MLPAD

Well, I just can’t wait for the spectacle of AD’s propaganda secretary, sometime Malta Today pundit and current The Sunday Times columnist Claire Bonello and ‘today I’m Italian, tomorrow I’m Maltese’ Arnold Cassola marching side by side with Tony Zarb. What a scream. Now we know why they find so much to say about the shortcomings of the government but never have anything to say about the tomfoolery of the opposition. One imagines that after 20 years of getting nowhere and a last-ditch desperate attempt to form a strange thing called a pre-electoral ‘coalition’ with the very party they’ve spat upon for years, they’ve finally made their Faustian pact and will be selling their souls to the Labour Party and the GWU, in exchange for a seat in parliament in 2012. Hilarious: the pseudo-tal-pepe liberals with the blue-collar right-wing xenophobes and pseudo-progressives. Partit tal-kawlata.

The Times, Monday, 10th November 2008 – 10:35CET
Update 2: AD to join GWU demo

Updated 5.35 p.m.

Alternattiva Demokratika said this afternoon that it would be supporting the demonstration organized by General Workers’ Union on the utility tariffs on Thursday. Party leader Arnold Cassola said: “Last 6 October we had said that this issue should not be partisan because the basic living conditions of the Maltese and Gozitan people are at stake. We had also invited the social partners to take the lead in unison in this just battle and that we Maltese politicians should be prepared to follow the united social partners in this important issue. For this reason, next Thursday Alternattiva Demokratika shall be there to follow, as promised”.

Earlier this afternoon the GWU said that the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) had confirmed its participation. The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) confirmed its participation in the morning. The GWU said the purpose of the demonstration was to protest over the utility tariffs and to demand their review, or compensation for the workers. The Malta Union of Teachers said it would be joining the GWU’s protest because of the threat posed to people’s incomes and the government’s complete disregard of all the social partners’ views.

“As it has always done on previous occasions when workers across the country were facing the brunt of unfair decisions, the MUT will be joining forces with its colleagues hailing from other social partners to protest against: “The threat to democratic processes in the country through a complete disregard of all the Social Partners’ views, the threat to the livelihood of several families with low income, the threat to the livelihood of pensioners, the ever increasing burdens on workers and their families,” the union said. It urged its members to realise the importance of this issue from a trade unionistic perspective and join forces with its officials in the protest march to send a loud and clear message to the country’s politicians that the workers of this country had a voice which must be heard.

The GWU in a statement this morning said that the Labour Party, the Campaign for National Independence (CNI) Moviment Graffiti, and Zminijietna – Lehen ix-Xellug had also confirmed they would take part in the protest.