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+**Demetrios Hadjidemetriou** joined the International Socialists in 1976 and is still active in the Socialist Workers Party in North London. He is a retired Further Education College maths lecturer.
+---
-**Demetrios Hadjidemetriou** joined the International Socialists in 1976 and is still active in the Socialist Workers Party in North London. He is a retired Further Education College maths lecturer.
+**Notes**
+[1] Sincere thanks are due to Phaedon Vassiliades, Daphnos Economou, Ian Birchall and Alex Callinicos for their assistance in recreating this history. A major part of this document is based upon a series of extended email-based interviews with Demetrios Hadjidemetriou undertaken between August and December 2022. John Rudge conducted the interviews and was involved in additional research.
+[2] A paper on //Flame// was recently published, see Myers, 2024.
+[3] Rana, 2021.
+[4] The //Black Worker// in Britain //Chingari// pamphlet, 1974; //Black Nationalism; Socialism// (SWP/Flame pamphlet, 1979).
+[5] The eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is just over 1,000 kilometres east of Greece and 80 kilometres south of Turkey. In 1974, its population was around 650,000, of which 79 percent were Greek Cypriots, and 18 percent were Turkish Cypriots. In the mid 1950s, Greek Cypriots started a campaign with the aim of political union with Greece (Enosis, union), forming the Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA; National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), a guerilla group. Unlike other national liberation movements, EOKA was led by the extreme right winger Georgios Grivas and by Archbishop Makarios. The EOKA campaign failed to achieve union with Greece, but Cyprus gained independence from Britain in August 1960. Makarios was elected the first president and retained this post until his death in 1977. Britain retained two military bases on the island, Akrotiri and Dhekelia. After independence, the Greek Cypriot leaders continued supporting the ideas of Enosis, which led to inter-communal fighting with Turkish Cypriots just before Christmas 1963. This led to the formation of the Cypriot National Guard, which was trained and controlled by Greek army officers. In Greece, right-wing army officers took power in April 1967. Grivas felt that the road to Enosis was taking too long and formed EOKA B in opposition to Makarios. On 15 July 1974, Greek officers, in collaboration with EOKA B paramilitaries, carried out a coup in Cyprus. The Greek junta backed the coup. On 20th July 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus, justifying its action as necessary to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority. Following negotiations in the United Nations, Cyprus was split into a northern part controlled by Turkish Cypriots and a southern one controlled by Greek Cypriots. Today, the latter is the de facto territory of the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and part of the European Union, while the latter is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is only officially recognised as a sovereign state by Turkey.
+[6] Economou, 1989.
+[7] The Right to Work Campaign was launched in October 1975 as a response to the fast rising levels of unemployment. In practice, the campaign depended largely on the initiatives of IS members. “Politically it sought to put into practice three main principles. One: That the unemployed had to have a voice for themselves in the struggle… Two: It had to be recognised that the unemployed alone could not fight unemployment. It was necessary to fight for the unity of employed and unemployed, to confront employed workers with their responsibility in the fight for jobs… Three: The Campaign had to be based on direct action as well as propaganda…”—Birchall, 1981.
+[8] During much of the 1970s and 1980s, IS and the SWP held an Easter Rally at the Derbyshire Miners’ Holiday Camp in Skegness open to members, supporters and their families. Due to its geographic location, this event involved the vast majority of attendees staying onsite. Unlike today’s more dispersed Marxism event, this made Skegness a long weekend of organisation building and cohesion par excellence.
+[9] Personal exchange with Phaedon Vassiliades.
+[10] Roni Margulies (1955-2023) was, alongside Dogan Tarkan, a founding member of the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party, the SWP’s sister organisation in Turkey.
+[11] Agiomamitis and Florentin, 1988.
+[12] An example of our developing analysis is contained in our February 1979 letter “How can Cyprus be free?”.
+[13] The National Front was formed in 1967 out of various factions of the extreme right. In the mid-1970s, they were attempting to take their loathsome ideology onto the streets through provocative marches and the like.
+[14] Renton, 2006.
+[15] Flett, 2017.
+[16] //Womens Voice// was the IS and SWP women’s publication that ran from 1972 to 1982.
+[17] At a recent open meeting of the IS History Project, a comrade spoke about his speech at a rally with 300 participants after a CDC demonstration in February 1977.
+[18] Workers Democracy, 1988.
+[19] Personal communication.
+[20] Cliff, 2000.
+[21] Brown, 2008.
+---
+**References**
+Agiomamitis, Dinos and Alberto Florentin, 1988, //The Cyprus Problem and the Internationalist Tasks of Greek Cypriot Revolutionaries// (Workers Democracy).
+Birchall, Ian. 1981, //Building the “Smallest Mass Party in the World” Socialist Workers Party 1951–1979// (Socialists Unlimited).
+Brown, Oli, 2008, “Migration and Climate Change”, IOM Migration Research Series, number 31, www.iom.int/news/iom-migration-research-series-no-31-migration-and-climate-change
+Cliff, Tony, 2000.// A World to Win: Life of a Revolutionary// (Bookmarks).
+Economou, Daphnos, 1989, “Translator’s Note” in Dinos Agiomamitis and Alberto Florentin, //The Cyprus Problem and the Internationalist Tasks of Greek Cypriot Revolutionaries// (Workers Democracy).
+Flett, Keith, 2017, //The Battle of Wood Green// (Haringey Trades Union Council).
+//Myers, Matt, 2024, “Black Nationalism, British Socialism, and Transnational Newspapers Between Britain and the Caribbean, 1975–80”, Labor History (preprint).//
+//Rana, Balwinder, 2021, “‘Fifty Pints of Lager Please!’: Half a Century of British Asian Struggles”, International Socialism 172 (autumn).//
+//Renton, Dave Renton, 2006, When We Touched the Sky: The Anti-Nazi League 1977-1981 (New Clarion Press)//
+//Royle, Camilla, 2021. “Migration in an Era of Climate Catastrophe,” International Socialism 169 (winter).//
+//Workers’ Democracy, 1988, “Publisher’s Note”, in Dinos Agiomamitis and Alberto Florentin, The Cyprus Problem and the Internationalist Tasks of Greek Cypriot Revolutionaries (Workers Democracy).//
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