It is more than a strike story. The writer’s account of newsroom life in pre-computer days should interest news junkies and those who care about the media industry.” Cheong Yip Seng, Singapore ambassador to Chile and former editor-in-chief of the English and Malay Newspapers Division of Singapore Press Holdings