A strong organized left can struggle against austerity policies

Article by Neoklis Sylikiotis, AKEL Political Bureau member and AKEL MEP

27th March 2017

“The austerity policies that are being imposed by the dominant EU circles revealed the true nature of this system of exploitation. The Euro and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) are just some of the instruments institutionalizing these policies, such as economic governance which is part of the Eurozone structure.”

This is what Neoklis Sylikiotis, member of the Political Bureau of AKEL and AKEL MEP stated at a conference organized in Porto. The conference held under the theme “The Euro and EMU – Defending economic and social growth and sovereignty” was organized by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) in cooperation with the Confederal Group of GUE/NGL in the European Parliament. Among the speakers were members of the PCP leadership, members of the leadership of the Red-Green Alliance of Denmark and economists such as Heiner Flassbeck.

Continuing his speech, AKEL MEP N. Sylikiotis stated that, “There are many examples that demonstrate the undemocratic and anti-social nature of economic governance. In our country, we saw the dissolution of Cyprus’ economy in one night through the “bail-in”, and the suffocation grip through the imposition of the Memorandum. After three years of the Memorandum’s implementation and the so-called “success story” which both the Troika and the right-wing government are trying to portray, today we have 14.3% unemployment (with 32.8% of the unemployed young people) and one in four Cypriots living on the poverty line. After the formal exit from the MoU Cyprus is under supervision until 2031 or until it pays off 75% of the debt to its lenders.

At the same time the government and ruling forces are shifting even more burden on to the backs of the working people through privatizations, whose profits are being acquired by the multinational companies. The most recent example was the privatization of the port of Limassol, Cyprus’ biggest port. Not only is the state losing the profits which the port brought into the state’s coffers, now the Cypriot people must pay rent for space and equipment to a contractor, N. Sylikiotis pointed out.

Concluding his intervention, he stressed that “Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland aren’t in a different situation from Cyprus. What is needed is a strong, organized left to struggle against the neoliberal policies being promoted, mainly however they must especially fight against the anti-democratic, anti-grass structure of the Eurozone. As AKEL, we are participating in this struggle with the rest of the Left in Europe to reverse neoliberalism and to safeguard the public wealth and property, labour and social rights and a dignified life for our peoples.