Forty years ago today a Bermuda Industrial Union organiser joined some 200 of his colleagues and friends as they made their way to a picket line at the Bermuda Electric Light Company (Belco), not realising that the day was destined to become a turning point in Bermuda?s history. The date was February 2, 1965 and the union organiser was 32-year-old Ottiwell Simmons.

?It was a day like no one has ever seen before or since. There was a warning in the air, like thunder before a rainstorm and in my mind I can still see the people picketing on Serpentine Road like it was yesterday,? he recalled.

Mr. Simmons said he and fellow picketers were positioned at the east gate and could see Police forming a threatening line against them at Belco?s west gate, a short distance from where he stood.

That?s when he heard a friend say, ?Ottie, they?re planning to attack and break the picket line!?

He said by the time he got to the west gate chaos ensued and Police and picketers struggled against each other.

?The Police were in riot gear and shot tear gas through our legs. I tried talking to them, but it was no use,? he said.

Mr. Simmons recalled Police arresting BIU president Robert Johnston and it was then that Ian Davies, a Policeman, was injured.

?He was actually being attended to by Dr. Barbara Ball and when we looked around, you could only see Police swinging metal pipes and hitting the picketers. All hell had broken loose,? he said.

He added that several picketers were injured, but they never went to hospital for fear of being arrested.

?We?re all old men now and some have since died, but no one has ever recorded all the events from everyone who was there that day for future generations,? he said.

On whether or not he bore any ill feelings towards anyone, Mr. Simmons said he and the Belco manager at the time, Llewellyn Vorley, were involved in business together when he was in Government and they put the past behind them.

?But for most of us who were there that day, the physical scars have healed, but the emotional scars will never heal,? he said.

Current BIU president Derrick Burgess, who was a very young man at the time of the riots, said yesterday that February 2, 1965 was a turning point in the history of the BIU as membership numbers skyrocketed following the events of that day.

He said the riots also brought many problems in Bermuda to the forefront, including the problems in inequality among the black and white population as was the case at Belco in the 1960s.

?It was a turning point in labour relations in Bermuda as well as a turning point in race relations,? he said.

But, Mr. Burgess feels that so much still needs to be done 40 years later and it?s up to the youth in Bermuda to know their history in order to change the future.

He added that many workers also didn?t appreciate the struggle workers had to go through 40 years ago so that they could benefit today.

Although no special events are planned to remember the day, BIU members will go to church to remember those who contributed towards change in Bermuda ? people like George DeSilva, who was sent to jail for his involvement in the riots. He had since died, but other BIU members who went to jail included Kenneth Paul, Kerwin Ratteray and Vivian Ming.

As far as the events of that day, Mr. Burgess still has some strong feelings about how they played out and how Police reacted.

He said the Press had always been very one-sided in their reporting of that day ? which led to the violent clash between BIU members and the Police.

?BIU members were provoked!? he said.

He said Police, who were mostly British at that time, were controlled by people like Belco chairman Sir John Cox, who he claimed controlled the Press.

?One of our members was pushed to the ground that morning and we complained, but nothing ever came of it,? he said, adding that it had never been reported in the newspapers.

On the other side of the barricades, Andrew Bermingham, who was a young Police Constable, feels that time is the great healer and there was perhaps no better example than the riots.

?In the immediate aftermath and perhaps into the 1970s those of us at Belco felt a sense of injustice and anger at the way the Police response was portrayed. We were certainly ill prepared for what happened but 40 years later it is easy to rationalise that emotions took the better of people in those times when Bermuda was struggling towards democratic and racial reform on many fronts,? he said.

Mr. Bermingham added that people who were adversaries on February 2, 1965 are now nodding acquaintances of his on the street.

?I remember the long-term causalities like Ian Davies and Andrew Maule and others who have died in the interim, Ken Morris and Robert Ball. I recall that Gilmour Simons faced so much hostility that he was forced to leave the Police and I remember the courage of Emily Moss and P.c. Christine Muspratt,? he said.

He said it was a shocking day for the Police, but also a proud one. ?Conversely the union view February 2 as the day the Bermuda labour movement came of age. Whatever your viewpoint, anger and bitterness has hopefully turned to poignant memories. For me the word Belco will always have a special meaning,? he said.