Κυπριακό Κινηματικό Αρχείο
Cyprus Movements Archive
Kıbrıs Sosyal Hareket Arşivi

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This translation was created for the purposes of archiving and does not originate from the original creators of the text.
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<wrap lo>The text below is the first part of a long text. The [[en:magazines:ergatis:no57:akel_part2|second]] and [[en:magazines:ergatis:no58:akel_part3|third]] parts were published afterwards. </wrap>

==AKEL IS NOT COMMUNIST==

**THE SEVEN YEARS OF ITS ACTIVITY PROVE IT**

**A RESPONSE TO THE ARTICLE OF ZIARTIDES IN THE "THEORETICAL DEMOCRAT" [THEORITIKO DIMOKRATI]**

By comrade **A. PERDIOU**

Seven years ago, at a time when the World Imperialist War was at its peak, and when the international proletariat, under the counter-revolutionary reformist leadership of the Third International, was paralyzed in a confusion unprecedented in world history, it was founded in Skarinou, after much preparatory work, by old Communist and Trade Union elements, the first post-October [referring to the October insurrection of 1931] mass proletarian party in Cyprus, "for the enlightenment of the working masses", which took the name "Progressive Party of Working People".

In the first months following its founding convention in Skarinou, although it was intended to serve the workers and peasants, and in sharp contrast to its declarations, it received within its ranks many large bourgeois and petit bourgeois elements who were lurking for the opportunity to take over the leadership of the working masses of the country, with a purely specific purpose: to win the confidence of the workers and peasants, to soften the growing revolutionary spirit of the proletariat, to divert its attention from Socialism, by constant propaganda in favour of the imperialist war, and the development of nationalist tendencies within the masses to such an extent as to subvert any previous internationalist tendency, and to ensure all the necessary conditions for the transition of the Cypriot workers' movement into a first-rate right-wing deviation.

Under these purely anti-class and anti-worker calculations, all the opportunist reformist elements of the right entered AKEL and worked actively, taking advantage of the ignorance of the working masses and the incompetence of the trade union leadership, were promoted to the upper Party hierarchy, acting from the safety of the Party, drawing the Party's policy from above, far from any contact with the proletariat, and outside the decisive line drawn by Marxism-Leninism for any proletarian movement.

The main characteristic feature of AKEL's internal party politics throughout its seven-year life was the abandonment of democratic centralism from the top of the party, the establishment of party authoritarianism expressed by the internal iron discipline that chains the bottom to the top, the abandonment of the basic principle of Critique and Self-Criticism, and the factionalist activity of both the party and the trade union organisations under the party's leadership.

After the above anti-communist and anti-worker developments that AKEL suffered from the very first days of its founding Congress in Skarinou, and even after the anti-communist programme adopted by its first party plenum, it became obvious that the first post-October "mass proletarian party" in Cyprus was already drowned in the contradictions that created it, and deeply influenced by the pro-war fervour of the world reaction, which, under the counter-revolutionary reformist guidance of the Third International, found time to organise the last world bloodbath undisturbed, with such masterful skill that it managed to receive the undivided support of the proletarians, with the cooperation of the Third International, the Soviet bureaucracy, who worked closely with the warmongers throughout the war and post-war period, which is the subject of this investigation. 

In the field of AKEL's more immediate political aspirations, the primary position of every communist party for the organisation of the proletariat's struggle for the overthrow of the capitalist regime and the establishment of a classless society, with the transfer of political power into the hands of the proletariat, did not enter into the sphere of the more immediate political aspirations of AKEL. 

From the very first day of the foundation of AKEL, the "left majority" characterised the movement of the working masses as a "people's liberation" movement and based its policy on "class collaboration", ignoring the basic position of the Third Communist International (period 1920-1924) on the character of liberation-people's movements in the colonies, which explicitly states that "any progressive liberation movement in the colonies of imperialism is usually divided into two opposing movements: the nationalist one of the enslaved bourgeoisie, and the internationalist one of the working masses led by the militant vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat. The former tries to direct the latter and often succeeds to a considerable extent", exploiting the ignorance and religious, nationalist superstition of the workers and peasants. 

Still, in cases where, in the struggle of the working masses for the liberation of their country from the clutches of imperialist exploitation and oppression, united fronts are organised between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the latter takes a pioneering part in them, always giving the last word on every question that arises. It is, in short, the proletariat the absolute power within each united front, and it retains in full the right to develop its class struggles. 

With the characterisation given to the Cyprus movement by the "left majority" of AKEL, it was painlessly abandoning Marxism-Leninism at its foundation, and, under a leftist-engineered atmosphere of confusion of the working masses, it entered into a first-rate "right-wing deviation", condemning at the same time the previous policy of the [[en:groups:cpc|CPC]] and the Trade Unions as a policy "absolutely wrong and frivolous", which was outside the "real national feelings of the Cypriot people", while at the same time making a "turn towards these popular feelings" and raising the question of the "Union of Cyprus with the motherland Greece"! 

As a direct consequence of its "right-wing deviation", AKEL later called on the Cypriot People to organise the struggle for the liberation of the "motherland" from fascism by recruiting them under the English flags, organized mass rallies and mobilizations in support of the "anti-fascist front", called on the labor organizations to avoid strikes that "obstruct the war effort" and organized the mobilization for "free labor of workers and peasants in the defense works"! ! 

FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE "AKEL" AND ITS SUBSEQUENT PROCLAMATIONS, IT BECAME CLEAR THAT "AKEL" COULD BE ANYTHING BUT COMMUNIST.

What was going on in the party behind the scenes could never be known to the lower cadres - the upper cadres maintained an "iron discipline" for the lower cadres, which was unprecedented for a workers' party, and there was never any monitoring at a time when the organisation of the internal party faction was the first concern of the party bureaucracy, and in general the whole party apparatus was in the hands of people who were complete strangers to the workers' movement, people who were imbued with petit bourgeois tendencies and ideas, who had nothing to do with the Marxist world view, who would sacrifice everything in a heartbeat, provided that it served the special interests of the party bureaucracy. 

AKEL, a creation of the last world conflict and the particular war conditions of British imperialism, Stalinist at its roots, could only follow the same path that the other "communist" parties of the Third International followed, after the "liquidation" of the left opposition (1924-1928-1936) and the overwhelming domination of the Stalinist bureaucracy throughout the world.

And this Party, like every other similar Party abroad, followed the Stalinist policy to the letter, went to war with its 800 followers, thus giving a POSITIVE SUPPORT to BRITISH AND WORLD IMPERIALISM IN THE MOST DIFFICULT INTERNAL CRISIS OF 1936-1946. It used every propaganda trick to confuse the proletariat and enslave it to its various exploiters.

"Anti-fascist war", "All for Motherland Greece", "National Embassy", "Archbishopric and bishopric elections", "National Fundraising", etc. accompanied by an unprecedented and crude attempt to misrepresent Marxism-Leninism, to such an extent that it appears to be in line with the aims and slogans of AKEL. In this work of obscuring and falsifying Marxism-Leninism, there is another "unrivalled" supporter: the famous "Marx-Egels-Lenin-Stalin Institute" in Moscow, which since 1928 has done nothing but serve the masses a masterfully falsified Marxism-Leninism, to the extent that it is in accordance with Stalinist theories "for a smooth peaceful evolution towards Socialism", "workers' patriotism", "maturation of the masses on an international scale, and the abolition of the Communist International", "cooperation of the classes and peaceful coexistence of Communism and capitalism", "patriotic fronts", "Socialism in one country" etc., which in their essence constitute a first-rate counter-revolutionary propaganda, the result of which is the enslavement of the proletariat into the hands of imperialism, which excludes the revolutionary struggle of the international proletariat for its liberation, and prepares the way for the destruction of the Social Foundations of the U.S.S.R. by imperialism. 

(In the upcoming issue the [[en:magazines:ergatis:no57:akel_part2|last part]] will be published)

[two more parts were eventualy written instead of one]


{{tag> Condition:"Needs Translation":"Needs Turkish Translation"
Newspapers:"The Worker (Issue 56)"
"Decade":"Decade 1940-1949" "Year:1948"
Areas:Nicosia
Subject:Enosis
Subject:AKEL
Subject:Nationalism}}
Κυπριακό Κινηματικό Αρχείο Cyprus Movements Archive Kıbrıs Sosyal Hareket Arşivi

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Κυπριακό Κινηματικό Αρχείο
Cyprus Movements Archive
Kıbrıs Sosyal Hareket Arşivi
