Contribution by Vera Polycarpou, Head of the International Relations and European Policy Bureau of AKEL and Member of the Central Committee of AKEL in the International Seminar organised by EDON
Contribution by Vera Polycarpou, Head of the International Relations and European Policy Bureau of AKEL and Member of the Central Committee of AKEL in the International Seminar organised by EDON Youth Organisation within the framework of its Congress on the theme:
“The political and ideological intervention of our organisations in the mass movements”
7 January 2022, Nicosia
Dear Comrades,
It is a pleasure to have you all here and be able to share face –to-face. We really appreciate the fact that despite the surge of the pandemic, you have chosen to travel to Cyprus. This is also an indication of the sincere relations and mutual solidarity that have developed between EDON and your respective organisations.
A couple of months ago – in November 2021- the Indian farmers, the “annadatas” that is the food providers, achieved a major victory of far-reaching importance. After a year-long struggle, the right-wing government found itself obliged to repeal the three highly contentious farm-laws; laws that were setting in danger India’s agricultural sector and hence the country’s food security by letting the farmers at the mercy of corporates. This important victory was made possible thanks to the mobilisation and unity of farmers’ unions, and the political support mainly from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India.
I chose to start with this struggle of the Indian farmers, as it proves that popular mobilisations can be both massive and effective, provided of course that they resonate with a popular demand and have a clear goal. The specific case had to do with the survival of a major sector and the millions of people depending on it directly or indirectly.
A month later, on December 19, in the Presidential elections in Chile, the broad coalition of parties and organisations under “Apruebo Dignidad” succeeded to stop the return to power of the extreme-right wing, fascist forces. This was the result of long struggles, through which different political forces and organisations converged around specific struggles building a front around central issues. In the case of Chile, these were to avert any return to the dark past, to defeat the constitution imposed by the dictator Pinochet and which was still in place 30 years later; to stop the enormous economic gap between the few and the millions; to make education, health and pensions public goods again; to stop the privatization of water and the country’s natural resources; to protect the environment; to return to the country’s indigenous peoples their rights.
The role played by the Communist Party of Chile and the Communist Youth in this victory has been instrumental. Besides the Party’s historical role, the last ten years have been extremely important as the youth and the party militants have been at the heart of the mobilisations (e.g. the students in 2011 and after). They were not a body apart, but were part of the leadership of these movements, despite the attempts of certain circles to isolate them. Having said that, of course we all realise that winning the election is just the beginning of another stage of the struggle and its results are not known.
One thing that we can say with certainty out of our experience here in Cyprus, the people need to feel you close to them; and we need to prove daily that we are there and that we listen. Otherwise our Party cannot feel and cannot know timely the problems faced by and the thinking of different sectors and groups. Nowadays, along-side the trade union, youth, women, farmers’ mass movements, there are also many different movements – of different dimension and different in each country of course: for example, feminist, ecological, animal welfare, in defence of migrants, international solidarity, peace. We need to be part of these, from the start, in order to be perceived as part of them and not as an alien or intruder. This is true, I believe, starting from the local level, when it has to do for example with the protection of a local park, the defence of the local school, the well-being of the inhabitants of our neighbourhood.
However, no matter how popular or dynamic a movement is, it always risks to wither away, to be exploited and misguided, if it does not have specific objectives, clear understanding of the causes. In other words, it needs to have people with political understanding and dedicated to the cause. That is where the role of our organisations comes into play. Without patronising or attempting to domineer over a movement, our members have to work in an exemplary way winning the trust and respect of the rest, in order to build the necessary fronts.
I would like to cite another experience, this time from the 1990’s and early 21st century: the World Social Forum, that strong movement against globalisation, which had embraced almost all continents. It had succeeded to mobilise thousands and to foster hopes. Nonetheless, what we saw was that the militancy and dynamism were channeled into formations and eventually made irrelevant and silenced.
Today as we face an escalation of military built up and militarisation of international relations- that includes the EU too of course – the dangers looming over many countries and peoples are many. Speaking of our region of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (and we can also include in that the Gulf, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and even Afghanistan), the accumulation of all kinds of armament and war equipment is ready to set the region on fire. We need to do our outmost and organise in order to avert such a development. Much more so, since Israel poses nuclear weapons, and certain fleets in the region carry such weapons too.
Hence, an urgent task for all of our organisations, is to stop this dangerous course. We need to be strong and be present in order to build broad fronts against this military build-up, to avert new wars, to stop bloodshed, to demand a nuclear free zone in the region and nuclear-free planet.
The struggles for peace and against the rise of the extreme-right wing and fascist forces, goes hand in hand with the solidarity movements. Hence, I will conclude by expressing our steadfast solidarity with the Sudanese people and our comrades that are on the streets determined to take the struggle for democracy and their rights to the end; our all-round solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people; our unwavering solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban revolution; our solidarity with all peoples struggling for freedom, national independence, sovereignty, economic social and cultural rights. International solidarity is a significant support for all our struggles, and may your presence in Cyprus deepen further the international solidarity movement.
