70 years since the banning of AKEL
13 December 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
This year marks 70 years since AKEL was banned by the British colonial authorities. One of the darkest moments of colonial repression in Cyprus. In the early hours of 14 to 15 December 1955, the colonial regime launched an organized attack against the Party of the working people and the broader People’s Movement (Note: the mass organisations of the Left). They raided the homes of AKEL and other organisations of the People’s Movement, arresting 135 militants.
At the same time, they stormed the offices of AKEL, destroying and confiscating documents and property. By decree of the colonial Governor Harding, AKEL and a number of left-wing organizations were banned, while the publication of Neos Dimokratis newspaper and the left-wing Turkish Cypriot newspapers Emektsi and Inkilapsi were also banned. The arrested militants of the Left were first taken to the concentration camp in Pyla and subsequently to the Central Prison in Nicosia.
The prohibition was neither accidental, nor coincidental. It was a conscious choice by the British colonial powers to strike at the biggest mass and consistent anti-colonial force in Cyprus, which had always been at the forefront of the anti-colonial struggle, organizing the people and youth in waging mass political and social struggles. The turbulent situation of the period was used as a pretext to attempt to weaken AKEL and cut it off from the people.
The blow dealt was indeed severe, but it did not achieve its goal. AKEL endured because it had deep roots among the Cypriot people. Despite all the arrests, imprisonments, concentration camps, illegality, and the terror unleashed against it, the Party reorganized, developed an underground mechanism, and continued its struggles. In difficult and adverse conditions, AKEL continued to mobilise the people and youth in demonstrations, workers mobilisations, general strikes and other forms of mass political struggle.
Of particular importance is AKEL’s stance during the four-year period from 1955 –1959, when, in addition to the colonial repression against it, AKEL also confronted the fanatical violence and the campaign of terror launched by Grivas that even went as far as the murder and assassination of militants and members of the Left. AKEL’s patriotic and responsible stance, by responding to the murders that were committed through the organisation of mass demonstrations condemning the crimes and intolerance, prevented the outbreak of a civil war that would have had disastrous consequences for Cyprus.
The lifting of the ban on AKEL in December 1959 was not a concession by the British colonial powers. It was the result of the determination of thousands of activists and the mass popular demand to end the illegal status of the Party of the working people. AKEL emerged from that ordeal stronger, more mature, and more closely connected to the people.
Seventy years onwards, AKEL remains faithful to its values and principles struggling for a free, reunified, peaceful, and socially just Cyprus. The history of its struggles, and especially the period of its proscription, is a source of strength and responsibility for today’s and tomorrow’s struggles.
