Greeting by EDON’s Secretary General Charis Karamanos on the 28th EDON Youth and Students Festival
Tuesday 7th July 2015, Nicosia, Cyprus
We meet again at EDON’s Youth and Students Festival!
This year we started early. We threw ourselves to work to once again transform Famagusta Gate to an oasis of political and cultural fermentation.
We welcome you all, the young people fighting in a world that must change, and will change.
We especially welcome all renowned Greek artists, who honor us with their presence in this celebration of struggle and cultural creation. We will join tonight Lavrentis Mahairitsas and Jiannis Kotsiras on an artistic journey, we will rise our voices tomorrow together with Vassilis Papakonstantinou and Christos Thyvaios, and on Thursday we will let ourselves be thrilled by Natasa Bofiliou.
It is our great pleasure to welcome all Turkish-Cypriot Youth Organisations as well as the Leadership of WFDY, who honor us with their presence here.
We salute AKEL’s leadership, the Working Peoples Party, which this year celebrates its’ 90 Years of honored and glorious history.
All of us, the young people of EDON, we stand in solidarity with all peoples fighting against austerity measures and the barbarism of capitalism. We stand in solidarity to the Greek peoples, the Portuguese peoples, the Spanish peoples, the Irish peoples. We stand in solidarity with all peoples fighting imperialism: the heroic peoples of Palestine, of Venezuela, of Libya, of Ukraine and the proud peoples of revolutionary Cuba.
Dear friends,
Humanity comes through one of the most difficult times in its history. Modern usurers set ultimatums and blackmail peoples. They impoverish them by imposing the savage policies of neoliberalism.
The Troika predators, bosses of Anastasiades-DHSY government, follow these brutal policies by the letter. They identify themselves with their friends Merkel, Schäuble, Dijsselbloem. By their arrogant and authoritarian behavior, they take our people years back. They steal all its gains and its rights. They steal all its hope.
“We need a leader through the crisis. Cyprus is not alone” they said, before they stole peoples’ votes. Then they remembered that they had “a gun on their forehead”, and whispered that “there was no alternative for Cyprus”. Today they are proud for the country’s Memorandum implementation results. The miracle they are proclaiming through the news cast are the 77 thousand unemployed, the 240 thousand under poverty line, the 50% of youth unemployment, the 50 thousand of our compatriots, who depend on bread and milk from social stores, the 25 thousand youngsters who turned economical refugees, the monthly wages of 400 euros, and the endless working hours. At the same time the continuous revelation of scandals, interweaving and decay destroy all expectations. What to remember first? The millions of euros that were taken out of the country, the lies over lies, the destruction of all country’s institutions, or the interconnected interests of big lawyers and the President’s office? Nothing happened after all these scandals came to light. The Assistant Attorney General apologized, admitting at the same time that he lied while accusing the Attorney General. And the President, who appointed and stood up for the Assistant Attorney General, was then was hid in his office not making any statement. At the same time, none of the supposedly implacable, supposedly reputable, supposedly independent journalists and opinion leaders did not ask the obvious: where is the president to apologize for his behavior and his support to the Assistant Attorney General? The whole system was in shock by the scandal of the Director of the Central Bank of Cyprus. The President was threatening that “heads will fall” in the presidential palace. He fired the Head of his Office. Then he led some time pass and he reassigned the former Head of Office somewhere else. He just simply failed. Nothing is left standing. Not the institutions, nor the truth, nor our hope. Mr. President, enough with playing with the country’s future. Enough with preserving this rotten system. Enough with serving corruption and clientalism.
It really takes courage to be an unweaving fighter. It takes courage to raise your head up high. It takes courage to resist imperialism and war. It takes courage to stand against neofascism. It takes courage to fight for a solution and a reunification of our island. It takes courage to fight against the cultivated defeatism and fatalism. EDON members have this courage.
So, we need to fight back in all fronts. We need to enforce our powers. Together we are stronger. Together we will win. We will win because a society cannot be built on a hang which is begging, but by many hands tight together in a fist.
The future of this country, our future, cannot be, and will not be separation, unemployment, migration and the destroyed education system. The future of this country, our future, cannot be, and will not be poverty, misery, and salaries as high as pocket money. The future of this country, our future, cannot be, and will not be grey, silent and we will not be slaves. The future of this country is the right to work, the right to education, the right to dream, the right to dignity, the right to life.
The future of mankind was and will be human socialism. We stay steadfastly loyal to the ideas of our heroic pioneers, and continue holding up the red flags. Things get more difficult now, and our pride for our history is not enough. History is written every day. We are judged every day, and through our everyday struggle, our historical path is confirmed.
We are ready to follow the leader of the peoples’ movement, the party of Cypriot Working People, AKEL, towards new battles for the good of our country and our peoples. We are ready to take back our lives in our hands. We are ready to strengthen our fight and light up hope again.
As the great poet said: we are ready to rise up with the peoples. And as long as we are humane, we shall create.
Long live the 28th EDON Festival of Youth and Students!
Long live EDON!
Long live Cyprus!