The part played by Sir Paul Boffa in the Labour Party Movement

Abstract

When one hears of Dr. Boffa, one's recollections immediately run back to 1949, when the eventful split within the Malta Labour Party shook the entire political set-up of the Maltese Islands. But much more is associated with that name which tends to be forgotten. For instance, few tend to realize that the importance of Dr. Boffa's political career lies mainly in his contribution towards the emergence of a strong Maltese Labour Party and the consequent radical change in the status of the local worker in the period 1919-1947, a change which finally put him on an equal footing with his comrades abroad. Dr. Boffa joined the then nascent Labour Party in 1923, after being for a short time member of the Constitutional Party. When he assumed the leadership of the Party in 1927, it was still a very restricted movement with very little following among the electorate. Under his direction, however, the Party made steady progress until by 1947 it became the strongest political party in the Island. However, Dr. Boffa did not enjoy for long the fruits of his toils. The events which led to the split of the Labour Party and the subsequent fall of the first ever Labour Government are well known. Due to the lack of published material dealing with the subject, I had to go through most of the numerous newspapers published at the time. My greatest difficulty, especially in the chapter dealing with the split, was to reconstruct a clear and unbiased account of the various events, a task which sometimes verged on the impossible, since all Maltese newspapers have always tended to take sides in politics, which is understandable considering the passion which the Maltese people have always reserved to this often dirty but fascinating side of the life of a democratic country. This short project is not meant to give a detailed and comprehensive account of Sir Paul Boffa's career. In writing it, my main aim was to give a clear picture of the way he react~against the various events, some of them fateful, which characterized Maltese history throughout the thirty-five years of' his political activity in the context of his avowed ideal to improve the status of the workers.