are an indication of the weakness of the Greek side, and hence their necessity to come to a quick the capitalist world, AKEL has never had a at present under Turkish military occupation.
agreement with Turkey - even when this means the division of the island.
Provided that Turkish prime minister Demirel can restrain his generals from occupying the whole of the island, the package deal will be presented by the Turkish side at the fourth round of talks due to be held in New York on 8 and 9 September. Selecting New York as the venue for formalising the carve-up of Cyprus is a rather touching tribute to the success of American foreign policy-only 10 years ago President Johnson, with the Acheson Plan, first made public America's desire to partition the island.
Even over the question of partition, President Makarios can only follow lamely behind Clerides. He is caught between his demagogy on the one hand-calling for an unceasing struggle to oppose occupation and partition-and on the other hand his denunciations of any notion of armed struggle, hoping bloodshed can be avoided by the UN implementing its Cyprus resolution. This means that Makarios is doomed to follow the "more realistic" Clerides.
REALISTIC'
Clerides clearly recognises that Makarios is nothing more thah a travelling floor-show, completely unable to organise on the basis of his demagogy. In an interview with the Cypriot paper Apogermatini, Clerides ridiculed the ideas of a long-term struggle often suggested by President Makarios in the past. Such a struggle, waged in speeches at international gatherings and the UN, will not solve the Cyprus problem'. Uf course Clerides is not arguing for an armed struggle and a workers' solution-he is pointing out that the only realistic solution' is partition i.e. legalising the de facto situation.
The Archbishop is not totally removed from the real world-indications are that he will nowsoon publicly support Clerides on this issue. At Helsinki, Klaus Bolling, a West Leading Greek-Cypriot politicians have an enormous problem on their minds — how to sell the dirty deal concocted with Turkey at Vienna to the Greek-Cypriot community?
Clerides and Denktash, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot representatives respectively, agreed that Cyprus should be divided into two federated zones. In return for this Greek-Cypriot concession, it was accepted that the Turkish area should be less than the 40 per cent of the island The immediate refugee transfers forced by Turkey Makarios-doomed to follow Clerides German Secretary of State, reported that Makarios was now prepared to make conce ssions to settle the Cyprus problem. Makarios 'would now accept a smaller territory than envisaged' for the Greek Cypriot community in a federated state, but he wanted the territory still to be 'quite large".
The Cypriot Communist Party, AKEL, has come out in support of Clerides and the agreement concluded in Vienna. Only the Socialist Party of Vassos Lyssarides, the EDEK, has opposed these preparations for a carve-up. Virtually alone, they have organised demonstrations in Nicosia against island into two zones. olutionary policies of the Kremlin.
Greek Cypriot workers. avoid provocations.
partitioning of the island.
tion to his Beatitude'.
ing 42% of the vote!
resolution.
TROODOS MOUNTAINS
LIMASSOL the refugees transfers and the division of the To understand how this massive defeat ent partition. of the Cypriot working class came about it is necessary to understand the nature of the AKEL. Although having proportionally the strongest support of any Communist Party in strategy for seizing state power. Basically it - is a reformist party tied to the counter-revConsequently AKEL has never fulfilled the tasks of a real workers party in providing a revolutionary leadership for the Turkish and During the struggle aginst the British in the 1950s, AKEL sat on the sidelines allowing the fascist Colonel Grivas to harness the anti-colonial aspirations of the masses. In the same period, AKEL ditched its Turkish members who were being attacked by the fascists of both communities in order to LOYAL OPPOSITION problem The net result of AKEL's inability to lead the Cypriot workers on a class-wide basis in the struggle for socialism was twofold. Firstly, imperialism's control was never removed from the island-neither politically, economically, nor militarily. Secondly, the ethnic divisions fostered by the British and Grivas were to provide the basis from which imperialism could work towards the eventual During the years after the achievement of 'independence in 1960, the Turkish Cyprot workers faced a rapidly declining standard of living and a ghettoisation forced on them by their repressive ruling clique-all to the indifference of AKEL. AKEL was more concerned with proving itself the loyal opposiFar from being a revolutionary party trying to bring about socialism through the seizure of state power, AKEL suffered from the most acute form of parliamentary cretinism ever diagnosed. Not wishing to stand against the bourgeois parties in the 1970 elections 'for fear of causing friction' AKEL was eventually forced to when its plea for standing only in mutually agreed unopposed seats was turned down. Feverishly AKEL had to work out how not ta win.
Eventually the Communists stood for only a quarter of the seats, although still obtainIt was not completely surprising then that they made no effort to arm and mobilise the workers against the imminent coup.
Instead they proclaimed that on the one hand Makarios's Tactical Reserve Force was capable of containing the 650 Greek officers sent to the island by the junta, and on the other hand that the Soviet Bloc would not sit back idly in the event of a coup. Characteristically they were wrong on both counts.
Despite the coup and the invasion AKEL remains true to its reformist policies. It still trails behind the Archbishop in his efforts to make the UN implement its own Cyprus Within Cyprus it calls for a patriotic Government of National Unity pledged to Makarios and argues that the main pillar of our people's struggle is the immediate implementation of the Governmeht's emergency economic plan for the reconstruction and revitalisation of the Cypriot economy'.
Hence their recent attempts to break the strike at the Coca-Cola factory where the Cypriot workers were opposing wage cuts.
LEPRONIN MAGUST Cape KiT POSITIONS OF THE TURKISH INVADING FORCES On the 22nd of July 1974 On the 30th of July 1974 On the 8th of August 1974 On the 16™ of August 1974 After the 16th of August 1974 Boundaries of the British Bases Cyprus after last year's invasion - now Greek Cypriot 'leaders' seem set to accept a permanClearly the revolutionary leadership so desperately required in Cyprus cannot come from the AKEL. What then of the Socialist Party of Vassos Lyssarides, the EDEK?
NO CLASSES NOW' Although the EDEK is a relatively new party it contains elements who have under stood and broken from the reformist politics of the AKEL. The party, though, is essentially centrist with a left social-democratic leadership. To date it has had a good record on many points-initially mounting an armed offensive against the Sampson regime after the coup, being centrally involved in the Coca-Cola strike, mobilising against the Vienna carve-up, generally opposing Clerides, rejecting the UN as a solution to the Cyprus But the basic unevenness and reactionary aspects of the EDEK were most clearly shown when Dougis HiDemetriou, General Secretary of the EDEK, addressed a public meeting in London recently. Revolutionary socialists in the EDEK must have been embarrassed at his chauvinistic rallying-point of Hellenism, his slavish devotion to Makarios, and his refusal to mention the Clerides/Denktash deal. What must have made revolutionaries in EDEK really squirm though, was his national unity line'there are no classes in Cyprus now; there are only those opposed to the Turkish occupation' Revolutionaries must fight against pos itions like this. A real workers party cannot obscure the basic feature which has bedevilled Cypriot political life for the past 25 years-that racial conflicts are both a manifestation and mystification of the underlying class struggle. Without this understanding EDEK will follow the same path as the AKEL-the Cyprus situation will repeat itself endlessly, and the ethnic divisions will deepen, until the workers' movement organises politically on class ANATOMY OF DISASTER INK, tas Medicamen 20 p IMG Cyprus pamphlet available in Greek, Turkish and English from RED BOOKS 97 Caledonian Road, London N.1. -price 20p & 6p p&p
• red weekly 28 august 1975 THE CHURCH *ST ABOR
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NO EFFORT TO ARM WORKERS
E. Medcom DOOH CYPRUS-