This article documents a significant and previously unknown episode in the history of Philippine labor, the explosive Manila Port Strike of the arrastre service workers—stevedores and longshoremen—in 1963. The strike was among the largest, costliest and most politically charged labor struggles in the nation's history and yet not only has no account of it been written, it has found no mention in over a half-century of historiography. Using confidential US State Department memoranda, contemporary newspaper accounts, Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) publications, and material published by the Lapiang Manggagawa (LM), I reconstruct the history of the strike. This article examines how an event of this magnitude, while still part of living memory, could disappear from the historical record. The case of the 1963 Port Strike highlights the need to recover the histories of the oppressed by reading not only the official archives, but also the narratives of the workers’ own organisations, against the grain.

这篇文章记录了菲律宾劳工历史上一个重要且以前不为人知的事件，即 1963 年由码头工人（装卸工人和码头工人）爆发的马尼拉港口罢工。这次罢工是菲律宾劳工斗争中规模最大、成本最高、政治色彩最浓的劳工斗争之一。国家的历史，但不仅没有记载，而且在半个多世纪的史学中也没有提及。我使用美国国务院的机密备忘录、当代报纸报道、Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) 出版物和 Lapiang Manggagawa (LM) 出版的材料，重建了罢工的历史。本文探讨了如此规模的事件，虽然仍然是人们记忆的一部分，但如何从历史记录中消失。