News | Sunday, 30 November 2008

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KMB blocks Joseph Muscat’s attempt to drop Labour’s ‘socialist’ tag

The former Labour prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici has succeeded in halting Joseph Muscat’s attempt at changing Labour’s political label to ‘social-democrats’ from the long held ‘socialist democrats’.
It is a major setback for Muscat, whose attempt at softening Labour’s left-wing identity in a series of cosmetic measures, was thwarted by Mifsud Bonnici, a delegate-for-life, during one of the general conference’s workshops.
The attempt at emulating the Blairite dilution of Labour by removing any unfashionable ‘socialist’ remnants hit a snag when Mifsud Bonnici protested the motion – reconfirming how hard it is for Muscat to effect such fundamental changes when the ‘spectre’ of Dom Mintoff is still haunting the party.
Speaking on TVM programme Reporter to be broadcast Thursday, Mifsud Bonnici said he was not interested in the structural changes Joseph Muscat was proposing for Labour’s “progressive” revamp.
But Mifsud Bonnici said he was concerned at the attempt to change Labour’s political label – even though both socialist and social democrats are actually the same thing.
A close acolyte of former prime minister Dom Mintoff and constantly by his side, Mifsud Bonnici has retained his romantic view of Labour’s socialist mission but is a staunch believer in seeing Malta quit the European Union.
Joseph Muscat embarked on a surgical intervention of Labour’s party image in his general conference, labelled “Progressivi” (progressives), starting by dropping the name Partit tal-Haddiema (The Workers’ Party – Malta Labour Party) from the statute to rename it Partit Laburista (PL)
He also moved to disband many Mintoffian relics, namely the Brigata Laburista, an organ of young majorettes and scouts marching to party hymns, designed to wean them off the influence of the Catholic Church.
Muscat even convinced delegates to do away with the Guze Ellul Mercer political foundation, named after the socialist icon, and also the Mikiel Anton Vassalli foundation. The party’s new ideological base will instead be called IDEAT (ideas).
And an even greater change for Labour’s enduring image will be that of dropping its historic emblem, the flaming torch, to be replaced by a new, and as yet unknown, image.

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