Address by the General Secretary of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou at the May Day event organized by the class-based Pancyprian Federation of Labour PEO at Freedom Square, Nicosia

 

1 May 2026, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Worker’s Day is not just another anniversary. It is a day of remembrance, honor and struggle. It is the day that highlights the great struggles and sacrifices made for workers’ rights, which today are often taken for granted but never are.

As long as policies—both national and global—that prioritize profits over people prevail, there will be a need to defend workers’ rights. To defend peace, which is sacrificed for the sake of the profits of the few, the powerful, and the privileged.

Worker’s Day is the international symbol of unity, solidarity, and workers’ struggle, serving as a reminder that no achievement—labour, social, or political—was ever gifted to working people. All were won through collective action and hard-fought struggles.

In Cyprus, Workers May Day has its own distinct history. It is linked to the struggles of miners, construction workers, agricultural workers, artisans, and others. In essence, it embodies the struggle of the class-based workers movement and the Left. It is linked to workers’ achievements: the institution of collective bargaining agreements, the Automatic Cost of Living Allowance COLA, the eight-hour working day, freedom of association, and so many others.

Workers May Day is also linked to the broader struggles for social progress—for freedom and democracy in our country, for an advanced welfare state and a state governed by the rule of law. In all these achievements, the mark of AKEL, throughout its century-long history of struggle, is strong and indelible.

Today, May Day not only remains relevant but is even more urgent. The high cost of living is squeezing households, housing costs are rising, inequalities are growing, and many working people—especially our young men and women—feel uncertainty about the future.

Worker’s rights are constantly being curbed, and the welfare state is being dismantled by the Right and its allies.

That is precisely why the message of May Day remains relevant: work with rights for all, wages that meet basic needs, safety and health at the workplace, support for young workers, dignified pensions for all, and a strong welfare state.

In the run-up to the upcoming parliamentary elections, this message takes on a particular political significance because social gains do not defend themselves on their own. Worker’s gains need a strong voice both within Parliament and out in society. They need forces that consistently stand by workers, pensioners, youth and the working class.

That is why it is important to strengthen AKEL in the upcoming elections. A strong AKEL means:

• more effective defence of working people.
• a stronger struggle for social justice.
• more pressure for solutions to everyday problems
• a counterweight to policies that seek to shift the burden onto the many.

It is well known, after all—and everyone admits it, even its opponents—that AKEL is the Party of society. It is a Party born of ordinary people and supporting ordinary people; it supports society and working people.

A vote for AKEL means protecting society, jobs, collective bargaining agreements, the COLA, wages, and so many other hard-won gains.

A vote for AKEL means protection from expensiveness, foreclosures, and the arbitrariness of the banks and the powerful interests of the establishment.

A vote for AKEL safeguards a future for young people. These prospects can only be secured if our young men and women have meaningful access to quality jobs. If they can find a home to start a family. If the necessary infrastructure exists to meet the needs of a new family. If their hopes are not trapped in the webs of corruption, collusion, entanglement and clientelism, as is the case today. If they have access to education.

Securing the future of our country depends on reaching a solution to the Cyprus problem.

A vote for AKEL means continuing the struggle to end the Turkish occupation and reunite our country and people. AKEL is the party that has always been at the forefront of the anti-occupation struggle. It is at the forefront of developing cooperation and waging a common struggle between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. This is the meaning of the joint May Day event organized every year by PEO together with the Turkish Cypriot trade unions.

Dignified work. A life with dignity. This is the essence of the struggle for workers, and AKEL consistently and continuously wages this struggle, always standing side by side with the class-based trade union federation of PEO.

Worker’s May Day reminds us: nothing was given freely. Everything was won through fierce struggle. It was won by workers who organized and fought for it.

May Day calls on us to honor the past but also to defend the present, to fight for the future.

With unity, solidarity and collective struggle.

Through struggle in the streets, at the workplace, in society, everywhere.

Always together with the workers! Always together with the many, with the people of labour, the world of contribution, the world of creation!

Every success in our struggles for society!