Last week, the Labour Party organized a mass meeting in Merchants Street Valletta to celebrate Workers Day. It was an extraordinary success. The Labour Party has been celebrating Workers Day since its inception. There were times, particularly in the mid-1960s, when Labour faced fierce opposition from the conservative forces for celebrating Workers Day. Dom Mintoff, at the time leader of the Labour Party, was accused of being in league with the Communists. It was a false allegation, but which did Labour a lot of harm. 

However, Mintoff was never one to give up - despite the Church bells ringingly incessantly to deny him the right to address Labour Party supporters at mass activities; Labour Party voters being denied the right to confession; a proper church wedding and a dignified burial; the boycotts by the Nationalist Party and its destructive behaviour in Parliament, Mintoff, God bless his soul, had a fierce determination to ensure that workers were given their rights and their dignity. It was an uphill struggle that took years to be achieved but was successfully achieved under a Labour government. 

Fast forward that to today and in 2025 the Labour government, this time under Prime Minister Robert Abela, is still facing fierce opposition from conservative forces each time it is about to implement meaningful social measures to give workers a better standard of living.

 Only recently, the Nationalist Opposition voted against the biggest tax cut in history now being implemented as part of budget 2025. A few years back, they resisted other important measures to help women, and men, have a better work-life balance; they were sceptical for instance when a Labour government was about to introduce free childcare for all. And they voted against every other social initiative: better pensions; higher childrens’ allowances and a better minimum wage to mention but a few.

I have been active within the Labour Party for most of my young and adult life. I know that for Labour, whenever it is about to introduce social measures that are of benefit, especially, to low- and medium-income earners, it is always an uphill struggle. 

There exist a handful of people, that militate within the Nationalist Party, or its peripheries, that whenever Labour is in government they join forces to try and disrupt it from implementing key reforms. They employ the same old tricks and political manoeuvres. 

Pawlu Boffa, Dom Mintoff, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Alfred Sant, Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela all have had to encounter fierce opposition, and divisive tactics, from conservative forces. They relentlessly attack the Labour government, and its people, in a vile attempt to ruin their reputation.  To their dismay, not one single Labour Party leader, and Prime Minister, ever gave in. 

When Joseph Muscat was about to initiate radical LGBTIQ+ reforms all hell broke loose. The conservative forces waged war, they did the same when Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, then a PN MP under a PN government, filed a parliamentary motion for a divorce referendum. Dr Pullicino Orlando was demonized by his own party, but he did not give up and together with other brave men and women they conducted a successful campaign which convinced the people of Malta to introduce divorce legislation. 

They did the same to leading criminal lawyer Dr Franco Debono, then a PN MP, when he crusaded for much needed legal reforms. The Lawrence Gonzi and Tonio Borg administration opposed Dr Debono vociferously, but he did not give up. A Labour government eventually implemented the reforms spearheaded by Dr Debono. 

So did Joseph Muscat when his government wanted to introduce LGBTIQ+ rights. He marched on and today Malta is Europe’s leading country on LGBTIQ+ rights. 

Robert Abela has been facing destructive opposition since his first day in office. Even during the Covid pandemic the conservative forces did their best to disrupt government from saving peoples’ jobs and businesses. But the Prime Minister was never one to give up. Under his effective leadership not only did we save jobs, and businesses, but today Malta has the fastest growing economy within the Eurozone. 

In recent weeks, we witnessed a destructive opposition in Parliament too. Rather than debating ideas, and disagreeing strongly when needed, as is every opposition party right and duty they, or rather a handful of its MPs, the usual ones who call the shots within the PN, behaved aggressively, lashing out at the Speaker of the House mercilessly. 

They were joined by a small and hysterical crowd, in Parliament square, banging on pots and pans and making a fool of themselves, and of the Nationalist Party, in the process. No wonder that recent opinion surveys showed a diminishing Nationalist Party. For they never learn. 

In the run up to Easter, the conservative forces alleged, and they did so repeatedly, that the American Embassy in Malta was about pull down the shutters. Beppe Fenech Adami, the PN foreign affairs spokesperson, issued press statements on this matter. Until the American Embassy itself rubbished their claims. No apologies were made from the PN and Dr Fenech Adami. 

A few days ago a prominent Opposition MP put on the same par drug trafficking and the Citizenship by Investment programs and consequently equalling all the professionals who work in the sector with drug traffickers. Other rubbed their hands in glee at the news that the European Court of Justice delivered the judgment it delivered on the matter.  

The conservative forces  pay lip service but when push comes to shove, they turn their backs on workers and their families. Not so the Labour Party which never tires of implementing changes to ensure a better standard of living for Maltese and Gozitan workers.  

The Labour Paty’s Workers Day mass meeting was a small but meaningful gesture through which Labour expressed its gratitude towards our workers. 

We will keep working hard!