Speech of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. AKEL, to the mass meeting on International Workers Day

 

1st May 2015, Nicosia

 

Ninety years after the first Workers May Day, we are demanding and struggling for all those demands we were struggling for back then: for the freedom and dignity of the common people, freedom and dignity for Cyprus and the world. Last year, a joint May Day gathering of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots was held for the first time after 56 years. We express our joy because this year too our meeting is common, precisely because our struggle for peace and the reunification of our country is common; because our class struggles were, and are common, for our own common future.

Currently we are all anticipating the resumption of the negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem. The termination of the Turkish NAVTEX and departure of the Turkish vessel “Barbaros” enabled the lifting of the suspension of the procedure. Our wish is that the lifting of the Turkish provocative behavior will also be accompanied by the genuine will of Turkey to solve the Cyprus problem.

The assumption by Mr. Akinci of the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community marks the beginning of new, different era. We wish Mr. Akinci follows his long-standing positions on the Cyprus problem; follows all that he promised before the elections. We do not underestimate the role of Turkey. We hope Mr. Akinci sticks to the principles of the solution of the Cyprus problem and is able to convince Turkey of the need to achieve a just, functional and viable solution.

As for the Greek Cypriot side, we hope that this time the negotiations are substantive and that President Anastasiades finally will show consistency, adherence to principles, determination and a collective management and manner. It is important to understand that the more time passes the more difficult it becomes to achieve a solution. Let us all focus on the effort to arrive at an agreement as we ourselves desire.

Forty one years of occupation are too much. Neither Cyprus, nor Cypriots can stand anymore being divided by the barbed wires. Saying this, I do not mean that our goal is to go into a solution-“Express”. The reasons are self-explanatory. AKEL for two years now has been supporting with consistency that there is a way to give an impetus to the process and reach a solution as soon as possible. This will occur provided that the talks continue from the point they were left off with the significant Christofias – Talat convergences. During the Christofias government three of the six in total chapters of the Cyprus problem had arrived at an advanced stage of convergence, close enough to the point where they were almost closed. These are the chapters on Governance, the economy and the European Union.

We repeat that at that time proposals by Demetris Christofias were submitted that constitute the only comprehensive policy proposal of peaceful coexistence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in the land of their birth, in their joint home, the Republic of Cyprus. This is a valuable asset and inheritance which President Anastasiades must not abandon and throw to the wayside. He must find the political courage and political strength to utilize it, if his real aim is indeed to fight for the solution of the Cyprus problem.

Our goal is very clear. We want a solution as soon as possible; a solution based on the principles of International Law, the principles on which the European Union is founded, on the relevant UN resolutions and the 1977 and 1979 High Level Agreements; a solution that will ensure one single sovereignty, a single international personality and a single citizenship of the united Republic of Cyprus; a bi-communal, bi-zonal federal solution with political equality, as defined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions; a solution that will safeguard the human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties; a solution that provides for the withdrawal of the occupation troops and settlers, whose number already far exceeds that of the Turkish Cypriots; a solution without guarantees and without unilateral rights of military intervention.

This is our vision for Cyprus and AKEL calls on on all the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to join hands and struggle to realize this vision so that the day of peace will dawn which will give us the opportunity to join hands again and fight together for our life and dignity, as before 1974.

For sure International Workers Day is not a holiday. It is not just some anniversary of bygone outdated political and labour struggles. We are here to continue the struggles, fighting against the neoliberal anti-social policies; policies based on social injustice. The current wealth of the 85 richest people in the world equals the wealth of the 3.5 billion poorest people. 3 billion people earn less than 2 dollars a day and child labour every year kills 22,000 children.

The ruling class often acts as if it is shocked by such figures. Sometimes it rushes to show its charity as well, pretending that it’s shocked by events such as the drowning of 900 of our fellow human beings in the Mediterranean Sea. However, when they impose their inhuman policies, the tears of hypocrisy dry up. We are here today because we show an alternative way for human life and dignity.

We are all here because for us our political manifesto is not the Memorandum as it is for President Anastasiades and his Ministers. We’re here to protest about all the “pledges” that cheated the workers and the people before the elections – all those “I pledge to…” that were forgotten the next day. They were replaced by the robbery of the haircut on bank deposits, the selling off of national assets through privatizations, the poverty with the destruction of the welfare state and the attacks on the rights of pensioners.

Today we are here because while they were literally crucifying us during the period of the Christofias government accusing us of allegedly looting public funds, public debt in just two years 2013-2014 has increased by 3.5 billion euros or 35%. We are here because unemployment has reached 16.3%. We are here because thousands of Cypriots have emigrated; because they want with the liberalization of working hours to multiply working people on 350 euros; because they are insulting our intelligence when they say that if Sunday becomes a working day the number of unemployed would fall. The figures released by the Department of Social Insurance gives another picture: since extended shop opening hours have been enforced the number of workers in the retail trade has decreased. We are here today because wages in Cyprus have recorded the biggest decrease throughout Europe; because 240,000 people in Cyprus are living on the poverty line or social exclusion, while 50,000 people are fed by food banks. Is this what the Anastasiades – DISY Rally party calls “recovery”, “stability”, “kick-start of the economy”, “development” and “spring”?

We are here today to call on working people, the unemployed, the middle strata, farmers, young people, all those who see their lives being destroyed day by day, to join together our forces. Today we are here because we have reached the point where we can no longer stand the mockery. Nobody can stand anymore political leaders boasting on TV channels that they have saved the people with the insolvency framework passed in parliament by the majority, while we all know that their vote paves the way to the banks for massive repossessions and foreclosures of primary family homes and small business premises.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow the Left in Cyprus will be here to open the way for the future of Cyprus and our people. Yesterday, today and tomorrow we will be here forever, so many of us and many more to wage the struggle for the future we deserve. Strength comes from struggle, hope comes from the Left!