MLP: Past, present and future

Various factors brought about the birth of the Malta Labour Party (known at first as Camera del Lavoro) at the beginning of the 1920s. These factors included the impact of the Papal Encyclical Rerum Novarum, Manwel Dimech's work, the visit of the Jesuit Charles Dominic Plater to Malta and the grant of responsible government to Malta through the 1921 Constitution.

Socialism in Malta has always been characterised by a pragmatic approach to politics and social issues. This pragmatism brought about the 1926 Compact between the Constitutional Party of Gerald Strickland, which was at the time a well-organised and potent political force, and the small Labour Party.

When, in August 1927, the Constitutional Party was elected to power, Lord Strickland proceeded to introduce legislation, based mostly on Labour Party proposals, aimed at ameliorating the condition of the working-classes. Foremost among these was the Workmen's Compensation Act which came into force in August 1929.

The Nationalist Party's obstructionist tactics in the Senate precipitated a politico-religious conflict from which both the Constitutional Party and the Labour Party emerged badly mauled. This was manifested in the result of the June 1932 general election which resulted in a massive PN victory and which almost wiped out the Labour Party.

The Labour Party survived this difficult time and when Malta was granted the Self-Government Constitution of 1947, conditions were ripe for a Labour victory. The PN was still in disarray after the deportation of Enrico Mizzi during the war and the death of Sir Ugo P. Mifsud. The death of Lord Strickland also meant that the Constitutional Party disappeared from the political arena.

With the Labour landslide victory of 1947, much-needed social legislation could now be enacted, the most important measure being the introduction of income tax in 1948. Then came the Boffa-Mintoff clash and the split in 1949.

After a period of political instability, Dom Mintoff's Malta Labour Party was victorious in the February 1955 general election. Perhaps the most important social measure of the period was the much-needed school-building programme with Agatha Barbara as the driving motor behind it.

However, the period between 1955 and 1958 is mostly remembered for the failure of the proposal for Malta's integration with Britain which foundered over British intransigence to grant socio-economic parity with British citizens to the Maltese.

The events of the 1960s which followed seem incredible today, given the development of a more enlightened and tolerant Maltese society. Which Labourite who lived at the time can ever forget the physical, psychological and moral violence which MLP supporters had to endure? The pealing of bells and whistling to disrupt MLP meetings, the physical attacks on Labour supporters in Gozo on Sunday, May 21, 1961, the imposition of ecclesiastical sanctions on Labourites, especially the burial of Labourites in an unconsecrated cemetery ground known as the Mizbla?

The MLP victory in the June 1971 general election brought with it many changes. Malta became a republic in 1974 and the British military base, still operating even after Independence in 1964, was closed in 1979. Meanwhile, economic self-sufficiency was attained with the industrialisation of Malta and the development of tourism. At the same time, the welfare state was created and consolidated.

The political violence prior to the 1987 general election cost the MLP a long period in the political wilderness and has tended to obscure the great achievements of the 1971-1987 Labour governments.

The arrival on the local political scene of Alfred Sant and "New Labour" filled a vacuum that had been present since right after the 1981 "perverse" electoral result.

Many Maltese who had waited for a long time for a moderate Socialist leader who gave the cold shoulder to any sort of political violence and to those who perpetrated it, had found the answer to their prayers.

The result was the great Labour victory of October 1996. However, before people had time to grow accustomed to Labour in government, cracks within the Labour ranks started appearing as the clash with Mr Mintoff materialised.

This resulted in the early general election of September 1998 and the great swing which led to a massive PN victory. This swing from October 1996 to September 1998 has always baffled me.

Did the majority of the Maltese people vote the MLP into power in 1996 because of the promise to remove VAT, only to be disillusioned with the introduction of CET?

Did the freezing of the EU membership application carry great weight with the Maltese electorate? Was Dr Sant's mild brand of socialism anathema to the Labour old guard used to Mr Mintoff's direct, heavy-handed type of socialism?

The period from September 1998 to April 2003 was dominated by the European Union issue. It is a great pity that the result of the last general election was mostly influenced by this issue, "the great cause" that gave the PN its comfortable victory.

The MLP had some excellent proposals for reviving the economy, for improving the educational system and for safeguarding our environment. Above all, it too wanted the best possible relationship with the EU but in a different manner.

What about the future?

The MLP has to be the people's choice in all forthcoming elections, starting with the European parliament (and local council) elections on June 12 and finishing with the next general election.

Its record both in government as well as in opposition, locally as well as internationally, is far superior to that of the PN and all other contenders.