A Colonial Inheritance: Maltese Perceptions of Work, Power And

:::·::::11·:::::::::::':::::::::::::::::::::: :::':': :: ~::~ • t • • ,. • • ~ ••••• • •• ••••••••••• II •••• • •••••••••••••). ~ :: : ~.: { .... ; ......:::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::: .::::::::: : :::::::~:::"-::-:; . .. j . ' .••••••••• ::::<.~ jt~....t~~t:.................... .......... :t:::::::}:H:="..:.:. .::.::':... ..... .:.:::.: :-...........f.t#""ij "" A COLONIAL INHERITANCE Maltese Perceptions of Work, Power and Class Structure with reference to the labour Movement. ~: ~ : ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~: ~ :~: ~ :~: ~ :~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : :........... ... .........',' .....•. .. .. ED'A/ARD L ZAMMIT .:.: .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. :. VVM • ::::;:: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :.::::::::::::.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: .;.;.;.:.;.:.:.;.:.- A COLONIAL INHERITANCE Maltese Perceptions of Work, Power an~ Class Structure with reference to the Labour Movement E.L. Zammit MALTA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1984 Contents Foreword by A.H. Halsey v Acknowledgements vii Introduction THE SOCIAL HISTORICAL SETTING 7 Aspects of the Social Structure in Pre-British Malta British Colonialism and Contemporary Structural Features - Recent Developments 2 POWERLESSNESS AND THE TRADITIONAL ADAPTATIONS 31 Introduction - Powerlessness and Alienation - Powerlessness and Anomie - The Maltese Adaptations: Compliance with Paternalism Individual ManipUlation - Localism/Retreatism - Political Activism 3 THE MALTA LABOUR MOVEMENT 42 Drydocks - Union - Party 4 NEW PERCEPTIONS FROM A CHARISMATIC LEADER 55 Work Power - Class Structure 5 PERCEPTIONS OF WORK 69 Introduction - The Employment Situation - Work Experience - Job Recruitment and Attachment - The Meaning of Work - Job Satisfaction - Extrinsic and Intrinsic Values Perception ot' Income Relativities PERCEPTIONS OF POWER 98 Introduction - Management and Worker Relations - Perceived Union Role and Workers' Participation - Notions of Participation: Values attached to PartiCipation - The Propensity to Participate - Notions of Socialism - Search for Legitimacy iii 7 PERCEPTIONS OF THE CLASS STRUCTURE 127 Mixed Social Consciousness and Images of Progress Experience and Images of Class Structure Perceived Class Relations - Evaluation of the Class Structure Perceived Avenues for Social Mobility - Perceptions of Change and Progress - Perceptions of Class Structure and Political Support Conclusion 153 Appendix - The Main Survey 157 Appendix II The Main Questionnai re 161 Appendix III - The Supplementary Survey 166 Appendix IV The Collection of Documentary, Oral and 171 Circumstantial Evidence Appendix V Bibliography 172 Index 191 FOREWORD I am delighted to write a brief Foreward to this book for two reasons. Dr Zammit has been known to me for many years as a successful graduate student in Oxford. Malta, of which he is a distin guished son, has a unique fascination for anyone interested in the industrial and political development of ex-colonial countries. It can come as no surprise that the long history of Malta, so dramatically involved with the fortunes of the Christian era in its tension and contention with Islam, should continue to exercise a powerful traditional influence over the modernising movements of our own time. The contemporary visitor cannot but be struck by the enduring reality, behind the up-to-date facade of tourism, dockyards, automobiles and shops, of a Cathol ic civi I isation di rect Iy inherited from medieval and Mediterranean Christianity. Churches and priests and monuments bear conspicuous wi,tness to heroic deeds, piety, folk custom and bitter struggle for survival down the ages from the Knights of St John to the Second World War and to still more recent times. Yet it may well come as a surprise to the reader to learn how much Dr Zammit is able to make of the interpretation of modern industrial and political trends within the framework of sociological analysis. And he does so by tackling directly the central question of how we are to explain the behaviour of people now. He considers one of the most famous of Karl Marx's simplifications - that "it is man's existence that determines his consciousness" - and assembles a compell ing body of empirical evidence to show how this view must be modified, virtually to the point of reversed causality in the case of modern Malta. He demonstrates, in short, that a careful case study can sophisticate a broad generalisation. From survey data Dr Zammit presents us with a graphic descrip tion of contemporary Maltese perceptions of the structure of power in Maltese society, the class system, and the organisation of work. Tradition is all pervasive. The long experience of national powerlessness from successive colonial dominations together with the paternalism and localism of the Mediterranean culture dominates the minds of the Maltese. Nevertheless, this is no static society. Industrial development in a post-colonial regime goes on, and the Malta Labour Movement (MLM) is its spearhead. What O'r Zammit is able to discover is the pattern of change, including change in attitudes, which the MLM has been able to effect within the traditional framework. Most especially, his survey of the shop stewards in the drydocks brings out the extent to which innovation and social invention stems from the leadership of the MLM. v All countries are, of course, unique. Malta has its own peculiar history and culture and one which is of small enough scale to· be amenable to comprehensive appraisal by a single researcher armed with sociological insight and method. Dr Zammit is so equipped and has given us a vivid account of an ex-colonial country in rapid transi tion. It is not only that other developing countries can learn from the Maltese experience: it is also much to Dr Zammit's credit that his study also teaches both the developed and the developing countries some important general truths about how human beings interpret the past and shape the future. A.H. Halsey Nuffield College, Oxford vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present study mainly consists of an abridged version of my dissertation entitled Maltese Perceptions of Power, Work and Class Structure which was submitted to the Faculty of Social Studies, University of Oxford, for my D.Phil in 1979. There are many persons to whom I am indebted for helping me in various ways to carry out this study. Professor A.H. Halsey, my academic supervisor at Oxford has very kindly done more than his duty to help me - through his constructive criticism of my writing, his suggestions for improvements and encouragement during difficult periods. Dr Alan Fox has taught me industrial sociology and has offered useful comments on various parts of the text when still in preparation. Similarly, Professors Paul Streeten, David Boswell and Gerard Kester have read some ear Iy versions of the text and offered their criticisms. Needless to say, I take full responsibility for the deficiencies which remain. I would also like to thank some of my students at the University of Malta who, under the direction of Mr Charles Pace, have volunteered to help me with the fieldwork phase of this study. In particular, I wish to thank Miss Mariella Galea who through her own choice of the Drydocks' shop stewards as the subject of her B.A. (Hons) dissertation, under my direction, has effectively acted as my research assistant in the supplementary survey. Much of the work involved in summarising the original longer text to the present more manageable and other tasks related to pUblication in book form were performed by Mr Godfrey Baldacchino. Ms Edith Rizzo has kindly typed this version of the study. I am also grateful to all the respondents who have kindly lent me their time and patiently answered the many 'pointless' and sometimes 'nosy 'questions which I asked them. I thank the Drydocks and the General Workers' Union for their collaboration and the Univer sity of Malta for the financial support and facility to carry out this study and to publish it in its present form. Finally, I dedicate this book to Carmen, David and Jonathan, my wife and children, towards whom my indebtedness goes far beyond what can ever be expressed in words. vii Abbreviations and Terms Used G.W.U. General Workers' Union M.D.D. Ma Ita 0 rydocks M.L.M. Malta Labour Movement M.L.P. Ma Ita Labou r Pa rty N.P. Nationalist Party Main Survey: A sample of Maltese adult population (ct. Appendix I) Workers' sub-sample: An extraction of workers from main sample Supplementary Survey: A sample of shop stewards and other activists at M.D.D. (cf. Appendix III) viii INTRODUCTION This study explores social perceptions found w ithi n a smal I country especially those of power and authority relations surrounding work activities and their wider social bases.1 It also examines whether any changes in these perceptions have taken place following a particular series of events. The specific conditions underlying such changes illustrate certain general principles and raise various questions with implications stretching far beyond the limited confines of the study. For these reasons, an attempt is also made to contribute somewhat to the substantial, if erratic, debate, about the developments of social class consciousness and, more generally, social imagery. Ever since Marx'S well-known, if controversial, idea that it is men's "social being which determines their consciousness",2 social scientists and others have sought to test its empirical validity. The usual interpretation given is that men's social being refers principally to social class. In the light of Marx'S overall theory, class

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