Speech by Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL, to the 27th Pancyprian Festival of Youth and Students of EDON
4th July 2014,Famagusta Gate Park, Nicosia
We gather once again at the Festival of EDON! Welcome to the biggest cultural event of the year. On behalf of the C.C. of AKEL permit me to extend a warm welcome to the youth of EDON who once more have done tremendous work! The youth of EDON have succeeded in just a few days to construct a small world; a world filled with the visions of the future. Congratulations to all the members and cadres of EDON, to each and every one of them because they organized a better and richer in content Festival with a more massive participation.
The whole of the Peoples Movement of the Left is proud of EDON. The members and cadres of EDON are daily in the frontline of the struggle for a better tomorrow, in marches, demonstrations, protests, assertions and in day-to-day struggles. You show the way forward to the youth of the whole of Cyprus. You are the continuity of the struggles won and the future of the struggles to come; struggles that will be very tough, but be sure that we will win these struggles.
The Festival of EDON is not only the music. It is not only the great artists who we thank wholeheartedly for their presence here. The Festival of EDON is the thousands of reflections born in debates organized on a number of issues. It’s the theater, music performances, our people’s folk and cultural traditionsthat is reviving, the presentations of amateur and professional bands and groups, multicultural performances and much more.
However, the Festival of EDON is the anxiety and struggle for tomorrow. Today Cyprus is living in another era. The successive “pledges” made by President Anastasiades-Democratic Rally DISY party were forgotten once the elections ended. The empty and false promises about a spring and kick-starting the economy have been replaced by the “Manifesto” of President Anastasiades, with the haircut/levy on the bank deposits, privatizations, cuts in wages and pensions, the dismantling of the welfare state and many others.
Now those who are fortunate enough to have a job, work like the generations of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s were working, that is to say, from sunrise to dawn for meager wages. Thousands of young people are being forced to migrate, as generations were forced to do so during the period of colonialism and later on when a generation migrated after the Turkish invasion. Now nothing is given, neither public health, nor public education. None of all that has been gained by our people with the Peoples Movement of the Left at the forefront for decades is given.
Faced with this situation, there is one thing we must not do – we must no yield and give in! We must not believe that nothing can change. We must not surrender and must continue the struggle. The answer to all that we are living through was and is being given by EDON in the best way! As the song goes: our dreams are not for sale, we have not had the final word yet!
Our visions and dreams are not for sale, nor can our future be put on hold! The future belongs to those who prepare for it – to those who are struggling for it! The future belongs to the thousands of raised fists of EDON struggling for peace and the reunification of our country and people! For the society of tomorrow! For Cyprus and the world!
Long live the 27th Festival of Youth and Students!
Long live EDON!
