|
 Manuel
Dimech used all his abilities to deliver his
thoughts to the Maltese working class. Born at
Valletta on the 25th December 1860 son of Carmelo
and Evangelista Zammit, Manuel is considered as the
rebel who cleared the path for the foundation of the
labour Movement In Malta. He had to tackle various
local prejudices to attain his goal. During a
quarrel on the 3rd February 1878 Dimech and his
friend aged 24 stabbed Pawlu Genius, who died a few
hours later. Dimech had to serve a sentence of 12
years in jail, that is up to the 26th October 1890.
Soon afterwards he was accused of dabbling in
counterfeit coinage. In all he spent some 20 years
in prison. He spent all those years studying various
languages. Later on, Dimech opened a school at 62A
Britannia Street, Valletta where he used to teach
languages to earn a living.
As early as 8th January 1898, Manuel Dimech started
to publish his newspaper Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin.
But this together with his philanthropic society
Xirka ta' l-Imdawlin, led him to be
excommunicated by the Church authorities on 28th
November 1911. Afterward he started to hold
conference in various villages and on one occasion
in 1912 he was pelted with stones while on his way
to deliver a speech at Qormi. On the 31st August
1914 when war was declared between Germany and
England, Dimech was arrested and sent to exile to
Alexandria, Egypt. In spite of this great loss, to
Maltese workers, especially at the dry-docks, they
managed to organize themselves and protest against
the British on the 7th June1919. Dimech was pin
pointed as clever and intelligent, with a socialist
and revolutionary drift in his writings, and
possessing a powerful ascendancy over the masses.
Manuel Dimech is also the author of Il-Kelliem
Ingliz (1901) Il-Kelliem ta' Erba' Ilsna
(1907), the two novels Ivan u Prascovia in
Maltese and I suicidi in Italian, and a good
number of poems in Maltese and Italian, most of them
published in Geraldu Azzopardi's book, Ghejdut
Manuel Dimech.
Manuel Dimech was married to Virgine Agius on 2nd
October 1900 at Sliema and had three children,
Attilio, Evelyn and Sylvia. He died on 17th April
1921 in exile in the Turkish Camp at Sidi Bishr,
still hoping to return to his native country. |
