Graffitti action in Dingli shows power of unity after forcing IM into talks

Courageous three-week direct action in Dingli comes to an end after roads agency pledges it will reduce road length by 2m and not fell any more trees

Activists on the site of the Dingli field where they physically stopped works
Activists on the site of the Dingli field where they physically stopped works

Moviment Graffitti has ended three weeks of constant direct action, in which the activists mounted a courageous sit-in to stop roadworks by Infrastructure Malta in an agricutural field in Dingli.

The road, schemed since the 1960s but never built, will connect two alleyways which lead to a tilled field with protected trees.

Graffitti spokesperson Andre Callus thanked activists for standing up to IM and its minister Ian Dingli. “For many of us, and for the residents of these two roads, silence is not an option, even against such a minister like Ian Borg. Fear is not an option. United, nobody can bully us: not a minister, nor the head of some government agency. Dingli has shown as much.”

Callus said Graffitti had been granted a meeting with IM to be shown the plans of the road, which will now be 2m less in length, with promises not to cut down any carob trees.

It was the direct action by Graffitti that prevented IM from cutting down any more carob trees by physically stopping bulldozers and organising a three-week sit-in by settin up camp gthere.

“What worries us is not the road itself, but the construction it can bring with it outside the development zones. If this is what will happen, we will oppose it with all our strength,” Callus said.

“It was also the practice for Infrastructure Malta to simply take up land without compensation... there is a promise now for compensation to take place before they enter or take up any land,” Callus said.

“We’re not sure that this promise will be kept, so we will be monitoring very closely what is going on. If promises are broken, we will be back to stop them.”