Editorial | Wednesday, 12 November 2008

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

The turning of the tide

Friday’s collective protest by all Malta’s unions against the government’s revised utility tariffs should impart a powerful message to the Lawrence Gonzi administration: that there is a limit to political arrogance, and one crosses the line only at one’s own risk.
At a joint press conference with the UHM, MUT, MUMN and CMTU, GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb could scarcely contain his satisfaction as he described yesterday’s decision as “a historic moment.”
His delight is entirely justified: for the first time since his own union’s inception in 1942, political differences appear to have been set aside to present a united front against a single decision, which was taken unilaterally against the advice of all Malta’s social partners, in the absence of any real, meaningful social dialogue.
As such, Friday’s protest could well pave the way for the creation of national trade-unionist movement, of the kind often advocated by individual unions, but without any genuine optimism for success. Even if it falls short of achieving this aim, the demonstration should at least serve as a wake-up call to government, in that any decision on an issue as central to the economy as the provision of water and electricity, is a decision best taken around the negotiation table.
But there are other reasons to hail yesterday’s announcement as historic, and not all are necessarily connected with the prospect of a broad alliance of trade unions.
Regardless of whether the government will heed the unions’ battlecry of “Revise or compensate”, the implications of this historic ‘union of unions’ is likely to ring alarm bells in government circles for some time to come.
It is clear that the Nationalist Party – which, after 20 years in power, has effectively become the political establishment of our time – can no longer rely on previous tactics to ride roughshod over any opposition, as it has now been doing for years. The age-old strategy of pitting various factions against one another now appears to be dead in the water. It is as though government – with its unreasonable insistence on closing the door to any further discussion, and its bizarre decision to backdate the tariffs to October 1 – had stepped beyond an imaginary point of no return. From this vantage point, Friday’s manifestation can almost be said to be of the government’s own making.
More worryingly still for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, it appears that the old unspoken alliances – which defined and to a certain extent contained the political struggles of yesteryear – are no longer valid in today’s changing political scene.
Ever since the statutory fusion of the GWU with Dom Mintoff’s Labour government in the 1970s, there has been a palpable network of allegiances between the various unions and political parties: one union would consistently support the Opposition in all issues, whereas others would rally around the government.
Nowhere was this more visible than before the EU referendum in 2003, when former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami appeared flanked by a coalition representing nearly all of civil society, in a blatant (and ultimately successful) attempt to isolate the Malta Labour Party under its previous leader, Alfred Sant.
It is a strategy we have seen repeated to a greater or lesser degree ever since: and any union, association or NGO which failed to play its part in this almost scripted mise-en-scene, could conceivably find themselves the object of popular scorn and distrust.
But Friday’s manifestation is likely to shatter this illusion: if not on a permanent basis, at least for the immediate future. For the Nationalist government, already weakened by an election that left it clinging to power thanks only to a provisional Constitutional amendment, the consequences may be serious.
For one thing, the issue that precipitated this newly forged alliance – the revised water and electricity bills – itself suggests a shift in the political landscape. Traditionally, the government-friendly social partners have always been tolerant of harsh budgetary measures, so long as they came from an administration they felt they could trust. This might explain why there was such an outcry against Dr Sant’s ‘anti-social’ 1997 budget; but not against budgets presented by Nationalist administrations over the years, which contained similar, if not identical measures.
However, the reaction to the hike in utility tariffs betrays an emerging suspicion of the previously trusted government. It seems that ‘coming from the PN’ is no longer a sufficient pretext for blanket acceptance. More to the point, it is evident that traditionally centre-right unions like the UHM can no longer appease their own members in the face of such peremptory measures.
This places the PN in a new and entirely unexpected predicament, as the party is historically far more accustomed to orchestrating such national protests, than being on the receiving end.
The times, it seems, have now changed. The government has crossed the line, and it must now go back to the drawing board, or face a meltdown of the popular support it once took for granted.

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.