Black Monday recalled

Nationalist MP Mario Galea yesterday recalled the events of Black Monday on October 15, 1979 when Labour Party supporters gutted the offices of The Times and The Sunday Times, attacked the PN clubs in Valletta, Floriana and Birkirkara, and ransacked the residence of then Opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami, beating up his wife and terrifying his children and his elderly mother.

Mr Galea said that all this had happened with the blessing of Labour politicians and party officials of the time, including Dom Mintoff, who let their supporters use violence as a political instrument

The events of 23 years ago were an attack on democracy which, Mr Galea insisted, could be forgiven but must never be forgotten unless the people wanted a repetition.

Those were times when the police and the forces of law and order were impotent and, in some cases, accomplices, as was also evidenced in the frame-up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil and the shooting of Raymond Caruana.

One could not forget, because many who were serving in the Labour Party at the time were still members of parliament and they were accomplices through what they said, what they did, or by their silence. Silence meant consent.

Not only had the Labour Party never apologised, but shockingly, Dr Alfred Sant two years ago even went so far as to say when asked about the events that he thought The Times had done well as it had managed to rebuild everything and one could see the offices it now had.

This was the same person who pretended he could give lectures on democracy and who was asking the people to trust him with the government of the country.

This, Mr Galea said, was the tragedy of the Labour Party and it was no wonder that the MLP was trying to make the people forget.