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Opinion •
February 1 2004 |
Harry Vassallo believes the GWU can do without the MLP and wants to dump the two-party system
If the UHM and the GWU get together there will be little need for mass demonstrations. A combined and united union leadership can demand respect from other social partners. They can wield the power of the workers. They can also expect to be able make necessary concessions without losing credibility.
Union leaders have a very difficult time ahead of them and they seem bent on making it harder for themselves. Little appals me more than sensing the animosity that exists between the country's main unions.
The UHM failed to seize the opportunity offered by the GWU's invitation. The GWU failed to be conciliatory and inclusive when it could easily afford to do so. What did the workers gain from the widening rift? What did anyone gain?
Manuel Micallef and Tony Zarb did a very good job. They are great speakers to crowds. The choice of music was good. It was a celebration by the workers of the workers. The leadership needed the confirmation of the masses to be able to send messages elsewhere. We all knew what was going on and approved.
Tony Zarb claimed credit for the enthusiastic turnout letting slip that the GWU had worked hard to create awareness in past months. He's also had a lot of help from John Dalli, Austin Gatt, Lawrence Gonzi and Louis Deguara. We have had announcements of economic implosion, welfare rollbacks and mass sackings. Tony should be a little more modest about it. I did not need prodding to turn up.
If politics is understood as a structure in tension in which stability is maintained through full participation of all the elements, we can see that there has been a weakening of the left through the electoral defeat and extended leadership debate.
The right has sought to cover its own deficiencies by siezing the moment to rush through reforms that have been delayed for decades because of the political stalemate. Whichever side goes all the way, our common edifice risks collapse. Bolstering the workers' at this time is institutionally necessary.
Only unionleaders who have the trust and confidence of their support can contemplate making the concessions that will have to be made to ensure future employment. Only union leaders with mass support can ensure that the reform does not become a rout, that the gains of past decades are not sacrificed on the altar of the latest economic fad.
Union leaders are keenly aware of the complex economic realities they face. They know that they have to dig their heels in and lose the least they can. They have to aim at long term gains while minimising present losses. They also know that they have to avoid making matters worse. No union leader wants to suffer the defeat suffered in the Phoenicia strike.
On Tuesday I heard Tony Zarb vindicating his union's affinity to the MLP. Little surprise there. The MLP claims to be a socialist party and a workers' party, the biggest union in the country can hardly be expected be shy about being close to the MLP. Shouting it from the rooftops may not be such a good idea.
The MLP is a political party, a majoritarian political party with institutional needs quite different from those of any union. The present leadership is in the process of tightening its hold on its fragmenting base by declaring war on the other majoritarian party. We are currently regaled by claims that the government can be brought down. Nobody believes a word of it.
The GWU does not need the MLP. If the GWU could have a convincing arm's length relationship with the MLP, it could hope to be the major union in a combined workers' movement. As long as it continues to pander to the needs of the MLP it will not be able to negotiate from a position of strength. Its every uttering will remain suspect. Its demonisation of the UHM, for the same reason, weakens them both.
The Greens needed to be at Tuesday's meeting as much as they need another hole in the head. We went because we wanted to show our solidarity with redundant workers. We went because we are Greens and we could not fail to turn up. Anybody who thinks that we went there to enjoy the crowd scene, to team up with the MLP or to spite the PN is simply a political idiot.
All the political parties should have been there, all the unions, all the workers and everybody who is in any way concerned about the recent sackings. If there was a huge crowd on Tuesday, it is nothing like the crowd that should have been there, that could easily have been there if we had not allowed the majoritarians to make a meal of it.
Here I am screaming the same message again. We very desperately need to get out of the two-party mindframe. Turning the current economic and employment challenges into a power struggle between the PN and the MLP is a betrayal of the most likely victims of the repeated extravagance. We need to find solutions to problems that have not been faced for decades because of the horrendously extravagant arm wrestling that the MLP and the PN enjoy so much.
It is time to stop supporting political parties with the lack of intelligence demanded in the support of football teams. Who cares what becomes of political parties if the economy goes up in smoke? Who cares who leads which party if we end up with many thousands unemployed?
We need to do things that have never been done before in ways that have never been attempted yet. In every field and particularly in the trade union sector we need leaders who can step outside the stereotypes and make themselves free to give their best. The talent is there, will we ever see it?
Dr Vassallo is Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika -
The Green Party
www.alternattiva.org.mt
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