Activists who plan to chain themselves to trees facing the chop in the Central Link project on Sunday will be following the footsteps of medical students who, a generation ago, chained themselves to the railings of the Auberge de Castille in protest over the closure of the medical school.
October 1977 was a time of industrial relations strife in Malta. A consequence of the doctors’ strike and the lock-out of doctors by the government was the closure of the Medical School, forcing medical students to study abroad.
By chaining themselves to the railings outside the Prime Minister’s office on October 5, the students wanted to symbolise that they had strong ties to their homeland. They carried posters saying: "I want to study in Malta".
The police, led by Commissioner Joe Cachia and accompanied by the CID, were soon on the scene. Officers wielding metal cutters cut through the chains and a clash ensued, with the students being beaten by the police and political thugs.
Twenty-three students were arrested and taken to police headquarters in Floriana in prison vans. Three were taken to hospital.
Times of Malta had reported that even the socialist organisation Xirka Ġustizzja Soċjali had opposed the "disproportionate and repressive reaction by the police to a peaceful demonstration in favour of the medical students who cannot continue their studies after three years of study at university".
But the Department of Information had said "the attitude of the police was not only correct and prudent but in the circumstances very much necessary for the protection of students themselves".
The students’ unrest continued as the student body was split into two streams with the introduction of the Student Worker scheme and criticism that the institution had lost its autonomy.
Graduation Day came a month after the Castille clashes.
Michael Frendo (who later served as minister and Speaker) delivered a speech on behalf of the graduates, observing: "We are to spread the appreciation of the value and the necessity of a person's ability to think on his own account rather than have others think on his behalf. This witness must be borne... so that every Maltese may be able to distinguish truth from propaganda, sincerity from hypocrisy, integrity from opportunism, freedom from slavery."
At this juncture, the President of Malta and the minister of education walked out.
Dr Frendo was charged in court for allegedly looking askance at them.
Environment takes centre stage
Fast forward to the mid-1990s and the environment took centre stage. The pressure group Front Kontra l-Hilton championed the environmental fight against the development of the hotel complex in St Julian's, leading to activists chaining themselves to bulldozers and other equipment in October 1996. The development continued, and in 1997 they held a hunger strike. As a result of that action, the Ombudsman intervened, and it was decided that granting of public land for development such as this would require a parliamentary resolution.
Then on August 31, 2009 some 15 young members of the Graffitti Movement chained themselves to the entrance of the Planning Authority in protest at the granting of various permits which it said favoured speculation and disregarded the environment.
They included a new belvedere in Qala, a planned supermarket in Safi, and the Midi development in Sliema.
The police cut the chains and the protesters went home quietly. There were no clashes.
The railings which the medical students chained themselves to outside Castille have since been removed. The environmentalists planning Sunday's protest hope the trees will stay.