Malta Labour Party:
The Malta Labour Party (PL, Maltese: Partit Laburista) is one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Nationalist Party. It is currently the main party of opposition in Malta having thirty-four of the sixty-nine seats in the Maltese House of Representatives[1].
[edit] History
[edit] Foundation (1920-1949)
The inequalities that existed at the time led to the riots of 7 June 1919 (Sette Giugno) - the importers of grain were the main targets, and four workers died at the hands of British soldiers. The outcome of the riots was the granting of the constitution in 1921, which, however, did not secure the interests of the lower classes and did not include material improvement in its clauses. The constitution retained the status quo by securing the interests of the colonial authorities and the traditional middle classes, made up of categories such as the clerical and the legal-professional. Incidentally, the two official languages earmarked in the constitution were English and Italian – the languages spoken by the dominant classes. The Maltese language, spoken by the lower classes, was out of sight. The language question was a very controversial issue at the time, due to its social and political implications. It was in that tense atmosphere that the Labour Party in Malta was born. The founding fathers of the Party belonged mainly to a dockyard union - the Imperial Government Workers Union. Indeed, the Dockyards have often been referred to as the "cradle of the Labour Movement" (Zammit, 1984: 42). Writing about Dockyard workers, sociologist Edward Zammit states that they "gained the reputation of being the most militant, organised, radical and united group of workers in Malta." (1984: 43). It was one of the union branches affiliated with the British Workers' Union - the Camera del Lavoro - which formed a party in 1921 with the aim of representing workers. Band clubs and other organisations were invited to form part of the Party, and its first meeting was held on 15 March 1921 – the 30th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's issuing of the Rerum Novarum, the Catholic Church's social encyclical. The Party was christened Partit tal-Haddiema. Various founders of the Malta Labour Party, hailing from Catholic and populist backgrounds, were highly influenced by the Rerum Novarum. These included Gianni Bencini, Alfons Maria Galea, Canon Carmelo Bugeja, and Mgr. Professor Mikiel Gonzi. Such activists were particularly influential and powerful in the first few years of the Party, and they propagated the introduction of legislation that gave rights to workers along the Catholic teachings of the Catholic social encyclical.
The Malta Labour Party soon started participating in Malta's general elections. The Party, led by Colonel William Savona contested the general elections held in 1921 under the new Constitution that gave the country a measure of self-government. According to this constitution which provided for a bi-cameral legislative body, only persons above a certain income bracket could vote. The other three parties to contest the general elections were the conservative parties Unione Politica Maltese and Partito Democratico Nazionalista, as well as the pro-British Constitutional Party. The Labour-Constitutional alliance won the 1927 general elections, but Labour lost ground, gaining 13.9% of votes, three seats in the legislative assembly and no representation in the Senate. Strickland became Prime Minister. Labour leader Savona was not elected, and the leadership of the Labour parliamentary group was entrusted to Colonel Michael Dundon.
In 1927, William Savona resigned as President of the Party, being replaced by Dr. Paul Boffa. Boffa – a medical doctor by profession - also became leader of the parliamentary group and of the Party, replacing Dundon, who resigned due to health reasons. Labour gained nine seats out of ten in the elections held during November, 1945, in which, contrarily to previous elections, all men over twenty-one years of age were entitled to vote. The Party's electoral programme, for the first time in Labour's history, did not make any reference to religion. Boffa's Government was supported by the General Workers Union, and it carried out a number of reforms, such as the abolition of the senate, the abolition of plural votes, as well as the introduction of women's right to vote. However, Labour deputies resigned from their posts in July 1946 due to mass redundancies at the Dockyards. In the meantime, the 'MacMichael Constitution' had been introduced, granting self-government to the Maltese. Labour's participation in the subsequent October, 1947 elections was once again supported by the General Workers Union. The Party won 59.9% of the vote and twenty-four seats out of the possible forty within the Legislative Assembly. Paul Boffa became Prime Minister whilst Dom Mintoff became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reconstruction. The Labour Government introduced Income Tax and Social Services for the first time in Malta.
[edit] Re-foundation (1949-1962)
The Malta Labour Party was re-founded in 1949 as a successor to the Labour Party founded in 1921. Dr Paul Boffa, Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister since 1947, resigned and left the party because of serious disagreements with his Deputy Dominic Mintoff which had led to a series of cabinet crises. Boffa formed the Malta Workers Party (MWP) while Mintoff re-organized the Labour Party as the present-day Malta Labour Party.
The Labour Party contested its first elections for the Malta Legislative Assembly the following year. The old Labour vote was split equally between the Labour Party and the MWP, giving them eleven members each. This allowed the Nationalist Party (PN) to have a slight edge in the formation of a government, which it did in coalition with the MWP. The government did not last long. Two other elections were held in 1951 and 1953 (the last time a coalition governed in Malta) which both saw short-lived PN-MWP coalitions and the decline in the share of votes to the MWP with increasing support for the Labour Party.
The MWP eventually disintegrated and the Labour Party formed a government for the first time in 1955. This legislature was dominated by the issue of integration with the United Kingdom. The party, which started its life as an anti-colonial party with the slogan "Integration or self-determination" was now inclined towards the first part of the formula. A referendum was held in 1956 but given the number of abstentions and massive opposition by the Nationalist Party and the Catholic Church, the result was inconclusive. This, together with a number of dismissals at the naval dockyard led to Mintoff's resignation and his call for massive protests in April 1958.
[edit] The Mintoff Era (1962-1984)
The Governor re-established direct colonial government which lasted until 1962. In the meantime, the Labour Party's connections with Third World Independentist and Socialist movements, set it on a collision course with the Maltese Catholic Church, which the Party perceived as pro-British and the cause of failure of the Integration project. This led to the party leadership being interdicted from 1961 to 1964, when reading, advertising and distributing Party newspapers was deemed a mortal sin. In the 1962 elections this led to the defeat of the Party at the polls as well as a split with the creation of the Christian Workers' Party. Peace with the Church would not be made until 1969 by which time the Christian Workers' Party had disintegrated.
The Malta Labour Party participated in independence talks but disagreed with what was offered, causing them to not participate in the Independence celebrations when independence was actually achieved in 1964. The party made strong gains in the 1966 elections which, however, were not enough to see it in office.
An unimportant split occurred in 1969 when the Communist Party of Malta was founded. This split happened as a result of the truce between the Malta Labour Party and local Catholic authorities. The Communist Party has since only contested the 1987 elections.
The Malta Labour Party won the 1971 general election and immediately set out to re-negotiate the post-Independence military and financial agreements with the United Kingdom. The party also undertook massive nationalization programmes whilst setting up various State owned companies and investments and expansion of the welfare state introducing several benefits to workers and families and further introducing acts of parliament aimed at employee rights and trade union rights. Malta became a republic in 1974. The Labour Party won the 1976 elections. Amongst other things, homosexual relationships and adultery were decriminalised and the Government managed to secularise the State introducing civil marriages and modernising Maltese civil law. A law that gave males and females a right to the same wage for the same work done was also enacted amongst employment laws enacted at the time.
In 1981 the Party managed to hold on to a parliamentary majority even though the opposition Nationalist Party managed an absolute majority of ballots. A serious political crisis ensued when Nationalists MPs refused to take their seats for the first years of the legislature. Premier Mintoff called this result a "perverse" one. He had proposed that fresh elections had to be held, but members of his Parliamentary group rejected this proposal. Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister and Party leader in 1984 (although he retained his parliamentary seat) making way for his appointee Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
[edit] 1984-1992
In 1984 the relations between the Maltese church and the labour party were very bad.The party agreed to constitutional amendments in 1987, which guaranteed that the party with a majority of vote was given a majority of seats. Thanks to the amendment the Nationalists returned to Government after 16 years. The party lost governmant after 3 consecutive elections in 1987. The MLP performed badly in 1992, losing the election with nearly 13,000 votes and Mifsud Bonnici resigned. On the 26th of March 1992 he was succeeded by Dr Alfred Sant.
[edit] 1992-2008
Dr.Sant who won the election for party leader, and then modernized the party, secured a victory at the polls in 1996. Under Sant's leadership the party made several changes. The party opened the new Malta Labour Party Headquarters in Hamrun instead of the old Macina in Cottonera. The party also made giant steps in the media by being the first Maltese political party to own his radio and television stations.
Dr.Sant managed to win the 1996 elections held on the 26th of October, by winning the election with more than 7,500 votes on the Nationalist Party. But, the party managed to get only one seat in parliament more than the opposition.
However, trouble was brewing. Mr Mintoff started creating problems in Parliament where the government had only a single seat majority. Things came to a head in summer of 1998 when the government lost a vote on the lease of the Cottonera waterfront. On the 9th June 1996, Sant called early elections to be held on the 5th September, and was defeated.
Back in opposition, the party campaigned unsuccessfully against EU membership, and the 'NO' camp lost the referendum for the ascension of Malta in the European Union on the 8th March (although Dr. Sant claimed victory) and was again defeated in the general election a month on, on the 12th April 2003. Sant resigned but stood again for election of Leadership of the Party where he was voted again as leader with more than 65% of the votes.
In June 2004 the party succeeded in obtaining a relative majority of votes in the elections held to elect the first five Maltese MEPs for the European Parliament[2]. The party elected 3 of his candidates: Joseph Muscat, John Attard Montalto and Louis Grech. After Joseph Muscat was elected party leader, his parliamentary seat in the European Parliament was filled up by Glenn Bedingfield, after a casual election was held.
[edit] 2008-present
In 2008 the Malta Labour Party lost for the third consecutive time in the 2008 general elections, obtaining 48.79% share of the vote[3] and losing the election to the Nationalist Party by just 1,580 votes or 0.5%. Following the loss of the election, Sant resigned as Labour Party leader on 10th March 2008.
The first round of the election of the new leader were held on 5 June 2008. Five members contested this election as candidates: George Abela (a former Deputy Leader), Evarist Bartolo (a frontbench MP and ex-Minister), Marie Louise Coleiro Preca (a frontbench MP and former Secretary-General of the Party), Michael Falzon (an MP and Deputy Leader of the Party) and Joseph Muscat (an MEP). In the first round neither candidate obtained 50%+1 the majority of the votes. So a run up election had to be held on the 6th June between the top two candidates who obtained the most number of votes, Dr. George Abela and Dr. Joseph Muscat. Dr Joseph Muscat was elected Labour Party leader, gathering 66.36% of the total votes.
The Party owns a television station that broadcasts at a national level, One Television, and a radio station that also broadcasts on a national scale, One Radio. The Party issues the Sunday weekly KullĦadd and also runs the on-line newspaper Maltastar.
The party presently holds 34 seats in the 69 member House of Representatives.
It is a member of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and its 3 MEPs in the European Parliament sit in the PES Group.
The party is led by Dr Joseph Muscat, who was elected Leader on the 6th June 2008. He was appointed Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives of Malta on the 1st October, a few minutes after he was co-opted as a member of parliament.
[edit] Electoral performance
This chart shows the electoral performance of the Malta Labour Party in Maltese general election since 1921. (Source [1])
| Election |
Number of votes for
Malta Labour Party'
|
Share of votes |
Seats |
Outcome of election |
| 1921 |
4,037 |
19.72% |
7 |
Popular Union Victory |
| 1924 |
4,632 |
19.24% |
7 |
Popular Union/Nationalist Party Coalition Victory |
| 1927 |
5,011 |
14.55% |
3 |
Constitutional Party |
| 1932 |
4,138 |
8.57% |
1 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1939 |
3,100 |
8.82% |
1 |
Constitutional Party Victory |
| 1945 |
19,071 |
76.20% |
9 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1947† |
63,145 |
59.86% |
24 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1950 |
30,332 |
28.58% |
11 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1951 |
40,208 |
35.70% |
14 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1953 |
52,771 |
44.55% |
19 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1955 |
68,447 |
56.73% |
23 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1962 |
50,974 |
33.85% |
16 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1966 |
61,774 |
43.09% |
22 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1971 |
85,448 |
50.84% |
28 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1976 |
105,854 |
51.53% |
34 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1981‡ |
109,990 |
49.07% |
34 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1987 |
114,936 |
48.87% |
34 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1992 |
114,911 |
46.50% |
31 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 1996 |
132,497 |
50.72% |
31+4 |
Labour Party Victory |
| 1998 |
124,220 |
46.97% |
30 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 2003 |
134,092 |
47.51% |
30 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
| 2008 |
141,888 |
48.79% |
34 |
Nationalist Party Victory |
†The first election under universal suffrage in which all women aged over 21 could vote.
‡The 1981 election produced a perverse result, as the Opposition Nationalist Party had more votes than the ruling Labour Party.
[edit] Leaders of the Labour Party
- See also List of Malta Labour Party leaders
-
- Leaders since 1949 (Refounded)
[edit] Deputy leaders of the Labour Party since 1976
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[1] http://www.michaelbriguglio.com/MA%20THESES%20-%20Chapter%203.pdf
[edit] External links
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