AKEL New Year Message

On the occasion of the advent of 2014, AKEL addresses its warmest greetings to the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins, for the New Year, happiness and prosperity, for a speedy end to the occupation and for the reunification of our country in conditions of freedom and peace.

 

In addition, we also address our best wishes to our compatriots abroad, who are waging their own struggle to assist and promote the just cause of our Cyprus.

 

Furthermore, we extend our best wishes also to all the immigrants living and working in Cyprus and who in these festive days are naturally thinking about their own homeland and people.

 

Fellow compatriots,

 

The year 2013 we are bidding farewell to will go down in history as one of the worst years in the modern history of our country because of the negative developments in the economy.

 

More generally, however, developments in Cyprus and the world cannot be characterised as positive.

 

On the international level, the attempt to impose the imperialist interests of the U.S. and its NATO allies in all corners of the planet is continuing relentlessly to the detriment of the peoples and their will at the expense of national sovereignty, human rights and freedoms.

 

Despite the tragic effects of the imposition of the neoliberal model of management of the economy, which has considerably exacerbated the consequences of the worst systemic crisis of capitalism, the ruling circles of the European Union, are not only not changing course and policy, but are further reinforcing the neoliberal character of the Union through the institutional and structural changes that are currently being promoted.

 

With regards the Cyprus problem, the efforts to resume the negotiations for the formulation of a common basis of the talks so far are encountering serious difficulties; difficulties due to the Turkish intransigent behaviour, which however the Greek Cypriot side has facilitated with its detachment from the joint communiqués and the given gains registered at the Christofias – Talat talks.

 

The existence of natural gas, depending on the handling of the issue that will be made on different levels, creates on the one hand prospects for both economic progress and prosperity in our country and for a quicker exit from the consequences of the banking crisis and the Memorandum.

 

On the other hand of course, it has also created international and regional interests that may make them converge towards a just, viable and functional solution of the Cyprus problem which should based on principles.

 

It is also possible that developments in a number of countries in our region may act in the same direction, given that a fair and hence lasting solution would turn Cyprus into a stabilizing factor in the South-eastern Mediterranean region.

 

At the same time, of course, substantial dangers also exist in parallel which must not under any circumstances be overlooked or underestimated. In contrast, our handlings should be such that on the one hand should minimize these dangers and the other hand seek to maximize the possibilities for a positive utilisation of the given situations that arise.

 

In March 2013, despite the contrary commitments and declarations made, the Anastasiades government consented to the worst Memorandum ever imposed in the Eurozone countries, which among all the other horrendous provisions, included the internationally unprecedented measure for the haircut on bank deposits.

 

Under the weight of the decisions taken in March, the Cyprus economy entered in a regime of a credit crunch, which, together with the harsh austerity policies and cuts in the development budgets of the state, pushed the Cyprus economy into a dead-end vicious cycle of recession. The Cypriot people were driven into impoverishment with unemployment rampant and rising, working peoples wages and rights under merciless attacks, small and middle businesses closing, the selling off of public wealth has been set in motion with the main priority being the delivery to private interests of the three profitable Semi-state organisations of  the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA), the Cyprus Electricity Authority (AHK) and the Cyprus Ports Authority, while the fiscal and macroeconomic indexes are also being led from bad to worse.

 

Unfortunately, the government and ruling forces are not only refusing to discuss any other alternatives except those in line with the dead-end Memorandum course, but at the same time they are not even asserting and seeking to improve the Memoranda terms. Instead, the government in many cases presents itself as even more fanatically devoted to the Troika dead-end path as the Troika itself. The explanation for this position is simple. It is because it ideologically and politically identifies with the Troika’s philosophy on a number of core and essential issues. At the same time, the government is exploiting the “opportunity” to impose a radical redistribution of national wealth in favour of large private interests at the expense of low and middle income strata. This is what a numerous decisions of the government and ruling forces demonstrates, such as for example, the property tax , the decision of the President to refer the proposed Bill for the reduction of rents, the improper extension of the opening hours of shops and so on.

 

Fellow compatriots,

 

Regretfully, 2014 promises to be another very difficult year for Cyprus, our people and the working people.

 

As AKEL, we pledge that we shall continue to struggle with consistency and to be in the front line of the struggle for the solution of the Cyprus problem on the basis of principles and for the rapprochement Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

 

As the main opposition party, AKEL will continue to be a powerful pole of resistance to the Troika’s neoliberal policies and the government’s policies of tough austerity, deregulation of labour relations and privatizations. Continuously enhancing the Party’s ties with our people and workers, AKEL will continue with even greater determination to defend society, which is under an unprecedented attack.

 

By undertaking constant initiatives and submitting proposals for a fair and equitable distribution of the burden of the crisis, AKEL will continue to struggle for the exit from the yoke of the Memorandum and for the speediest possible recovery of the Cyprus economy.

 

Through the struggles and mobilizations of the working people and our people, we can keep alive and renew the hope for tomorrow.

 

AKEL will continue to struggle against nationalism – chauvinism, racism and the inhumane ideologies of the extreme ultra-right. We shall stand as a bastion against any attempt seeking to demagogically exploit the crisis and its impact in order to cultivate fanaticism and intolerance, to widen the gap with our compatriots Turkish Cypriot compatriots to the benefit of fascist organizations, which can only bring new woes and suffering to our homeland and our people.

 

AKEL as a genuine internationalist party expresses its solidarity with all the peoples and workers throughout the world struggling against imperialism, neoliberalism and the consequences of the crisis, for labour and democratic rights, for social gains, for peace and socialism.

 

The forces of labour are and remain the agencies of progress and the hope of humanity. Through organized political, social and class struggles, humanity is marching up the steep road towards a bright future. No one can stop this course, no matter how many adversities there may be.