A set of important notarial acts which reveal the actual date that the modern-day Labour Party was founded have been conserved by the Notarial Archives Foundation for generations to come, the same foundation said on Monday.
The history of the Labour Party is known to have started on 15th October 1920, when twelve party members met and went to the offices of Notary Paolo Carbonaro (active 1910-1927) to set up this party.
Many historians have notoriously attempted finding this document, to no avail. Through the research of Michael Buhagiar, a researcher with the Notarial Archives Foundation (NAF), not only was this document found, but the date for the foundation of the Partito Laborista was revised and confirmed as the 12th October 1920.
In August 2020, Buhagiar attempted to locate the notarial act whereby the Labour Party was established at the Notarial Archives at the Office of the Notary to Government in Valletta, but it was not found under the date of the 15th October.
Following meticulous research in the acts of Notary Carbonaro, he found a deed published on the 12th October 1920 in which Lorenzo Cassar, Carmela Bencini, Mikelanġ Borg, and Antonio Schembri appeared. In this deed, Cassar declared that he gave a loan of £300 to Bencini, Borg, and Schembri to “establish the Labour Party”, although initially the intention was to set up a printing press for this Party.
Three further acts related to this loan were found in three other volumes of Notary Paolo Carbonaro. The research has shown how a group of self-employed workers were the founders of the Malta Labour Party, together with a woman, Carmela Bencini. Although she did not possess the right to vote, Bencini still participated in the foundation of this new political party, which was founded on leftist socialist principles and Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891).
As research was concluded, the NAF informed the Labour Party of this important new find. The Party decided to sponsor the professional conservation of these four volumes of Notary Paolo Carbonaro, which all date to the 1920s.
Book and paper conservator Alejandra Molano Contreras was entrusted with this project and worked under the professional supervision of Chanelle Mifsud Briffa. Interventions included surface cleaning of all volumes, various paper and binding repairs, and ink consolidation. Each volume also required cover repairs, which required a lot of care and attention. Following this, all volumes were individually stored in protective boxes which ensures their preservation in the years to come.
The NAF thanked the Labour Party for appreciating the historical research that was carried out by Michael Buhagiar and for collaborating with the NAF on this conservation project.