“The Left – your voice in Europe”

Speech by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL

Andros Kyprianou at the GUE/NGL Study Days event

8th January 2019, Nicosia

On behalf of AKEL, I would like to welcome the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left GUE/NGL in the European Parliament to Cyprus. I welcome our comrades from Europe, with whom we are waging daily struggles in the European Parliament; with whom we unite our forces in the modern struggles not just throughout our continent but beyond too; everywhere where the Left becomes the voice of the peoples of Europe. The voice for another Europe; the Europe we envision will serve working people and meet the aspirations of young people.

I feel the need to welcome and thank you all once again on behalf of AKEL, but also the Cypriot people as a whole. Our Political Group, the Group of the Left, is the most consistent ally of Cyprus in the European Parliament in the struggle we are waging against the occupation and division of our homeland; in our struggle for liberation and reunification for a Cyprus that will belong to its people without foreign armies, guardians and barbed wires of division. We believe that the citizens of Cyprus must know and – in view of the upcoming European elections – take into account the fact that the Group of the Left has tens of times been the voice of the Cypriot people in the European Parliament. The Group of the Left adheres to positions of principles on the Cyprus Problem, EU-Turkey relations and Turkey’s obligations towards the Republic of Cyprus, for the return of the town of Famagusta and as regards the cause of the missing persons in Cyprus.

This position of the Group of the Left and the parties that compose it is a position of solidarity towards both the Left and the people of Cyprus. Above all, however, it is a position that emanates from the ideas and values ​​that unite the Left and every progressive citizen: Peace, internationalism and solidarity with every people struggling for its just cause. That is the reason why the Group of the Left is the force that defends the struggle of Palestine, the struggle of the Kurds and the struggle of the peoples of the Middle East. I also welcome to Cyprus our comrades from the countries of the region, from Turkey, Palestine and Israel, Syria and Iraq. I assure them that AKEL, and I am sure our Group too, will continue to be the force that even on its own in the European Parliament will resist the wars and foreign interventions in which the European Union is engaged with the neighboring peoples as victims. The Left was and will be the voice of peace in Europe.

Today, very few people deny the fact that the EU has been driven into deadlocks and accumulated explosive social problems. The evaluations and warnings which the Left has for several years been expressing and issuing in Europe about the capitalist nature, course, and policies that are being imposed by those who are heading Europe have been ignored or systematically denigrated by the neoliberal Right, but also social democracy. Today it is evident that the Left was and is telling the truth. The Left is the force that stands critically, but always in a well-documented way, towards the EU today and its policies. It does so because we want Europe to serve the interests of the many, the interests of the people of labour and young people; to promote peace and democracy; to combat racism and xenophobia; to protect the environment and promote social justice. This is our vision for Europe. A Europe with another philosophy.

– How is it possible that the EU can find 13 billion euros from the Community budget for investments in the war and arms industry – an amount which can be tripled with contributions from member states – but at the same time count homeless people in millions and over 20% of its population to be facing the risk of poverty?

– How can a destructive reversal in labour relations have taken place resulting in an increasing number of people across the EU who despite working being driven to poverty and destitution, but at the same time the EU ruling forces don’t have a single practical and legally binding measure to propose for the social rights of Europeans, but only make meaningless wishes?

– How can the EU be acting jointly in foreign interventions in the Middle East, deepening its connection with NATO and selling arms and weapons amounting to billions of euros to authoritarian regimes in the region, but wondering where the millions of refugees have come from?

– Where is democracy heading towards when the lobbies of multinational giants are determining the decisions in the institutions of the EU and the voice of the peoples, citizens, trade unions and movements is being lost? How “European”, for example, is the unprecedented suppression of the recent mobilisations across France?

All these questions are being raised by more and more citizens across all EU Member States, even by people who up till now aren’t close to the Left. Nonetheless, the EU and the ruling forces in it want to continue pursuing the same recipes and carry on the same path. During the recent Congress of the European People’s Party, the leaders of the European Right declared that they are proud of the measures they have imposed on the peoples in recent years; proud of the Memoranda, the austerity and privatizations enforced. Indeed, in some countries where the Right is today in government, it is revealing its real plans for the future. In Austria, where the Right is in government in coalition with the ultra-right, they have officially abolished the eighth hour working day and imposed a 12-hour working day. In Hungary, the far-right Orban government, another affiliated member of the EPP, has banned strikes, facilitated dismissals through legislation, while its “social” policy includes measures such as the imposition of fines on homeless people sleeping on benches. The Cypriot DISY-Anastasiades government is also a member of this political family. It is a worthy EPP member one could say, given that the policy pursued by the Anastasiades government more often than not goes beyond even the most neoliberal policies of the EU. The 2013 haircut on bank deposits and closure of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank in 2018 are, besides, the work of the Anastasiades government with the European institutions as accomplices.

In our view, the Left is not and must not be the force that only exposes and denounces anti-social policies, injustice and exploitation wherever they stem from. We shouldn’t be just a protest movement. The Left must above all project proposals for today and put forth a vision for tomorrow. It should lead the way, propose, assert, struggle, envision and inspire. That’s how we set the bar to judge our actions and weaknesses, the demands we set for ourselves.

Consequently what we, first and foremost and above all, are now asserting for Europe is social justice and social solidarity. We are fighting for fundamental changes because we want the economies in Europe to work for the many; for those who produce the wealth and not for the banks and the elites. We are for that reason demanding a different path of development that respects the specific character of the economy of each state, creates permanent, full and dignified jobs and strengthens social protection for the weak. A path of development that restores working people’s gains and safeguards in practice labour, human and social rights, taking immediate steps such as, for example, the EU’s accession to the European Social Charter.

We need policies for women and gender equality, at work, in society, in the family and in public life. It is indeed worth noting that the Group of the Left, during the current 5 year-term, became the only Group in the history of the European parliament that has achieved an equal number of men and women MEP’s without applying the quota system. This is a powerful symbolic message, but also a significant success that demonstrates that gender equality in practice is and remains a top priority for the Left.

We are asserting policies promoting solidarity towards refugees seeking asylum in Europe, but also solidarity between member states; policies against racism, xenophobic and the far-right logic of repression, militarization and establishment of a “fortress Europe”. We are calling for the implementation of a system of hosting refugees across all member states without exception, according to their population and capabilities, so that everyone can meet their moral and legal obligations. The Left is the voice for those who have no voice.

We are fighting for a bold environmental policy outside the logic of the market with goals that are more ambitious than the Paris Accord to address Climate Change, just as the Left and ecological movements in Europe are demanding and just as we succeeded – through our action and pressure – to become the policy of the European Parliament itself. Furthermore, we are asserting for a progressive policy for the welfare of animals, in the face of human unconsciousness, but also powerful interests that are putting obstacles even here. Is it not, for example, outrageous for the European Parliament to be demanding an end to the hunting of whales, which is a terrible ecological crime, and the European People’s Party to attempt to obstruct it?

We believe that we must and will be talking about all of this to every working person, every young person in our countries. Precisely for all these reasons, the Left and its Group in the European Parliament deserves and must be enhanced in electoral and political terms so that the voice of the peoples in Europe is stronger.

However, there is another reason that perhaps is more imperative. Europe is confronted with a terrible danger stemming from the darkest period of its history. The forces of the far right and neo-fascism are getting organized in order to drastically strengthen their forces in the upcoming European Parliament and to impose their ideological narratives. These are forces pretending to be “anti-systemic,” but in practice they prove to be the best complementary force of the Right and the system itself.

This is also demonstrated by the example of Cyprus too. The ultra-right ELAM party supported the re-election of Anastasiades, voted in favour of the closure of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank to the benefit of Hellenic Bank. These forces represent the most sinister side of the system. They bring with them hatred, violence and racism, extreme anti-communism, the contempt for women and homophobia. They are now being encouraged more openly by the Trump government, but also by the fact that the forces of the Right are constantly shifting towards the far right. The danger therefore is greater than many people may believe, given that the far right is already in governments of member states. That is why we as AKEL, as the Left of Cyprus, feel the need to call on every democratic and progressive Cypriot who, even if he/she does not agree with us on everything, shares the need to block the road to these forces, to defend the values ​​of democracy and solidarity, the rights and freedoms of citizens, working people’s gains and peace.

In order to do all that the peoples demand and the Left asserts, we need different policies. We need above all another Europe. The peoples of our continent have a history and traditions that represent our own heritage, with Revolutions that shook the world; with struggles that won gains and rights for our working people; with values ​​and visions that look forward; with the will and conviction that we shall win in today’s battles too and in the struggles for tomorrow.

For the Europe of Peace, Democracy and Social Justice.

For the Europe of the Peoples.