Goodbye to a veteran socialist

Last week Malta bade farewell to former President Agatha Barbara. As extracts from an interview she gave to MIRIAM DUNN last April show, the principle of social justice remained sacred to Ms Barbara right up till the end of her life

She grew up in difficult times, when much of the population was blighted by poverty, illness, illiteracy and unemployment.

She had to plead with her parents to find the money to send her to secondary school, since the reforms she would play a major role in implementing which would ensure free education for all were still a long way off. And she also witnessed her father lose the wage rise he should have been awarded when promoted to tug master, because he couldn’t read or write.

No wonder that as a young woman, the former Labour education and social security minister and President of the Republic, Agatha Barbara, was looking for a vehicle that would enable her to help make the changes and reforms that post-war Malta so desperately needed.

"After the war, we had many people unemployed – former soldiers, the Drydocks workers - and no Constitution in place," she explains.

"The people governing us were not bothered about how these people were going to live. At the time, there was no social justice at all. I wanted to help put things right. I wanted to help people. That was why I accepted people’s encouragement to enter politics."

And did she feel daunted by the fact that she was young and female?

Ms Barbara, now in her seventies, smiles as she recalls a heated conversation she had at the time with a Dominican monk, who, like she, was a teacher.

"I remember the conversation drifted round to a proposal made by the Labour movement at that time to give every citizen over 21 the right to vote," she says. "The Church was against the idea of women having the vote and our colleague, who was an intelligent priest, supported this standpoint of relegating women to the kitchen.

"When he was talking, I eventually blew up and told him not to air these views in my presence again. It made me realise that even intelligent and educated priests had this philosophy of the female role, which spurred me on further to show what women could do."

Did this early encounter stay in Ms Barbara’s mind during the ensuing clashes between the Labour party and the Church, I ask her?

"Of course," she replies. "But the problems we had with the Church came from the Church. After all, what we stood for should not have been controversial - education and social justice for everyone. Many mistakes were made from the Church’s side and a considerable number of priests suffered because they did not agree with the Church’s stand. But I think that with hindsight, the Church has recognised that it made mistakes."

Since social justice is so close to her heart, I have to ask Ms Barbara whether she feels that New Labour still represents the principles she believes in so strongly.

"I think phrases like New Labour are unnecessary, because Labour principles cannot change," she answers. "They might change in the way you bring them into effect, but you either believe in them or you don’t."

And what about Mintoff, I ask her.

"Mintoff was unique, I don’t think there will be another like him," she answers. "They may criticise him, but it was Mintoff who led the way for Malta’s freedom from foreign occupation. He was the first one to bring real independence to the Maltese without shedding a drop of blood. We are the only country that got our independence from the British without fighting for it."

She declines to comment on Mintoff’s decision to vote against the Labour government, saying it would be unwise to rekindle such a fire.

"All I will say is that as someone who knew Mintoff well, it was difficult for him to accept blanket rather than means-related taxes, because his mind has always been bent on improving the lives of the everyday people, especially the workers, the pensioners and the sick," she says.

I ask her whether, as a true Socialist, she accepts that the European Union has an excellent track record for supporting workers’ rights.

"There is no reason we cannot look after our workers ourselves," she answers. "We have already done a lot. In the 1970s, I had the satisfaction of witnessing much of the social legislation I had been involved in coming into force; two thirds pension, equal pay for equal work and employment according to registration and seniority and education, and many others. We put right a lot of the social injustices that had existed until then."