Speech of Mehmet Seyis, President of the Turkish Cypriot Revolutionary Trade Unions Federation of DEV-IS, at the mass common International Workers May Day meeting

 

1st May 2014, Nicosia

I welcome all our friends who are tonight revitalizing Workers May Day. We are once again paying homage to all the heroes and leaders of the working class and to all our comrades who sacrificed their lives in the struggle of the working class.

Workers May Day is a special anniversary for the working class and every year we seek to organize meetings worthy of such a day. However, I would like to point out that this year’s May Day we are organizing together with PEO assumes an even greater significance. Since Workers May Day in 1958, which we organized together Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot workers, 56 years have passed. The repetition of such an activity was for us a strong desire, but also a duty.

The circles who wanted to partition our homeland, the fascists who have never accepted the pioneers and leaders of the Cypriot working class and their struggle for peace and prosperity sought since the May Day of 1958 to terrorise our people. It was therefore our duty and obligation to organize today’s common Workers May Day in honour of all those comrades who were murdered, injured, forced to emigrate and shot by fascism because they struggled for our common country.

This evening our comrades, Ahmed Sadi, Mihalis Petrou and Savvas Menikos are following us from the sky. Tonight Fazil Ondur, Ttofaris and Ahmed Yiagha are following us high up from above. This evening Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Kostas Mishaoulis are watching us with serenity and pride. We say to them the following: “Sleep quietly our dear comrades! Every one of you is a star shining our own path. Your struggle will continue to grow stronger!”.

 

Dear friends,

The oldest confrontation in world history is the battle between capital and labour, which is continuing to this day. International capital is continuing its neoliberal policy, aiming to further enhance its hegemony and abolish all human and moral values.

The economic crisis which the world is facing is the result precisely of the insatiable character of capitalism for profit. However, yet again, the capitalists are seeking to make the working people pay for the crisis. This is something we will not accept.

This is a procedure that is also targeting working people’s rights in our country too. The neoliberal prescriptions are being implemented with an unprecedented intransigence. The government of Turkey is imposing such policies in the northern territory of our country, whilst in the southern territory of Cyprus the Troika’s impositions are continuing against the broad popular strata. In response to the attack on the rights of working people, the poor and unemployed, we must strengthen our common struggle and solidarity.

 

Dear friends,

A new procedure has begun for a solution of the Cyprus problem. We want to be optimistic. We supported the joint communique of the two leaders. We must again try to achieve a successful outcome to this procedure. We call on those who signed the communique to honour their signature and in a short period of time work sincerely for a positive result.

However, it is displeasing that both of them currently are far from being sincere. They are giving the impression that they are at the table of the talks because they are simply obliged to be there. They are giving the impression that they are focusing on how each one of them will appear to be right. This is precisely the reason why we, who support with consistency the cause of the solution of the Cyprus problem and peace, must become more active in the procedure by organizing joint activities and common struggles, and try to guide and lead the course, having in mind where a new failure might lead us to.

We are fully aware that the only feasible solution is a United Cyprus. We are seeking a United Federal Cyprus, based on political equality, with a single international personality, a single citizenship and a single sovereignty that Cypriots will share together regardless of ethnicity.

We must raise obstacles to all those nurtured by the non-solution of the Cyprus problem and are seeking another failure in the talks. The struggle for peace is an indispensable part of the struggle of the working class for liberation.

We want a Cyprus in which Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Armenians, Maronies and Latins will live in peace and prosperity because Cyprus is the common country of the Cypriots.

Our goal is none other than the creation of a world without war and exploitation where our children will live looking towards the future with optimism for a prosperous life.

Therefore, we should strengthen our common struggle for our common homeland.

Long live international solidarity!

Long live Red Workers May Day!