Speech of George Loucaides, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL, at the event organised by AKEL and EDON Famagusta

 

“Refugees and Migration: Causes, solutions and solidarity”

Tuesday 15th September 2015, Larnaca

 

Three years ago, in May 2012, AKEL together with Turkish Cypriot trade unions was demonstrating in the streets of Nicosia against the new war in Syria and the Middle East more widely, which then was still in its initial stages. Back then the General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL said, word for word: “Such a development will also destroy other countries, drown the peoples in blood and provoke new waves of refugees who, impoverished as they will be, will seek asylum in neighbouring countries. And Cyprus, as the nearest point, will also accept waves of refugees too.”

The following year, when the civil war in Syria literally broke out in flames, AKEL, together with the peace movement of our country, again took to the streets to protest against the involvement of the West, Turkey and the Gulf Monarchies in the war. The declared aim of all these forces was the overthrow of the “uncooperative” Assad government which happened to be also an ally of Russia. We also demonstrated against the decision taken by the DISY-Anastasiades government to concede Cyprus’ airports and ports to the Americans and NATO so that they could launch air strikes in Syria, which fortunately was averted at the last minute as a result of the mediation proposal submitted by Russia.

However, not only did the foreign interventions in Syria – covertly – not stop, but in fact they escalated. Therefore a few months later the European Union – with the consent of the Anastasiades government – decided to lift the arms embargo and oil trade towards the Syrian opposition, in order to strengthen the rebels in the war that was being waged against the Syrian government. In effect these amounted to conscious decisions approved by the European Union – following the US of course – to fund and arm the so-called “Free Syrian Army”, which was the breeding ground from which sprang the jihadists and the murderous army of ISIS. AKEL warned back then as well that all of these actions constituted unacceptable interferences in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, that the West was again feeding the monster of religious fundamentalism and that soon it would be out of control.

In all these cases, our positions were either ignored or treated by many as trivial. The dramatic developments that followed however have vindicated the warnings issued not only by AKEL, but also by the entire international Left movement and the peace-loving forces of our region.

The reason why it is appropriate to recall these events is simple. We must all know that what the Middle East, North Africa and Europe are currently going through is neither accidental, nor the result of some divine curse. It is the result of the plans of the USA, NATO and the European Union, who for two decades have been violating and scorning International Law and promoting through brute force the redrawing of our neighbourhood’s borders in order to secure their geopolitical interests, control over sources and energy pipelines. Is it not hypocritical for them today to wonder what has led to the wave of refugees and the endless bloodshed in neighbouring Syria, when they themselves deliberately took decisions which poured oil onto the flames of civil war?

This civil war has already cost the lives of 250,000 people, of which 2,500 are children under 10 years old. The refugees have exceeded 4 million, while another seven million are refugees within Syria itself. Overall, we are talking about more than half the population of the country.

However all that is occurring in Syria is just one piece in the mosaic of the imperialist interventions over the past 20 years in the hell that exists in the Middle East. The very same forces – namely, NATO, USA and the European Union – bombed Libya in 2012, plunging the country into total collapse and leaving its people hostage to the mutual slaughter committed by rival factions. Today, the refugees from Libya have reached two million. The same forces carried out the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which today has virtually been partitioned into three parts and most of it under the terror of ISIS. These forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001which to this day is still drowning in blood. Today the refugees from Iraq have reached 2 million and from Afghanistan to 3.5 million people.

They are the same forces that today appease the State of Israel which is continuing to occupy the territories of Palestine, unleashing murderous military operations against the Palestinian people, turning them time and time again into refugees. They are the same forces that supported and continue to support the autocratic regimes in the Middle East which have either drowned in blood or controlled the uprisings of their peoples, turning the so-called “Arab Spring” into a heavy winter of chaos, instability and wars.

In 2013 alone, the total value of EU arms exports to the Middle East exceeded 40 billion Euros. Consequently, how will the EU leaders stop the bloodshed when it is such a profitable business? The pro-Western coup d’état executed in Ukraine, which has led to the resurrection of fascism and to the civil war, is also their work too. Indeed, the attacks of the Ukrainian army and ultra-right wing paramilitaries against the civilian population of Eastern Ukraine created 1.5 million refugees who fled to Russia to save their lives. NATO, the USA and the European Union are also responsible for the new military operations in Africa, Mali, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a rule behind the bloody genocides and massacres that have been committed and are continuing in the troubled African continent are the arms and weapons industries, as well as the multinational business giants of the West, who are sniffing new deposits of mineral resources.

This is therefore the price Humanity is paying for imperialism’s wars all through the previous years. Do the denunciations and accusations we have made about these terrible realities and the conclusion we draw that this system is again dividing the earth and redrawing the world’s borders literally with the blood of the people represent some ideological obsession of ours? Is it perhaps unrealistic to believe that this may not be the end of human history and to believe in the struggle against this system and policies?

However, it’s not only the wars of the imperialists that are leading to the uprooting of the peoples and turning them into refugees. It is also caused by their “peace”. Even in times of peace, the peoples of Africa and Asia, as the people of the poorest countries of Europe as well, are forced to leave their homelands to emigrate because of poverty, misery, unemployment and underdevelopment. But how did these dramatic inequalities between the developed West and the rest of the world come about? Isn’t it true that they are all the result of the colonial past, but also of the neo-colonial policies that were and are being implemented by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the multinational giant corporations of America and Europe that suck the wealth out of these countries and have imposed neoliberal shock therapies on the economies of these countries?

All the above are the reasons why AKEL does not approach the immigration crisis and the plight of the refugees from a perspective without a political content and a class based analysis, that limits itself just to the expression of compassion and charity. AKEL’s starting point is the root causes of migration and refugees. This is the reason why, and all of us who are outraged when we see children and infants washed up in the seas, we first and foremost see as our duty to put forth the demand for an immediate end to the on-going wars; an immediate end to the EU and US interventions in the civil war in Syria and the Middle East in general. AKEL also struggles for generous development assistance and equal economic relations with the countries that are plagued by underdevelopment, poverty, hunger and illiteracy.

Friends and comrades,

The European Union has additional responsibilities because its policy has dramatically exacerbated the immigration and refugee crisis. The EU’s immigration philosophy can be condensed into one sentence: Fortress Europe. Draconian measures with electric fences, the construction of walls and tens of millions of Euros spent on patrolling the EU’s maritime external borders are being implemented, without the European governments reflecting that there is no obstacle whatsoever that can stop desperate people who are fleeing from the fury of war or unbearable misery. The recent EU decision to launch a military naval operation, namely the so-called “EUNAVFOR Med” and to destroy ships on the coast of Libya and North Africa is an absurdity that will lead to more deaths and tragedies.

At the same time, despite the empty slogans and rhetoric, the EU has never created legal and safe routes so that those fulfilling the requirements as set by International Law can be able to request asylum. That is why the refugees are forced to resort to criminal smugglers to whom they give a fortune for the ticket of hope. What is the result? Since the beginning of 2015 to date, 2,778 people – women, men and children – have been registered as having lost their lives trying to reach Europe, most of them drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. The record of the last 20 years is spine-chilling: 25,000 people, refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea from 1995 until today.

We should also point out to the infamous Dublin Regulation enforced by the EU to date, according to which, the Member States from which one asylum seeker first entered are obligated to keep him/her until his application is examined. It is now recognized by all that the Dublin Regulation has dramatically exacerbated the humanitarian crisis since the countries of the South (and mainly Greece and Italy) shouldered almost all the refugees without having the structures and capacities to cope. The refugees themselves were in reality trapped in these countries, while they were seeking to join their families in Germany or other countries of central and northern Europe. Germany although agreeing the previous days to partially relax the Dublin regulation and allow the entry of several thousand refugees yesterday decided to commence border controls, closing again its doors to refugees. It is becoming evident that as long as binding decisions on all Member States are not being taken at a European level, there will be no relief for southern Europe.

At this point a distinction must be made. We as AKEL and as the Confederal Group of the European Left are fighting so that all the EU countries will accept their share of the relocation and hosting of refugees. We supported the recent European decisions to relocate 40,000 refugees from Italy and Greece, as well as the other 120,000 under discussion, although we consider these measures extremely inadequate bearing in mind the great challenges that exist. On the other hand, we fully understand that for the ruling class, for the big employer associations in European countries, the refugees are welcome but not however as fellow human beings who we should all embrace in solidarity, but instead as a cheap labour force that will be the subject of double or triple exploitation at the workplace, that will be used to further undermine labour relations and wages in the EU.

This is what various representatives of capital, such as the President of the German employers’ association in essence admitted recently, who welcomed the refugees because as he said “in the next 20 years, Germany will need more manpower than what it can produce.” Consequently the waging of struggles on the part of the trade union movement across Europe will be demanded in the period ahead of us so that the refugees and migrants who are arriving now in our continent do not become cannon fodder for the profits of the capitalists and enterprises, but they should be organized and fight together with the working people for bread and their prosperity

As AKEL, we fully recognize that immediate measures are needed to alleviate the situation. AKEL has for some time submitted proposals on the migration issue, which it constantly updates and puts forth in the European Parliament and before the Anastasiades government.

In particular we demand:

1. The Dublin system must be abolished immediately and travel documents to immigrants and refugees should be issued so that they can go to their country of destination.

2. A permanent system of relocation of the refugees to all Member States of the EU must be implemented immediately, to which a distribution of the refugees must be made based on the population and the economic situation of each state.

3. Safe and legal avenues for the refugees, such as humanitarian channels, the issuing of visas for humanitarian reasons and strengthening of family reunifications should be established by the all the EU and the member states. In addition, EU Member States should make it possible to submit applications for asylum in their embassies and consulates in third countries as well.

4. Dignified temporary accommodation for asylum seekers in line with UN standards, with the financial assistance of the European Union, should be created.

5. The EUNAVFOR Med operation and strengthening of border enforcement mechanisms such as FRONTEX must be terminated immediately. Instead, mechanisms and multinational search and rescue operations should be formed to reduce and put an end to the ingoing tragedies in the Mediterranean.

Comrades and friends,

As the People’s Movement of the Left in Cyprus we have over the years a big duty to fulfil; a primarily political duty, as well as a duty to our own consciousness. Our era has assigned us this duty. It is the historic duty to combat fascism, neo-Nazism and racism. We must not let the monster spread any further. Each and every one of us can comprehend that the extreme right in Europe is exploiting the presence of immigrants and refugees in European countries so that it propagates a vulgar populism in order to turn people’s indignation about the existing social injustices against foreign workers and immigrants, exploiting the fears and concerns of the people of labour and toil so as to spread its inhuman presence.

These developments are worrying. The Golden Dawn party in Greece, despite the proven crimes it has committed, remains the third political force. In France, opinion polls show that ultra-right Marine Le Pen coming first, with the visible that is danger of becoming the President of the country. Even in relatively tolerant Sweden as well, the extreme right party became the third political force and polls now show that it is in front of all the other political parties. In Hungary, the neo-Nazi Jobbik party, a party that supports the position that all the Jews living in the country should be registered in special lists, has risen to 15%. In Holland, the party of the extreme right received in 2012 the votes of 10% of the electorate, that is to say one million Dutch citizens. The same dangerous trend is being recorded in most European countries.

In addition, it must be noted that the parties of the so-called centre-right or the liberal right European People’s Party, as we saw with the New Democracy party in Greece, the right wing ruling party in Hungary, the Conservatives of Britain, but also the governing DISY party in Cyprus, very often participate also indulge in xenophobia and ultra-right populism. The statement made by the Minister of Interior Mr. Hasikos that he “prefers Christian Orthodox refugees” adds to all the demagoguery, lies and populism that DISY used – together with other parties – on the immigration issue in order to exert opposition to the Christofias government and its progressive policy towards immigrants and refugees. What consistency therefore characterises the actions and rhetoric of certain forces and circles who are today so moved by the three year old drowned boy Ailan, but who for years have not stopped their populism for example concerning the benefits provided to immigrants by the Christofias government and about AKEL who is accused of “bringing immigrants and undermining the Greek character and identity of the island”?

Comrades and friends,

In contrast we can also see hopeful messages. For several weeks across Europe mass mobilisations of solidarity with refugees are taking place. Movements, political parties, organizations, sports clubs and people all over Europe are expressing their will to stand in solidarity and humanism with the refugees from Syria and elsewhere. In Cyprus too there seems to be more sensitivity than before and a desire to provide practical support to refugees by the collection of essential items. AKEL welcomes these mobilisations and calls on the Cypriot people to embrace the refugees who are or who will come to our country and isolate racism wherever it comes from.

AKEL will be at the forefront, projecting and promoting solidarity, humanism, the class unity of the working people and the unwavering struggle against wars and exploitation.