WFTU General Secretary, Pambis Kyritsis participated in and addressed the massive demonstration for Peace and Reunification, organized in Cyprus by the WFTU affiliates (PEO, Dev- İŞ, KTÖS, KTOEÖS, KTAMS, BES, KOOP-SEN, DAU-SEN).
WFTU General Secretary speech:
Dear colleagues,
I convey the warm and militant salute of the World Federation of Trade Unions to today’s anti-imperialist, anti-war demonstration for peace and reunification, οn behalf of its more than 105 million members from 133 countries from all corners of the world.
September the 1st, the day the Second World War began with the attack of Hitler’s Germany on Poland, has been established by our Federation as the World Day of Trade Union Action for Peace.
This is a day of remembrance for the millions of victims of Nazi and fascist brutality, but also for all those who over time paid with their lives for the imperialist rivalries, nationalist extremes, and capitalist bulimia for expansion and more profits for capital and monopolies.
This year, bearing in mind the dramatic escalation of threats to world peace with the war in Ukraine and the escalation of tension in the Far East, our actions and mobilizations are of special significance.
Today, we all join our voices against imperialist wars and interventions, against militarism and the militarization of international relations, and against the imperialist practices of sanctions, blockades, and economic wars. We demand an immediate end to the war in Ukraine and for diplomacy to take over. We demand the dissolution of NATO and all military coalitions, the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, respect for the independence and sovereignty of all states, and the right of each people to decide their own future and the path of their economic and social development.
The attempt of the Western imperialists to use the Russian invasion of Ukraine to present themselves today as defenders of International Law and human rights is clearly hypocritical and cannot in the least conceal their own dirty role in international developments.
In Yugoslavia, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Cyprus, and in so many other areas it is their own interventions and their own wars that have led entire peoples to destruction and misery. The war in Ukraine further deepens the global capitalist crisis.
Unemployment and inflation are relentlessly undermining the living standards of workers. Wages not only remain stagnant but under the pretext of the pandemic and the crisis, in many cases, they are reduced. Democratic and trade union freedoms are under new attacks.
The WFTU, unlike those who are accommodated with grandiose proclamations but in practice promote immoral compromise with the establishment, is clear. It calls upon the workers to organize mass, class-oriented struggles since only in this way can we create the conditions for another course that serves the workers and the people and not the interests of the imperialist states and monopolies.
Only in this way we can challenge the system that breeds imperialism and wars.
Dear colleagues,
Cypriot workers have first-hand experience of the results of the imperialist machinations of NATO and its allies. They have experienced them and continue to experience them in a tragic way.
The common struggle of Cypriot workers; Greek-Cypriots, and Turkish-Cypriots for the solution to the Cypriot problem and the reunification of Cyprus, is an integral part of the struggle of the peoples of the world for global peace, security, and social justice. That is why the WFTU firmly and consistently supports this struggle.
We demand a just and mutually acceptable solution to the Cypriot issue within the framework of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, with one sovereignty, one citizenship and one international personality, with political equality as defined in the UN resolutions. For a state, demilitarized and independent, without foreign armies and bases and without protectors and guardians.
We are proud that the class-oriented trade unions of Cyprus that are members of the WFTU are leading the way and are the militant backbone of this struggle.
WFTU will continue to support your struggles; For a free and reunited Cyprus in a world without imperialist wars and interventions, free of the exploitation of man by man.
- Long live the struggle for peace and reunification
- Long live solidarity and fraternity of the peoples
