Student election results on the 2014-15

Statement of Haris Karamanos, General Secretary of EDON Youth Organization,

AKEL Central Committee offices, 21/05/2015, Nicosia

 

The Central Council of EDON Youth Organization salutes the thousands of students who exercised their right to vote, both in Cyprus and abroad, and who strengthened with their vote the student section of the Left in the student movement, The Progressive Student Movement PROODEFTIKI in the very difficult conditions our country and people are going through managed through the hard, organized and selfless efforts of hundreds of cadres and friends, to register a significant increase in its percentage vote of 2.7% (Note: 4,980 out of a total of 12,478 votes, namely 39,91%).

The battle PROODEFTIKI waged in all educational establishments was not easy. It had to face the dangerous notion perception by the system’s mechanisms that we are all supposedly the same. It had to combat the logic of depoliticisation being promoted and which is driving the people of Cyprus and consequently students to inertia and apathy. However PROODEFTIKI did not yield when confronted with these negative phenomena. Instead it remained steadfast with enviable consistency in the front line of the struggles the student movement had to wage and demonstrated that only through constant struggle can students defend their rights and assert those they are entitled.

The students, therefore, trusted PROODEFTIKI and not unjustly. They trusted the Progressive Student Movement because it was the only student organized section struggled against the anti-student policies and plans of the Ministry of Education and the government of the Right that led to the curbing of student grants and the abolition of the Student Package. Progressive resisted, mobilized hundreds of students outside the Ministry and eventually vindicated and the students taking this year normally and sponsorship and the student package. Progressive resisted, mobilized hundreds of students outside the Ministry and eventually vindicated and the students taking this year normally and sponsorship and the student package. PROODEFTIKI resisted and mobilized students outside the Ministry of Education and in the end the student’s struggles were vindicated, since students are receiving grants and the Student Package this year too.

We want to take this opportunity to denounce in the strongest possible terms the activity of the ultra-right organizations in Cyprus Student Movement that are poisoning with their fascist ideology the young generation. Fascism has no place in universities and the Organized Student Movement must react before it’s too late.

At the same time we also condemn specific authoritarian behaviors of NEDISY (Note: the youth organization of the governing Right-wing Democratic Rally Party DISY) and the student section of PROTOPORIA (Note: the student section of DISY party). PROTOPORIA acted in many universities and colleges during the electoral process with undemocratic procedures. It tried to alter the outcome and the true will of students. Wherever they managed to have a circumstantial majority in a student electoral committee, it rendered without any reason as non-valid votes cast for PROODEFTIKI and even went so far as to deny students the democratic right to vote. Combating this anti-democratic hysteria PROODEFTIKI stood firmly as the guardian of the procedure of the student unions. We cannot under any circumstances tolerate such behaviors that undermine the democratic functioning of the organized student movement and lead us to dark times of the past.

The tactics employed by PROTOPORIA do not of course surprise us. Besides, it was no accident that POFEN (Note: the Pancyprian Federation of Student Unions, mass unitary student organization) remains inactive and passive without its bodies being functioning for months due to a great extent to PROTOPORIA which bears heavy responsibilities. This is a conscious effort by DISY and its faction among students to make POFEN a supporter of the government and the Troika in order to serve their anti-social and anti-student policies that have as their goal the abolition of our rights.

The students, however, have given their answer and elected PROODEFTIKI even stronger through the election result of the student elections. They have demonstrated that they do not compromise, nor do they sell out their right to education and work. They sent a clear message that the Memorandum and austerity will not pass; that POFEN must return on a militant and assertive path.

Therefore the struggles are continuing, in the universities and student auditoriums, as well as in the streets. With PROODEFTIKI strong, students can resist and assert and gain. We are proud of PROODEFTIKI because it wages its struggles raising high the banner of struggle and compassion. We are confident that PROODEFTIKI will continue on this path.

Every success in the struggles of PROODEFTIKI!