This leaflet was published by Workers' Democracy, in January of 2011.
The position of the Cypriot Workers' Democracy Group (Ergatiki Dimokratia) about Cyprus Indymedia
To: Yeni Kıbrıs Partisi, Baraka Kültür Merkezi, IMC Athens, IMC Patras, IMC Istanbul.
Intervention in the current debate concerning Cyprus Indymedia
For the left the media have always been a battleground – on the one hand the big establishments of big editors that own and control newspapers, tv and radio stations and on the other hand the ordinary people, NGOs and activists that are trying to promote their positions as alternative information.
That was the aim behind the idea of the first Indymedia network of alternative information created in 1999 during the first mobilisations against neoliberal globalisation in Seattle. In the process Indymedia centres (IMC) spread across the world in almost every country and developed not only as alternative sources of information but also as platforms where NGOs and activists, fighting against the capitalist system, state repression and oppression, against war, racism and nationalism could raise their voice.
The case of Cyprus Indymedia constitutes one of the exceptions.
In recent years Cyprus Indymedia followed a declining and degenerating political trajectory. The editorial team that calls itself “community” not only is absent from any participation or support in the mobilisations of the movement, but we believe they have crossed over to the opposite side. This was evident in the mobilisations against the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos (December 2008) and again in the anniversary of his murder (December 2009), in the bi-communal event (July 2009) to honour individuals for having saved the lives of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots during the intercommunal violence and wars in Cyprus, in the bi-communal Peace Day event on 1st September (2009) in Cheting Kayia (stadium in the buffer zone), the anti-racist mobilisation against the big operation “broom” by the Cyprus Republic police (targeting undocumented migrants) in the old section of Nicosia and even recently in the anti-fascist mobilisation against the hate marches of the Nazi ELAM (December 2009 and November 2010). With respect to the latter mobilisations against ELAM, not only was there an attempt by the CyI editorial team through their articles to equate the fascists with the anti-fascists but also indirectly there was an attempt to de-criminalise the fascists of ELAM by arguing that the anti-racists were nothing else (for them) but the “red” version of “black” fascism. Moreover they have attacked in their articles those individuals and organisations that have participated in these mobilisations. In their web-page they argue positively about or even host articles by nationalists and organisations of the far right just because they - in the same way the Cy Indy editorial themselves do - vehemently oppose to “apartheid federation” as they call any federal solution to the Cyprus problem. Examples include Emprosthofylakas and Epalxi (with links to Drasis Kes). Furthermore the recent articles of this “community” stink of gossip - like “political dirt”, mixed with personalised attacks akin espionage, with “revelations” about the private lives of individuals belonging in other “opposing” groups of the autonomist movement.
To sum up, we believe that the Cyprus Indymedia covers itself behind the ideology/aims of indymedia, presenting themselves as a “community” of the “autonomous” and of the broader radical left movement. For Cyprus Indymedia “autonomy”, “left” antiimperialism and “anti-racism” is just the fig leaf behind of which they promote in essence the Greek Cypriot nationalist line, and the line of the “rejectionist” front – that brings together besides the Greek Orthodox Church, Greek Cypriot nationalist organisations and parties that oppose the coexistence with the Turkish Cypriots under any federal form – in relation with the Cyprus issue and not only that.
Long time now our group has expressed in writing to the Cyprus Indymedia editorial group our dissociation from them. That was made necessary because they tried to use Workers' Democracy as their “alibi” to pose themselves as a part of the radical left movement in the South, capitalising on their participation few years ago in the bicommunal platform “Stop the war coalition- Cyprus” where our group is one of the main components.
Organosi Ergatiki Demokratia - 16 January 2011
www.wd-ist.org – E-mail: wd@workersdemocracy.net