Speech by Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL, to the mass meeting on International Worker’s Day
We need to make every day a Workers Day!
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 23rd April 2016, Nicosia
Today we honor Workers Day, even though it’s not the 1st May. We will honor this anniversary on the 1st May too with the same determination and militant spirit. There is no more time left; no time to close our eyes to what is happening around us. Unemployment is rampant. Salaries and wages are meager. 12 hour working days and personal contracts. Jobs without rights and social insurance. Work and life without dignity! There is no more time left! We need to make every day a Workers Day! We need to struggle all over again for what until yesterday was self-evident!
On behalf of the C.C. of AKEL I extend a warm greeting to all who are here today. I extend a special greeting to our Turkish Cypriot compatriots! Hopefully the day will soon dawn when we shall be struggling in a reunified homeland! We assure them that as AKEL we will continue to grow in strength. We will stand strong together at the forefront of the struggle and in a common anti-imperialist, anti-occupation and anti-fascist front!
We will continue to speak the truth; to speak of the wounds and the crimes committed against our people; to speak about the murders and the treason. We will continue to formulate our common vision, for two politically equal communities, for one Cyprus that belongs to its people! We shall continue to speak about the need for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to cut the umbilical cord from the so-called “motherlands” and to live in harmony and unity in our common homeland. AKEL dared to question what divides our people, namely all those perceptions that imply that in Cyprus there are two separate worlds and peoples. We challenged this perception in practice by submitting on the negotiating table proposals to tear down the walls of division on the basis of ethnic origin; proposals that put confrontation on a political and class and not on an ethnic level; proposals that make the reunified Republic of Cyprus the common house of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
If only Mr. Anastasiades rises to the occasion and defends these truths, doesn’t succumb to petty-party considerations, doesn’t yield to the temptations of serving party polling rates. Unfortunately the government announcement to recruit three thousand professional soldiers in November at the same time as when we are supposedly working for a solution of the Cyprus problem by December proves the opposite. It is not the first time that Mr. Anastasiades and DISY have undermined everything for the sake of electoral interests and expediencies. On the eve of the 2013 Presidential Elections, but also even before, they did and said everything to serve their pre-election considerations. Mr. Anastasiades continued to do so even after the presidential elections. With regards the Cyprus problem he followed the advice of those who today accuse our positions and speak about a supposed collusion between DISY and AKEL. The result of the policy followed by Mr. Anastasiades was stagnation and setbacks. This dead-end policy stopped when he finally decided to change course and abandon their advice by putting forth the Christofias- Talat convergences.
Our wish is for the President of the Republic to be consistent and determined this time. Our people have for so many years had enough of “pledges” and empty rhetoric and sloganeering. Some forces and circles unfortunately still persist today in propagating contradictory positions. We will not do them a favor. The anti-federal positions supported by the Citizens Alliance leader Mr. Lillikas, the Socialist EDEK party leader Mr. Sizopoulos and Democratic Party DIKO leader Mr. Papadopoulos will not disorientate us. We insist on our strategic goal and stand firm on our long-standing positions. We are struggling for a solution that will terminate the occupation and colonization, for a solution that will restore the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of the Republic of Cyprus. We are struggling for a solution based on UN resolutions, the High-Level Agreements, International and European Law; for a solution that will demilitarize Cyprus and exclude any guarantees or rights of intervention in the internal affairs of our country by foreign forces; for a solution that will reunite the territory, the people, the institutions and the economy under a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality as described in the UN texts.
This year’s Workers May Day finds thousands of our fellow compatriots suffering from unemployment, poverty and misery. We all watched President Anastasiades’ recent press conference. We also saw leading DISY officials who appeared on all the TV channels in the coming days to convince the people of what the President said. To persuade whom and for what? In the world the President and DISY live in, migration and the thousands of young scientists who do not return to Cyprus because they can’t find jobs, is a “myth”. According to the world of the President of the Republic and DISY unemployment is falling. In the world the President and DISY live in we have growth because the privileged big businessmen are getting richer at the expense of thousands of working people. In the world the President and DISY live in you’re considered well off if you can make ends meet on 700 Euros. In the world the President and DISY live the pensions and minimum income they cut are more than enough to get by. In the world the President and DISY live in, everything is fine in the health and education sector
It is logical for them to believe all this because they live in their own different world! In a world where there are no needs, but only luxuries. As DISY President Averof Neophytou himself said, “There will always be more expensive homes, cars and medicines.” That is to say, those who can will survive. those who can’t will die.
They pretend they haven’t heard the voices of the thousands of unemployed. They haven’t heard the desperation of thousands of pensioners who scrape a living, nor the humiliation experienced by elderly people, who receive 40 Euros for care. They have no idea about the pain of thousands of families forced to live on 480 Euros a month, nor about the agony of thousands of patients who see the public health system being dismantled every day. They haven’t heard about the thousands of workers who every day suffer exploitation and are faced with the threat- blackmail of dismissal if they dare raise their voice in protest and resist. All this for a salary that is enough just for the first ten days of the month.
Enough! No more! The people must participate in the elections and give strength to their own force! Together with AKEL they can make the difference! Abstention is not going to change anything, nor is it going to reduce unemployment or save us from privatizations and foreclosures. Abstention is not going to lessen the arrogance and authoritarianism with which this government decides and issues orders as an “elected dictatorship” as Mr. Markides (Note: former DISY leading official and former Attorney General) stated.
There is no doubt that AKEL- Left- New Forces is the only force that can resist them! It is the only force that can reverse their policies! It is the only force they fear, which is why they fight it so fiercely! Therefore on 22nd May the people must give strength to its own strength! To put an end to the misery, to the inertia, disappointment and to fatalism! We are resisting! We are going on the counterattack! We have the power in our hands! We can make the difference!
