Despite his protestations and others, including such illustrious characters as Field Marshall Edward Allenby and Winston Churchill himself, Dimech was never released and died in Alexandria on April 17, 1921.

Manwel Dimech (1860-1921) was a Maltese social and political activist who played a crucial role in the movement for Maltese independence from British colonial rule.

Dimech was born in Valletta, Malta, and grew up in a working-class family. From a young age, he was passionate about social justice and workers’ rights, and he became involved in socialist and anarchist movements in his youth.

He was a prolific writer and speaker, and he used his skills to advocate for social and political change in Malta. In 1898, he founded the newspaper Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin (The Flag of the Maltese; every week till 1914; with interruptions). He also founded the Malta Workers’ League in 1900, which was the first political party in Malta to advocate for the interests of the working class.

Dimech’s political activism brought him into conflict with the British colonial authorities, and he was arrested and imprisoned several times throughout his life. Despite this, he remained committed to his cause, and he continued to speak out against injustice and oppression.

Dimech adhered to a philosophy that he called ‘of action’, a position very close, though directly unrelated, to the contemporaneous Pragmatism of the United States.

He came to this position through his acquaintance with the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and other British Empiricists and philosophers of Utilitarianism. He claimed that actions can be considered right or wrong, and value judgments can be rightly gauged, according to whether they perform well when applied to practice.

Actions, he maintained, proceed from the power that knowledge possesses from itself. Furthermore, actions are aimed at acquiring happiness, first, for the individual, and, simultaneously, for the whole community of individuals.

One of Dimech’s most significant contributions to the Maltese independence movement was his idea of “self-government”, which called for greater autonomy for Malta within the British Empire. He argued that the Maltese people should have the right to govern themselves and make decisions about their own future.

In addition to his political activism, Dimech was also a passionate advocate for human rights. He spoke out against the death penalty and other forms of state violence, and he argued for the rights of women, children, and marginalised communities.

Manwel Dimech’s legacy continues to inspire activists and thinkers in Malta and beyond. His commitment to social justice, workers’ rights, and human dignity serves as an example of the power of grassroots organising and the importance of standing up against injustice.

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