Though on the European continent and in the United States what today is known as the workers' movement was a direct result of the industrial revolution of the 19th century, in Malta this was not so. Here no industrial revolution occurred because no large-scale industry and, consequently, no proletariat ever existed. The organisation of the workers here was more of a political rather than a social nature.
Beginning in Great Britain around the mid-18th century due to important technological developments made in the previous hundred years, including the invention of the steam engine (1712), the spinning jenny (1764), the cotton gin (1794), the telegraph (1844), the sewing machine (1846), and many other devices, the transition from rural hand production to new urban large-scale manufacturing processes brought about the creation of a new class of social beings, the proletariat and overwhelming social effects.
The proletariat, that is, the class of wage-earners whose only possession of significant material value is their labour-power, their ability to work, technically speaking never existed in Malta. Workers of course existed, and hard workers too at that. However, these were rather salaried employees rather than labourers whose only means of subsistence was to sell their labour power. Furthermore, they certainly did not constitute a social class of their own, at least not in the dialectical materialist sense.
On the other hand, the typical social effects of the industrial revolution cannot be detected in Malta. The creation of the factory system and the increase in urbanisation, for example, the profound impact on women's role and family life, the shift in standards of living effecting food, nutrition, housing, clothing and consumer goods, the population increase, the dire labour conditions, the alteration in social structures and working conditions, child labour and the harmful impact on the environment, are all absent from the Maltese workers' experience. Social conditions here, difficult as they evidently were, were more the result of the semi-feudal system of colonial economic policies.
It was the trade unionists and the politicians who initiated in the Maltese islands the organisation of the workers into a sort of social movement which clamoured for better working conditions for the masses. Nevertheless, the first and, possibly, the main aim of this endevour was the better standing of activists within the architecture of the political structure. The improvement in the lives of the working lot was perhaps secondary, and, if truth be told, a means to the main objective.
Rightly enough, in his new book L-Istorja tal-Partit Labuista - 1920-1940 (The History of the Labour Party - 1920-1940 ) (SKS Publishers), Francis Galea marks the Sette Giugno events of 1919 as a threshold in the workers' movement. This was a political, rather than a social, occurrence, and testifies to the way things developed in Malta when it comes to the workers' advancement.
In his book Galea traces the history of Malta's Labour Party during its first 20 years of existence, from its inception in 1920 up till the outbreak of the Second World War. Galea's study is not entirely new, since parts and aspects of his theme have been dealt with profusely by other authors, as his bibliography clearly shows. In fact, Galea does not seem to avail himself of new significant original documentation. His forte is the schematic synthesis which he puts forward.
Of course, the story Galea studies is a narrative rather than a history. In other words, it does not describe; it interprets. Though this may be true of all historical accounts, it is certainly typical of political publications, especially those dealing with one's own political party. Nevertheless, as far as this particular narration goes, it provides some very useful information about the early mechanisms of the Labour Party and also about its initial successes and failures while it made and remade itself according to the circumstances it encountered. One can easily deduce, for instance, that the Labour Party before the Second World War was completely different from its remake after the war, even though Galea hints to the opposite.
Stylistically, in terms of historiography, Galea's study is a macro history of the Labour Party, very much like every other historical narrative produced both by the political parties and by most local historians up till now. Though unsurprising, we still lack a political micro history of the Maltese islands. This, rather than informing us about the main events of the parties involved and the part played by the powers to be, would take as its focal point the material conditions of the people and how these, together with the prevailing cultural environment, made political action possible. This would not simply be a question of perspective but rather a new way, more in line with contemporary historiographical practices, of viewing historical processes and developments.
L-Istorja tal-Partit Laburista (1920-1940) certainly makes interesting reading. It continues to detail the political activities during the first half of the 20th century and provides additional noteworthy minutiae concerning one of Malta's major political parties. The innumerable images throughout the whole span of the book add to the fun and afford a helpful visual experience which complements the reading.