Organising workers in the colonial era (1/4)

This post presents page 1 of 4 of an essay by U Htet Kyaw regarding the formation of a labour union at the oil fields in the colonial era. The text comes from Saw Htet Lin's Mingalaba blog. The complete scanned pages of this essay plus other essays by U Htet Kyaw are available here.

Vocabulary:

နင်း ။ to step
တွင် ။ to be known as, called, named
နစ်နာ ။ to suffer, feel aggrieved
ရင်ဖွင့် ။ open one's heart; unburden one's feelings
သဿမေဓ ။ thathameda tax; tithe
အနေအထား ။ situation; position; location; condition; posture

Translation:

"The not-stepping-on-the-ground dhamma lecture"

Kyaw Htet

A meeting of the large worker association ("labour union") that was known as the "White Umbrella Office Conference" was held on November 5th, 1922. They were not only able to express the grievances of the great working people but they also demanded their rights. More than that they prioritised and opposed the "thathameda (household) tax" that the whole country was having to endure. There were all together 130 demands. Not only could the establishment of a "labour union" be seen in those demands but the Myanmar workers' nationalism could also be seen. Those [demands] were translated into English and given to the BOC Company [Burmah Oil Company] and every other oil company. However, not one of the oil companies replied.