Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/682623
14 AS a rule, you can always rely on left-wing activist group Movi- ment Graffitti to stir up the oc- casional polemic here and there. If its members are not busy pitch- ing tents outside Castile to protest against environmental degrada- tion, they will most likely be pro- voking angry reactions with some hard-hitting slogan at a public demonstration. In 2011, Moviment Graffitti in- curred precisely such criticism over a placard showing former PM Lawrence Gonzi embracing Libya's erstwhile demagogue Muammar Gaddafi… and last week it invited similar reactions with the memo- rable slogan: 'Same shit, different government'. Interestingly, the offending plac- ard now adorns the wall of Graf- fitti's Valletta office almost like a trophy. Andre Callus, one of the movement's most recognisable faces, sits directly beneath it as we settle for this interview. I ask him if he was surprised by the hostile reactions. "First of all, you have to see where these reac- tions came from. There were a number of people at that protest who reacted positively to the same slogan. And this doesn't surprise me, because in the time I've been alive – around 29 years – I don't think there ever was a moment when so many people were so fed up with the two parties. They might continue to vote for them, but most people no longer support their parties with their eyes shut. "Having said that, there were a number of Nationalist support- ers who were irritated. Not many, incidentally. I honestly think they didn't understand the message. The point behind that slogan was that things haven't changed with the change of government. It is actually more critical of Labour: because in spite of all its promises, in spite of the 36,000 majority that voted for it, the Labour govern- ment didn't change anything at all. It's always the same record playing: the only thing that changes is the colour…" This, he quickly adds, is not just an observation made in passing: the slogan also represents a long- term strategy for Moviment Graf- fitti. "If there is no challenge to the dominance of the two parties… if people do not hold both parties re- sponsible for the state we're in… it would be too easy for them to just carry on with the same stuck re- cord. We have to recognise the fact that both Nationalist and Labour parties are ultimately part of the same network of power that keeps the same elite in control. And I think more people are now seeing this than ever before…" Ironically, the controversy itself also indicates just how pervasive this dominance really is. "In the last month, I have lost count of the people who have told us, 'you're Labour' or 'you're Na- tionalist' – as if all discussion in this country can only take place in the context of the PN-PL divide. It's as though nothing else exists outside that context… but I believe that genuine change can only come about when people realise that… yes, there is life beyond the two parties." Meanwhile, Callus' impression of a tidal change in attitude towards Maltese politics is up to a point borne out by statistical evidence… not least, our own surveys, which broadly point towards growing dis- affection in either camp. But why precisely now? Moviment Graffitti has been harping on this central message for at least 20 years… so what is it about this precise mo- ment in our history that makes the argument more convincing? "I think that the last election re- sult clearly indicated that people were fed up to their back teeth under the Nationalists, and that many genuinely hoped a change in government would bring about the necessary changes in other spheres. Now, we have reached a stage when people have understood that most things have remained the same – some things have actually dete- riorated – but the memory of the Nationalist administration is still too fresh. Many people are just not ready to trust them again so soon… and this is understandable, because the people in that party are still more or less the same. More importantly, they are no different when it comes to ideas and poli- cies…." As an example he cites the mini- mum wage: another bugbear of a movement which cites 'social jus- tice' as the main pillar of its ethos. "The minimum wage in this country is niggardly (mizera). Even before the recent Caritas report, it was abundantly clear that people just cannot survive on the mini- mum wage. Never mind that they cannot enjoy a decent standard of living: minimum wage earners can- not make ends meet. For all this, however, both parties have taken up a position against raising the minimum wage. "Today, for instance, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna came out with a statement saying that the minimum wage would only go up if employers agree. What this means is that we have a government that is held to ransom by employers. Be- cause if you say that you can only raise the minimum wage with the permission of employers, what you are effectively saying is that it is the employers who are governing the country, not you..." Meanwhile, both the Malta Em- ployers Association and the Cham- ber of Commerce have repeatedly come out against any change to the current wage structure…. Callus nods. "And yet, it is unde- niable that to raise the minimum wage would be in the interest of the majority in this country. This raises a question that must be asked of both Labour and Nationalist par- ties. Whose interest does politics serve in Malta? Do they serve the best interests of the country, or the limited interests of only a tiny mi- nority?" It's a fair question, but the issue also has a practical, logistical di- mension to it. It's all well and good to demand higher wages across the board, but these wages would have to be paid by a private sector that (by Callus's own argument) looks only at balance sheets and the bot- tom line. There is a reason for this, too: if those sheets no longer bal- ance, the company might go un- der… and the people who would suffer most are the employees who would be out of a job. Even if the company remains afloat, a drastic change to its bot- tom line might precipitate cost- cutting elsewhere: individual em- ployees might be paid more, but the company may have to lay off workers or stop hiring. How does someone like Callus respond to this reasoning (which incidentally forms the bulk of the MEA's argu- ments, echoed by both Scicluna and Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat)? "There are a number of ways you can approach this issue. If you look at the experience of other countries – such as Germany, for instance – they raised the minimum wage without suffering this kind of nega- tive economic domino effect. But even without any increase to the minimum wage, the fact remains that a private company will still only ever employ the minimum workforce it actually needs. "If a company needs 10 employ- ees to get a job done, it will still have to employ 10 people, whether or not the minimum wage goes up. As for the question, would raising the minimum wage increase the fi- nancial burden on employers? The answer is yes, but we are not talk- ing about an exorbitant increase. The issue here is that the minimum wage should be increased to a level where earners can enjoy a decent standard of living. We're not ask- ing for minimum-wage earners to get rich overnight. And let us keep in mind that we are talking about companies which post substantial profits. If a company goes bank- rupt because of an increase to the minimum wage, all it would mean is that the company was in a bad financial situation anyway… This in turn, he adds, exposes the shallowness of the government's reasoning on the issue. "If the economy is really doing as well as Scicluna claims, it shouldn't be a problem to raise the mini- mum wage. But if we can't do that because of the negative economic consequences, it means that the economy is not as rosy as it is made out to be. It means that our econo- my is based on cheap labour. There are no two ways about it; one sce- nario excludes the other. Either our economy is doing so well that we can afford higher wages, or else we have an economy that keeps afloat only because the wage structures are so low. This is something the government has to answer for…" Moving beyond the minimum wage issue, Andre Callus points to- wards other similarities in the mo- dus operandi of both parties. "At Enemalta, for instance, we saw a privatisation process that be- gan under the Nationalists – who liberalised the gas sector – and that was carried on under Labour. Now, we have reached a stage when the country's power generation capa- bility is entirely in the hands of the private sector. Shanghai Electric now controls the BWSC plant, etc. This is just a basic continuation of the same policy, under different administrations. This is why I be- Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 MAY 2016 Much as I think Mizzi and Schembri should resign, the truth is that their resignations would achieve nothing if the system remains unchanged If you say that you can only raise the minimum wage with the permission of employers, what you are effectively saying is that it is the employers who are governing the country, not you PANAMAGATE MINIMUM WAGE Emergency on Planet Malta