After the management at the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works in San Po Kong sacked 300 workers for refusing to accept new work rules, few could have expected it to have repercussions that are still felt today.
But that action 40 years ago - little more than routine in a city where factory workers were expected to toil more than 12 hours day without taking leave - was the trigger for Hong Kong's worst political violence that would leave more than 50 people dead and prompt a huge social shake-up.
On May 6, 1967, 21 people were arrested when a group of the sacked workers tried to prevent goods leaving the factory. Leftist unions staged protests over the arrests and demanded the release of the arrested workers.
The left wing was inspired by Beijing authorities' public support for the 'anti-British struggle', particularly an editorial in the People's Daily on June 3, 1967, which called on the Hong Kong Chinese to 'be ready to respond to the call of the motherland to smash the reactionary rule of the British'.
The leftist camp called a general strike and a four-day 'food strike' at the end of June but the colonial administration stood firm.
The confrontation between the leftist camp and the government escalated in the second half of 1967, with extremists planting bombs on the streets. On July 8, 1967, five Hong Kong policemen were killed and 11 wounded when the police post in Sha Tau Kok came under machine-gun fire during border violence with mainland militia.
