AKEL announces the convening of its 23rd Pancyprian Congress
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 3rd October 2019, Nicosia
The Central Committee of AKEL announces the convening of the 23rd Pancyprian Congress of the Party on 11-14th June 2020. The Congress, as AKEL’s leading body, represents a foremost milestone in the Party’s course. With the participation of hundreds of elected delegates from all over Cyprus, the Party Congress reviews our country’s political and socio-economic situation, as well as international developments. It will critically and self-critically assess AKEL’s activity at all levels and formulate the Party’s directions and positions for the coming years. It will elect the new Central Committee and the Central Control Commission that will guide the Party for the next five years.
All through the 95 year old history of the Communist Party of Cyprus-AKEL, Congresses have been historic and decisive landmarks for the course of the Party and the Left in Cyprus; for AKEL’s pioneering contribution to our people’s struggle for freedom, democracy and peace, in the working people’s struggles for their just cause and rights.
The 23rd Congress will take place at a critical juncture in every respect. The whole world, Europe, and our neighborhood in the Eastern Mediterranean is full of contradictions, conflicts and dangers. Climate change and ecological disaster threaten the planet and humanity. In Cyprus, final partition is looming and our homeland is threatened with new dangerous adventures. The struggle to terminate the occupation and for reunification is at a pivotal and crucial point.
At the same time, working people and the young generation are experiencing an unprecedented setback in their standard of living, living and working conditions. Popular gains and rights won through sacrifices and struggles are being abolished by the DISY-Anastasiades government. Our country’s youth are suffocating due to the corruption and decay of established interests, conservatism, authoritarianism and the arrogance of the ruling power.
The state and society of Cyprus need deep radical progressive changes. It is more than evident that the country deserves and needs a real kick start at all levels, beginning with a progressive change in the administration of Cyprus that will mean a break from the Right and its policies.
Taking all this into account, AKEL’s Congress is called upon to provide answers.
How can AKEL become better and more effective in its presence and interventions in society?
How does AKEL enhance its ideological-political identity and continue to be at the forefront of the struggles waged by the working class and the working people as a whole?
How does AKEL strengthen its intervention on the Cyprus problem for a solution and reunification, as well as strengthening the rapprochement between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots?
How does AKEL further elaborate and promote its positions on the economy, labour issues and small and medium-sized businesses, for modern social policies; positions and policies on the environment and ecology, on combating corruption, on human rights and gender equality issues, on culture and arts and letters in our country, on resistance to fascism and racism, on the struggle for world peace and solidarity with the struggling peoples of the world?
All this and much more will be the subject of discussion at the Congress, as well as during the pre-Congress dialogue over many months which always involves the Party’s members and friends. During the course of the Congress, a wide-ranging, lively and democratic dialogue will take place through a free debate to be conducted in the Party Base Organisations and a public pre-Congress dialogue on the “Theses” that the C.C. will propose to the Congress.
At the same time, of course, we seek to hear the views and ideas of AKEL’s friends, but also of any citizen of the country who wants to contribute to the formulation of AKEL’s policies and actions on every small and major issue of concern to society. For AKEL it goes without saying that this dialogue is open to Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. This process, consequently, differentiates and distinguishes AKEL from the rest of our country’s political forces, as it engages its thousands of members and a large section of society in political struggle itself, in the fermentation of ideas, in the elaboration of policies and proposals. AKEL trusts the collective wisdom of its members and the people’s criterion.
The C.C. of AKEL expresses its optimism that the 23rd Congress will become a landmark not only for the Party, but also for Cyprus too because our country and people need a strong and pioneering, militant and radical, united and well-organised, modern and constantly renewed AKEL. A Party tied to the working people, the young generation and the people.
