Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus - AKEL
by Antonis Chrysostomou

Dear Comrades,

Allow me first of all to convey to all of you the warm
comradely greetings of the C.C. of AKEL- the Party of the
Working People of Cyprus. Also from the very beginning I
wish to thank the Communist Party of Greece for its
invitation and to congratulate it for the convening of this
Meeting. This initiative springs from the urgent need of
unity of action of our Parties and the broader left and
progressive forces on national and international scale in
order to confront the attack of the �New World Order�.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Socialist
states in Europe, humanity faces an unrestrained,
many-sided attack of imperialism. The onslaught of big
capital, of the transnational monopolies and their
international organs, i.e. the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, assisted
by local capital, threatens the achievements of the working
people. Neo-liberalism, globalization and the new world
order aim at world domination of those multinational
monopolies of the most advanced capitalist countries headed
by the U.S.A.

The result of this onslaught is the growth of unemployment,
poverty, and hunger, especially in the countries of the
Third World; the broadening of the gap between �North� and
�South�, as well as the broadening of the gap between rich
and poor even in the metropolises of imperialism. At the
same time, the gross exploitation of natural resources
leads to the ecological destruction of our planet.

At a time when technological development and productivity
make it possible to feed, roof and educate all the people
on earth, the picture given by the UN is tragic: 820
million people are undernourished, mainly in the Third
World where 30 thousand children die daily due to the lack
of food and medical care, and 2 million children every year
are pushed to prostitution in order to survive.

According to the 1999 report of UN on Development the
income gap between the 20% richest in the world and the 20%
of the poorest in the world reached the ratio of 74 to 1,
while in 1960 the ratio was 30 to 1. Even more outrageous
is the fact that the three richest men on earth possess
more than 48 countries together.

Capitalism, the highest law of which is profit, is the
fertile ground for the development of the trade of arms and
drugs that spread death and destruction.

It is outrageous that countries such as Ethiopia, where
drought condemns millions of its inhabitants to death from
starvation, is pushed to a bloody war , which until
recently cost daily 1 million dollars.

Imperialism on national and international scale implements
the ancient dogma �Divide and Impere�. From the conflicts
instigated by it through nationalist or religious
fanaticism, peoples are slaughtered, countries are
devastated but imperialism increases its surplus profits
from the sell of arms and strengthens its control over the
weakened peoples.

NATO should have dissolved after the dissolution of the
Warsaw Pact, yet it is being strengthened and expanded. At
its summit meeting in Washington last year to celebrate its
50th anniversary, it threw its mask by declaring its New
Strategic Concept. According to that NATO can attack,
without the approval of the UN, any place on earth when its
interests are harmed!

Fidel Castro in a speech said: �Imperialism is exploitation
by force and lies�. This was tragically manifested during
the illegal dirty war of the U.S. and NATO against
Yugoslavia. On the one hand, by brutal forces, using the
most modern weapons they spread death and destruction
without loosing a single soldier! On the other hand, using
lies through the controlled by them Mass Media they
misinformed the public opinion to a great extent avoiding,
in this way, public condemnation.

Despite its temporary victories imperialism is not
invincible. Already even it its metropolises its inherent
contradictions give to the resistance of the masses. Let us
remember the mass and militant rallies in Seatle and
Washington. To confront imperialism, unity of broader
forces of peace progress and social justice is necessary,
Co-ordination of these forces on national and international
scale is necessary. As Lenin said in the Congress of the
peoples of the East, imperialism shall fall by the
organized struggle of the oppressed nations. The communists
must play a vanguard role in enlightening, organizing and
mobilizing of these forces. This they can achieve by their
consistent selfless militant contribution to the solution
of the problems of the people, by their daily contact with
the people.

This vanguard role, such as the one won by communists of
Europe through their fight against fascism during World War
II, must be gained daily by tireless participation in the
struggles for the solution of big or small problems of the
peoples.

AKEL, the Party of the Working people of Cyprus, is a party
of a very small country. Yet it has a significant history
of 74 years. Born in 1926 as the Communist Party of Cyprus,
AKEL is based on Marxism-Leninism and its principle of
Internationalism. AKEL does not consider Marxism-Leninism
as a dogma but as a guiding principle and method of action
to bring about the change of society and build socialism.

Born in conditions of colonial subjugation of our people,
AKEL combined and still combines the struggle for national
liberation with the class struggle for social liberation.
As an internationalist party it did not discriminate among
the Cypriot working people in relation to their ethic
origin, language or religion. Until 1974 when the foreign
instigated coup d' etat organized by the Greek Junta and
the terrorist organization EOKA B' that opened the way to
the Turkish invasion and occupation, took place hundreds
of Turkish Cypriots were in the lines of AKEL. Three
thousand Turkish Cypriot workers were members of the
class-based trade union organization PEO. Our comrades
Dervish Ali Kavazoglou and Costas Mishaoulis - who were
assassinated together in 1965 by the fascist Turkish
Cypriot organization TMT established by Denktash (the
leader of the Turkish Cypriot community) - will remain
forever a symbol of friendship and cooperation between the
two communities and their joint struggle.

In the struggle for independence and the defence fo
independence, AKEL cooperated with a part of the bourgeois
class and the Church. Efforts were made to establish a
Liberation Front with Bourgeois Democrats and Archbishop
Leontios in the 1940's. The support granted by AKEL to
Archbishop Makarios after the independence is also well
known.

In 1983 the alliance between AKEL and the Democratic Party
of the centrist bourgeois class of Cyprus with its
President Kyprianou was established on the basis of a
Minimum Programme. This alliance did not last long. It is
not easy for an alliance of heterogeneous parties, from an
ideological and class point of view, to be preserved and
consolidated. Nevertheless, efforts should be made for the
sake of the interests of the people without demanding
ideological convergence. In Presidential Elections AKEL
tries to form electoral alliances in order to elect a
democratic personality to the highest post of the state.

During the difficult days of the collapse of the Soviet
Union, AKEL kept its strength and managed to increase
further its percentage in the Parliamentary Elections of
1991 to 30% and in the Elections of 1996 to 33%. This is
the result of continuous consistent long selfless action of
the Party for the people with the people. The Popular Mass
Organizations in which AKEL cadres play a leading role
are always in the vanguard of the struggles for the
interests of workers, peasants, women and youth. At the
same time, they work for the unity of action together with
the other respective mass organizations. Thanks to this
unity of action, despite the international encouragement
and governmental support, the local bourgeoisie has so far
to cancel the Automatic Cost of Living Adjustment system
and the collective agreements.

AKEL, being a patriotic and internationalist party, fights
against nationalist and religious fanaticism, which divide
people and facilitate the work of its local and foreign
enemies. AKEL and the popular mass movement of the Left are
leading rapprochement between Greek-Cypriots and
Turkish-Cypriots. When in the tragic days following the
Turkish invasion we raised the slogan: �The Turks of Cyprus
are not our enemies they are our brothers� we were accused
by nationalist as traitors. Eventually, rapprochement
became the official policy. Naturally, not all parties
support it with the same firmness and consistency.

AKEL did not restrict its actions to Cyprus. As CPC it
joined the Third Communist International and it had its
small contribution, analogous to its size, to the
international arena. It is important to note the
participation of AKEL cadres in the International Brigade
in the civil war in Spain and later in the antifascist
struggle during the World War II.

The International relations of AKEL on bilateral and
multilateral scale developed after the independence of
Cyprus. AKEL participated actively in the International
Conferences of Communist Parties. Also jointly with the
fraternal CP of Greece it organized or participated in
several Conferences of Progressive Parties of the Eastern
Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Middle East.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, AKEL
participated in several international meetings and it
organized some of them in Cyprus; the latest in December
1999, in Limassol.

We are happy to participate today in this meeting,
convinced that it will contribute to the efforts to achieve
the necessary unity of action of the progressive forces.

We can already notice the fading away of the shock from the
great blow inflicted onto our international movement.
There is a possibility for the unity of action of the
international progressive movement to evolve and strengthen
in order to confront the onslaught of the imperialist new
world order.

Cyprus and its people as a whole suffer from the
consequences of the coup d' etat and the Turkish
occupation. For 26 years now 37% of Cyprus territory is
under occupation. Cyprus and its people are divided in two.
Imperialism bears the main blame for the tragedy of Cyprus:
it wanted Cyprus as its �unsinkable aircraft carrier�. The
USA and NATO, were worried about the non-aligned policy
pursued by President Makarios and the strength of AKEL and
they intentionally exaggerated it name it a communist
danger. They named Makarios the �Red Bishop� and the
�Castro of the Mediterranean�. All these in order to
prepare their own public opinion for the crime they
organized with CIA and NATO against Cyprus. Surely, apart
of NATO, the Greek Junta and the Turkish militarist
establishment, as well as local instruments of imperialism
- consciously or out of nationalist fanaticism -
contributed to that crime.

Thanks to our internationalist education and due to our
bitter experience we condemn chauvinism, racism, religious
fanaticism and xenophobia. We are in solidarity with
foreign workers and we condemn their exploiters and
especially those contemporary �slave traders� who transport
them illegally to various countries.

Despite the many relevant UN resolutions the Cyprus problem
remains unsolved. Turkey, with the tolerance, if not the
encouragement of its allies in NATO, defies everybody in
the world and, demands together with the Turkish Cypriot
leader, Denktash, recognition to the illegal state, which
Turkey established on the occupied territory, and which the
UN Security Council condemned and no other country except
Turkey recognizes.

With the passing of the years, the fait accomplish created
by the invasion and the occupation are being consolidated.
Already at the time of the invasion the Greek-Cypriots were
expelled from their homes in the occupied territory
implementing national cleansing in Cyprus. Furthermore,
half of the Turkish Cypriots, not withstanding the
situation in the occupied territory, have left Cyprus and
emigrated to various countries. At the same time, the
settlers brought in by Turkey became the majority in the
occupied territory.
Our struggle continues and we insist on a peaceful solution
of the Cyprus problem in the framework of the UN and on the
basis of its Resolutions and the High Level Agreements
concluded between the two communities.

The imperialists want to demote and to eventually put aside
the UNO. We have to support it as the achievement of the
peoples who fought fascism. We have to fight so that the UN
can free itself of the hegemony of the USA and work for its
further democratization.

The people of Cyprus cannot by itself alone get rid of the
Turkish occupation troops and reunite its homeland. Yet
with the international support it can achieve it. We take
this opportunity to express our gratitude for the
international solidarity we get and we call for its further
intensification. At the same time, we express our
whole-hearted solidarity with all peoples fighting against
imperialism and local reaction for freedom, peace,
democracy and social progress.