Colleagues,Just a brief item before I head off for a week of sunshine (hopefully) and (some) rest in Malta with my family.
All being well I'll also be meeting colleagues from the General Workers Union (http://www.gwu.org.mt/) and labour studies department at the University of Malta (http://www.um.edu.mt/cls).
The image posted with this item is of the GWU symbol on the first class stamp printed in 1983 to mark the 40 year anniversary of the formation of the island's largest union.
The historical development of the labour movement in Malta mirrors that of the UK given the strong historical links and is definitely worth investigation - send me an e-mail and I can send some reading.
Will post a new item when back.
Cheers!
Ian
PS The title of this post translates to 'I don't speak Maltese' as this has to be one of most difficult languages to read let alone speak, although I will be giving it a go. As stated in the Encyclopædia Britannica Maltese is the Semitic language of the Southern Central group spoken on the island of Malta. Maltese developed from a dialect of Arabic and is closely related to the western Arabic dialects of Algeria and Tunisia. Strongly influenced by the Italian dialect spoken in Sicily, Maltese is the only form of Arabic to be written in the Latin alphabet.
2 comments:
So: in the context of;
a)the competing imperatives of, fistly, post-imperial national identity in an independent state and, secondly, the need to foster a supra-national loyalty to the global Labour Movement, and;
b) the failure - at least so far - of international trade unionism to set out a popular, but non-populist, "counter-agenda" to national sectionalism & the international (but non-internationalist!) "market creation" project;
What was the food & beer like?
(Not more than 5,000 words, please).
Beer, food was lovely Paul,
Although seeing the chinooks and Hercules transporters flying over the island on their way to Libya was 'interesting'. Like a scene from a movie on Vietnam was Sophia's response.
In response to your proposal for an essay - your assignment title needs some work brother!
Speak soon Paul.
Ian
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