Forty years ago, Dom Mintoff was Prime Minister of Malta, having been in office since June 1971 when the Labour Party came to power. In February 1972, Dom Mintoff addressed drydock workers in Pjazza Gavin Gulia in Cospicua.

Among other things he urged the workers to play their part to make the Drydocks economically viable. People in the square clapped continuously during his memorable speech He urged the workers to work more so as to compete with other workers overseas. Maltese people still remember very well one part of his speech when he compared local workers with those of other European countries. He told the workers that they did not even know how to draw a ship let alone design one and, adding insult to injury, said that they had no bocci tal-laham (meatballs) like the workers abroad.

Some workers became hysterical and applauded the Labour leader while the majority showed their disgust.

It is to be said that following a ‘stop work’ decision taken by the General Workers Union that took place six months prior to the General Election of June 1971, the Drydocks had a debt of around Lm12 million. Mintoff decided to waive the debt with the stroke of the pen.

For all those who were still young or were not even born, they must be told about those bad times, which are considered as being Malta’s darkest period since World War II.

Henry S. Pace