Speech by Jeronimo de Sousa yesterday at a mass rally of AKEL (Cyprus) integrated in the election campaign for parliamentary elections that will be held next May 22 under the theme of unity and reunification of Cyprus. The General Secretary of the PCP was the only foreign speaker to take the floor.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Please accept the warm greetings and a fraternal embrace of solidarity from the Portuguese Communist Party. This is the solidarity of the Portuguese Communists with the Cypriot people and with your long and persistent struggle for the reunification of your motherland; and very much in particular, the solidarity with the Cypriot Communists and their Party of all times: AKEL.
This solidarity is based and rooted in the principles of proletarian internationalism. It is profoundly committed to the aspirations and rights of the workers and of our peoples. It will be all the stronger, the stronger each of our Parties becomes and the stronger our struggle for a future of justice, peace, progress and socialism.
Comrades,
1974 is a year that marks the history of both our countries. In Portugal, on April the 25th, the Portuguese people carried out a democratic and national revolution – the Carnation Revolution – which put an end to half a century of fascist dictatorship, won freedom, carried out profound economic and social transformations and paved the roads of hope for our country's development and progress.
Here in Cyprus, at the other end of Europe, only a few months later on that same year of 1974, your country was hit by terrible events of a diametrically opposite significance: the coup d'Etat, the invasion, division and occupation of your country by the Turkish forces of occupation, with all the atrocities, illegalities and crimes that have left so many wounds and which – still today – are responsible for such suffering among your people.
This true crime was committed based on a NATO conspiracy, drawn up in 1973, during a meeting in the then fascist Portugal. It was a crime that spells out loud and clear the true nature and the real intentions of that organization, which were recently reaffirmed and even strengthened with the adoption of NATO's new strategic concept, during the Lisbon Summit, which is now being put into practice with the imperialist aggression against the Libyan people.
That crime, and the situation of blatant disrespect for human rights and for the United Nations' Charter that has been perpetuated to these very days, is first and foremost of the responsibility of the occupying power – Turkey. But it is also of the responsibility of the so-called “international community” - and in particular of the main imperialist powers – which have, through a policy of double standards, expressed their tolerance, and even support, for the strategy of occupation, division, colonization and assimilation, that has been carried out by the Turkish occupation forces, in a clear breach of International Law.
But, comrades and friends, if 1974 is a year which Cyprus recalls with deep sorrow, when we look at this rally, and its atmosphere and nature, at the profound symbolism which it embodies as it unites the two communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, then we can easily reach the conclusion that a slogan which was often shouted by millions of Portuguese during and after the Portuguese Revolution – and which we still cry out today – is highly relevant and valid, here and now, in Cyprus. In looking at this rally and at the strength which it displays, we think it is fair to say that, in Cyprus too, “the People, united, shall never be defeated”.
It is for this reason that here, before you – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – we wish to express our solidarity, support and confidence in the victory of your long and brave struggle. Support and confidence in your commitment to resist the attempts at sowing divisions among the Cypriot people, and to insist on the policies of rapprochement and mutual solidarity between the two communities, which were well expressed by your solidarity to the recent social demonstrations in the occupied part of your country.
Support and confidence in your persistence in building the only just and viable solution for the Cypriot problem – a bizonal, bicommunal federation, a reunited Cyprus with a single citizenship, a single international personality and a single sovereignty.
Support and confidence in your people, which will know how to build, with their own hands, without foreign interference or conditioning, a united Cyprus that asserts itself internationally as a space and a bridge for peace and friendship between the different peoples and cultures that share this part of the Mediterranean.
Support and confidence in your Party's persistent and self-sacrificed action, which having to face many obstacles, misunderstandings and even campaigns that have nothing to do with the interests of the Cypriot people, has asserted itself throughout all these years as the great force of the Cypriot workers and people, of their unity and struggle.
Support, solidarity and confidence in the role and work of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, comrade Dimitris Christofias, in favour of the Cypriot people's national cause and unity and in its tireless determination in finding, building and paving the ways that – despite attacks and unfair campaigns – maintain the door to dialogue, negotiation and solution of the Cypriot issue opened.
It is therefore in a concrete display of our friendship and of our confidence in your struggle, that we are here, reaffirming the Portuguese Communists' solidarity and to wish AKEL great success in the May 22 Parliamentary elections.
This success will be of major importance in bringing closer the solution to the Cypriot question. But it will also be undoubtedly fundamental in ensuring that, in the context of capitalism's profound crisis and of an intense anti-social offensive by big capital and the right-wing and social-democratic governments which are at its service, you may continue defending the rights, interests and aspirations of the workers and people of Cyprus and to show that, even in this situation, there is space for alternatives that ensure development and sovereignty.
The recent developments in the European Union show that this offensive will only be stopped by strengthening the social and mass struggle in the various countries of the European Union; by strengthening the Communist Parties and other truly progressive forces; by a courageous political and ideological intervention that exposes the true causes and responsibilities for the crisis of capitalism; by a determined struggle to invert the present course of the European Union and to build a true Europe of the workers and the peoples, for which our two Parties have been long fighting, namely within the United Left/Nordic Green Left Group in the European Parliament.
Comrades,
In Portugal, we have been involved in major struggles that in the last few years have had big developments, in a context where the class struggle has become much more acute in our country.
It is a mass social struggle against a policy that, with the crisis as an excuse, has intensified their class offensive, with a surge of support for big capital and at the same time an unrelenting attack against Portuguese people's rights and purchasing power. This has increased our country's structural deficits even more, as well as its dependence and the unbearable social injustices and inequalities that populate our lives.
It is a mass and social struggle that rejects the policy of burdening working people with the costs of a crisis for which they bear no responsibility. It is a struggle that rises up against the destruction of our national productive apparatus, against the right-wing policies that have been implemented in alternation between the right-wing and social-democracy for over three decades now – and have forced the country into decline, economic stagnation and dependence. These policies are themselves the deep-seated causes of the economic crisis into which our country is plunged, and capitalism's overall crisis has come to deepen it even further.
It is a mass and social struggle that rejects the blackmail operations and the plunder of national resources organised by big capital's decison centres and by the European Union's directorate of powers. It is a struggle that mobilises people against the misnamed “foreign aid”, which is really nothing but a sentence against Portugal's sovereignty, against workers' rights, against our people's rights, and against Portugal's economic and social development.
It is a mass and social struggle whose mainstay is the workers' movement, but that has extended to other strata and sections of Portuguese society and led to the Socialist Party government's social and political isolation – the main reason why it recently resigned and new elections were set for 5 June 2011.
In this election, the PCP will again present itself to the Portuguese people as part of the CDU – a coalition encompassing our Party, “the Greens” Ecological Party, and the Democratic Intervention association – a broad arena, open to the covergence of progressive forces, individuals and sections of Portuguese society which stand for a patriotic and left-wing policy capable of – both inside the institutions and in coordination with the struggles of Portugal's workers and people to defend the April [1974] Revolution's achievements and principles – establishing a government with the necessary conditions to embody a change and rupture with right-wing policies, to uphold Portugal's real interests, sovereignty and independence, and above all to have as its central goals the defence of workers' and people's interests and aspirations, and reliance on development of our national productive apparatus.
Comrades,
The current international context is full of great dangers but also of real potential for the development of revolutionary struggle. As events in each of our countries show, communists are called upon to shoulder great responsibilities and to confront great and demanding challenges. The situation is prone to sudden and sometimes unpredicted developments. That is why we continue to think that strengthening communist parties – their organisation, their links to the masses, their political and electoral influence, their ideological contribution, and their cooperation, seeking to give greater visibility to the far-reaching alternative of which we are the bearers: Socialism – is a very important factor in determining the balance of forces that will arise out of this situation, with capitalism in deep crisis and the class struggle becoming more acute at both the national and the international levels.
We know your Party well. We know of your close ties to the people, and of your engagement with the people's struggles, interests and aspirations. We wish you the greatest successes in the struggles that await you, and we tell you that we are deeply convinced that – be it in the struggle for reunification of the country, in the exercise of the high-ranking State responsibilities that you have been entrusted with, in the continuation of your struggle for social and labour rights, for peace and cooperation among peoples - in the upcoming election on 22 May the Cypriot people will continue to count on the struggle of Cypriot communists and will continue to trust their Party: AKEL.
From Portugal, you can count on the friendship and solidarity of the Portuguese Communist Party – that is celebrating 90 years of struggle this year – and of many, many Portuguese people with your national cause.
In confirming to you our willingness to continue the relationship of friendship, solidarity and cooperation between our two parties, we will end with a rallying cry that marked our revolution in 1974 and that, in this Rally “for the future of Cyprus and for the Cyprus of the future”, continues to be topical and current:
A luta continua! The struggle continues!
Long Live the internationalist solidarity
Long live the Cypriot people and its struggle
Long live the friendship between AKEL and PCP
Long live the friendship between the Portuguese and Cypriot people
