I have just read the review of Sammy Meilaq’s (SM) autobiography, in which reviewer Noel Grima states: “But he [SM] is far more scathing in his treatment of Godfrey Baldacchino who he charges with being the Torquemada of the dockyard, believing what was told him in private meetings by the members of management and refusing to let Mr Meilaq and his council confront the accusers.”

Of course, I had to look up who/what Torquemada was, and I was not pleased: “As chief inquisitor of the infamous Spanish Inquisition, Torquemada was responsible for the torture and execution of thousands.”

So I have the blood of so many thousands of Dockyard workers and their families on my conscience?

Dream on, Mr Meilaq: you did so well to heed the writing on the wall; you were always so keen to carefully analyse the regular reports coming from the Workers’ Participation Development Centre at the University of Malta over many years that all was not well with self-management at the Dockyard. So when I turned up in November 1996 to craft a detailed report of the situation based on tens of interviews with the rank and file, GWU stewards, worker committee members, and management, plus copious amount of data – all sources that are scrupulously documented in the report – did you embrace it enthusiastically as an opportunity to undertake some badly needed reforms? No. Rather, you decided that it had been concocted in advance and slyly drafted to suit what the government had already decided to do. You even decided that I had locked myself in an office in the Dockyard and wrote the report without consulting anyone.

Imagine how Mr Meilaq might have described somebody who was less sympathetic with the plight of the Dockyard workers and their workplace. An Adolf Eichmann perhaps? Or a Hernan Cortes?

What Mr Meilaq did not mention is that I recommended the refinement of the self-management system at Malta Drydocks, not its elimination.

Godfrey Baldacchino

Professor of Sociology

University of Malta