‘I will keep on fighting for Social Justice until my last breath’ - Charles Miceli

‘I speak from my heart and not from my mind’ - Charles Miceli

Dr Andrew Azzopardi Dean Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta & Broadcaster – Għandi xi Ngħid www.andrewazzopardi.org am pretty much convinced that we will be hearing a lot about Charles Miceli in the days and months to come. Charles was an activist par excellence.

His activity was embodied in particular in the Alleanza kontra l-Faqar (Alliance against Poverty).Charles was soft-spoken, non-confrontational and an exceptional listener. He would speak without having to pull anyone down yet would stick to his principles steadfastly.

His mission in life was not his own career trajectory or that of increasing his financial capital. Charles was simply focused on driving in the ideas he believed so strongly in. Nothing would tempt him, whether power or prestige. He was truly and solely committed to the ‘cause’ of social justice.

Charles came from a background that represented what he has struggled and worked for during all of his life. He was brought up in poverty, living in a one-room slum in an alley. Amongst the limitations he was brought up with, his family had to use a communitarian bathroom and they didn’t have the basic utilities.

His father at a later stage in life ended up unemployed with more ominous consequences on the family.

Apart from that Charles had to stop going to school at 12 years. There was always a silver lining for Charles. When he told me about having to drop out of school, Charles grinned. He said that he might have lost a bit but managed to compensate adequately by reading and studying on his own.

I believe Charles was a typical self-learner, resilient and combative and managed to avoid getting tainted by the system. When talking about his education he seemed to state that the advantage of not accessing formal education meant that he did not get trapped in the tyranny of the educational system that seems to disarm you and make you forget that teaching is about self-discovery. Charles was free as a bird because he was brought up mindful that wealth and fortunes meant nothing to him.

Even though Charles lived in a state of absolute poverty he did not feel downtrodden. He narrates that even though he wouldn’t be able to get himself an ice-cream, pastizzi or go to the cinema because of the lack of income his family had, he was not bitter or acrimonious. Charles would never shy away from his background but share his narrative with pride and self-respect.

Charles was concerned about the social divisions that would keep increasing if we are not vigilant affecting in particular those at the bottom of the heap. One of the things that seemed to anger Charles was when he claimed that even though 40, 50 years had gone by, social exclusion and poverty still existed almost in the same way it did before, where the distribution of wealth was still unfair and the poor still struggled to make ends meet.

Miceli admired Mintoff, who he said used to give people hope. Yet he claimed that at the tail end of Mintoff’s leadership the situation was getting out of hand. At that point he quoted Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who had said; ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

Charles adulated no one, whether its politicians or clergy. He analysed thoroughly and would rise above sympathy and position himself without directing criticism to a personal level.

However, Charles believed strongly that the risk of corruption and bad governance grows when one holds on to power for a long time. On a political level, Charles was not patient at all! He believed in radical changes, swiftly and hurriedly. But what impresses me most about Charles is his critical mass. It is simply impressive. To add to that, he had such clarity of thought that was second to none!

But I believe that Miceli’s biggest legacy is that he will be remembered as being the voice of the voiceless. Every time you speak to him he keeps raising the same issues. He believed that we can have a society that everyone can be on the same level but was equally perturbed that solidarity was fizzling out.

Charles not only believed in the ‘cause’ but committed himself to it.

Amongst other he was a strong proponent of increasing the National Minimum Wage. In fact, when campaigning for a ‘Decent Minimum Wage’, Charles without stuttering had said that an increase of 11% or an €8 increase was nothing to shout about. Another issue close to his heart was that of having a national budget that takes in cognisance the fair distribution of wealth. But his most recent activism focused on the rocketing of the rent prices. This was an issue that concerned him deeply.

An overarching concern you could read in Charles’ dialectic was that he was not happy that we no longer had a political landscape that represented the ‘Left’. Probably, if he could choose to change one thing in this Country would be to have a more effective ‘Left’ movement with all the values it represents.

Finally, I would like to share some of my favourite quotes of Charles Miceli that I believe would represent his Manifesto: