The unfulfilled demand “Bread – Education – Freedom” remains a beacon of struggle

AKEL on the anniversary of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising

 

16 November 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Fifty-two years have passed since the day the junta of the Colonels in Greece brutally suppressed the popular uprising at the Athens Polytechnic. AKEL extends warm fraternal greetings to the people of Greece and pays tribute to the heroic dead of the uprising, as well as to every fighter who stood up against the dictatorship. in prisons, on desert islands, in torture chambers and engaged in resistance activities.

The Polytechnic uprising took up the baton of the Greek people’s tradition of struggle against the country’s dependence on the US and NATO, and the demands for democracy, independence, and social justice became the slogan of the uprising. The Polytechnic uprising, spearheaded by the student movement, was the culmination of the anti-dictatorial popular struggle and marked the beginning of the end of the Greek junta.

However, before its end, the Greek junta managed to complete the treacherous role assigned to it by its transatlantic masters and drowning Cyprus in blood. Together with its proxies on the island, EOKA B, they took up arms against democratic legality, executed the coup d’état of 15 July 1974, and opened the door to the Turkish invasion, thus completing the NATO plan to partition our homeland. No matter how hard the modern-day descendants of the dictatorship try to rewrite history, the truth is undeniable: under the cloak of “national-minded patriotism” lay fascism, treason and collaboration with Turkey, corruption and the submission to Greek and foreign capital.

The 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising continues to inspire young people, as well as every democrat and progressive person in Greece and Cyprus, because the demands of November 1973 remain timeless. In this “era of monsters” of the far right that is emerging around the world, the anti-fascist messages of the uprising are once again relevant and urgent. In this era of wars, of the redivision of the world and of foreign subjugation that is turning our homeland into an “advanced outpost of the West,” the slogans that were painted at the gates of the Polytechnic—” US out – NATO out” – are at the heart of the struggle against imperialism. The unfulfilled demand/slogan “Bread – Education – Freedom” remains a beacon in the struggle of the young generation for education, work, and dignity.

Cyprus will always honor the Athens Polytechnic uprising because it reminds us of those responsible for our tragedy, because it distinguishes patriotism from false patriotism, and because it illuminates the path of the struggle for a free and reunited Cyprus.