The New Cyprus Republic (1961)

From the January 1961 issue of the Socialist Standard

(I) The Exiles Return

The Cyprus Republic proclaimed to a 21 gun salute and a fanfare of trumpets at midnight on 15th August whilst inside the House of Representatives, the Treaty of Independence was being signed. Diplomatic protocol was rigidly observed throughout. Sir Hugh Foot, the retiring Governor, Archbishop Makarios, and Dr. Kutchuk, now President and Vice-President respectively of the newly born Republic made the speeches expected of them. The crowd cheered and went away to await the arrival of the contingents of Greek and Turkish troops. The troops were greeted at the port of Famagusta by their respective supporters with cries of “Long live the Turkish Army”, and “Long live the Greek Army”. They then entered Nicosia to banner greetings of “Freedom and peace-loving soldiers, we welcome you to Cyprus” from whence they proceeded to their camps to prepare for whatever “peace-loving” activities the future might call, upon them to perform.

This Nicosia reception, though far from being wildly excited, was riotous compared with the departure of the late Governor of Cyprus, from Famagusta a few hours earlier. To the accompaniment of a bagpipe lament Sir Hugh Foot and his family departed the island followed by the silent stares of the thousands of watchers assembled on the town walls to greet the incoming troops.

The real highlight of the day came later, with the arrival at Nicosia Airport of 23 Eoka men, exiled to Greece under the amnesty terms following the London Agreement. Any doubts that Eoka had the sympathy and support of the majority of Cypriots must have been dispelled by the scenes. Weeping, shouting, kissing, hugging, hand-shaking men and women slowed the six mile journey from the airport to a two-hour crawl, which ended at the Nicosia Stadium, packed to capacity, with the surrounding roofs crowded. Cries in unison of E-O-K-A changed suddenly to MA-KA-RI-OS as the new president made his appearance.

Here the drama of the day was enacted. Before hysterical crowds the returning exiles made their speeches, and were officially greeted by the President with phrases like …”Your heroism has surpassed the bounds of history and become a tradition . . . In your heroic faces the Cypriot people see again with tears of gratitude and great emotion the sacred symbols of the struggle.”

Very adroitly he proceeded to draw the stings of the exiles who must have been very conscious that their struggle had not borne the fruit expected. The man who had so obviously benefited from what was regarded as a sell-out then said, “A new stage of struggle lies before us. We must all jointly undertake these peaceful struggles not with the hand-grenade and the arms, but with the power of our souls in order to build our Republic on sound foundations and to ensure the happiness, progress, and peace of our people.” He concluded, “I am sure that with the same faith with which you fought on the battlefield you will fight now on the peaceful front.” Significantly, the anti-Makarios Ex-Eoka Fighters Association which had boycotted the celebration, had complained that eight of its members had been arrested and held for one night in jail for distributing leaflets attacking the London and Zurich Agreements—during these same celebrations.

The general tenor of opinion was expressed by the Greek paper Ethnos:

“Greek Cypriots must live not with the memory of what they suffered or how much they were wronged by the British, nor how much their differences are with the Turks, nor should the soul be filled with bitterness at the negation of national hopes. The celebration must be the expression of joy at independence and also the expression of the determination to carry on the new struggle.”

Mr. John Clerides, leader of the Democratic Union, after calling the new Republic a fraud said, “We shall not molest those who believing in this fraud have accepted political responsibilities in the new state. We shall, however abstain from their jubilation.” An understandable remark. since his son, Mr. Glafcos Clerides, had just accepted the position of Speaker in the new Parliament.

The Akel (the Cyprus Communist Party) view was expressed by their paper Haravghi, which called for a policy of peace and friendship abroad in order to secure markets for “our” products. Mr. Papaioannou, General Secretary of Akel, stated from East Berlin, after opposing the presence of British troops, that the Cyprus people must form a broad anti-imperialist front to overcome the impediments of the Agreements.

During the many press conferences that followed, the President continually stressed his “friendship with all countries” policy. Occasionally reporters would fire awkward questions, such as the Turkish woman who asked why, on national holiday, the Turks had cheered in the Turkish contingent and the Greeks had celebrated the return of Eoka. Or others concerning the President’s attitude to Grivas (“in spite of differences my warm feelings to Grivas have not changed”). Or a question on the possible trouble from Eoka. which was answered by the assertion that Eoka must work peacefully for the common good. The President’s training received in manipulating the minds of the faithful in church was standing him in good stead. Concerning the all important question of trade, it was made clear that “trade with all countries would be encouraged and developed within the framework of a sound labour and social policy, safeguarding the capital importance of labour and the imprescribable rights of the working people.”

Thus the domestic and foreign policy of the new Republic was as one would have expected. All would be well, provided “the imprescribable rights of the working people were safeguarded” and “friendship with all countries” could be guaranteed. Assuming that these statements were not intended to be tongue-in-cheek platitudes, one must suppose that the President’s knowledge of the real world is as deficient as those of his many supporters who believed that somehow or other, a change from colonial to self-government would result in full employment, peace, and prosperity.

R. J.

(to be continued)

Greek lesson (2019)

Book Review from the April 2019 issue of the Socialist Standard

‘A Happy Future Is A Thing Of The Past: the Greek crisis and other disasters’. By Pavlos Roufos (Reaktion Books)

The mordant title of this book encapsulates the outcome of the collapse of the Greek economy, and the ultimate defeat of the popular protests against the austerity drive forced through by successive governments and driven by the international institutions of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the ECB (European Central Bank).

It begins with an account of the development of the Greek economy, unpicking the ideological image created during the crisis of a corrupt state where no-one pays taxes and the government lies to fund a generous welfare state at the expense of industrious North Europeans.

It traces the history of the Greek economy back to the ruins of World War II. By Roufos’s account, the Greek state had collapsed after its collaboration with the Nazi occupation. This led to a civil war which lasted until 1949, with a right-wing victory supported militarily and financially by the British state. This left a repressive regime, intent on suppressing the left, in charge of reconstruction funds from the US. The key point is that this repression led to a large informal economy, where people relied on family structures to off-set wages that were being held down. ‘Wages were seen as a cost, and not an investment,’ Roufos notes, and a fully developed labour market did not emerge.

This repression eventually led to the dictatorship of the Greek Colonels, as workers began to resist their poverty. The Greek economy continued to be a low wage economy, dominated by exports. For this reason, Greece was keen to join the European Union at its inception. Greece was thus caught up in the tides of the world economy, battered by storms such as the end of the Bretton Woods agreement. Particularly, Roufos notes that private capital often had little incentive to invest in developing Greek industry. Further, he notes that the German economy had a vested interest in drawing Greece and Italy into the Euro to prevent competitive devaluations.

The culmination of this was that Greece tended to be dependent on EU development funds, and cheap credit. Politicians mediating the needs of capital responded by holding down wages and cutting corporate taxes whilst also reducing controls on borrowing and financial movements. The seeds of the narrative of Greeks ‘living beyond their means’ (a statistically disprovable lie) were sown at this time.

When the Great Crash of 2008 came, Greece bore the brunt, and its over-extended banks went bankrupt, threatening the investments of German and French banks. Greece’s economy went into freefall, and the Government was required by the rules of the EU and the European Central Bank to take drastic measures to rein in its budgets: the narrative of the bloated public sector workers’ salaries and pensions was trumpeted to aid this cause. Roufos notes how this was also used as an opportunity to further liberalise the Greek economy.

Swingeing public spending cuts were put in place, leading to widespread protests and general strikes – most famously at Syntagma Square where the Greek arm of the Occupy movement fought running battles with riot police who knew only violence as a way to preserve the dominant order. Roufos discusses how the Syntagma movement sought to remain a leaderless open movement, refusing interference by organised leftists (even banning flags from the square). He also notes, however, the devolution of the movement into a series of monologues as the voices in the square talked on and on. The only positive he sees, indeed, is in the violence against the police, as the formal movement turned into practical opposition to state attempts to crush it. The text discusses how the organised left and unions seek and fail to mediate the conflict between workers and capitalists.

This is an important point: the fall in living standards experienced in Greece is dramatic, and anyone who has ever expected a crisis to turn into a revolution would surely expect this level of collapse to lead to revolution. Instead there is a series of disappointments. Disappointment in existing state institutions. Disappointment in protest. Disappointment in strikes, and ultimately, the disappointment of the radical election of Syriza, the leftist party now in power. As Roufos notes, each disappointment contributes to the sense that there is no alternative.

Syriza came to power promising to mitigate and reverse austerity (as the author notes, the small print was if their debt restructuring demands were accepted by the IMF/ECB). Yanis Varoufakis is criticised for taking the logic of the academic seminar room into the world of international power politics, and expecting a rational response. The end result of Syriza’s attempt to negotiate, despite the Greek population’s resounding ‘Ochi’, was the final hammer blow to any resistance. Syriza became a party of austerity and capitalist orthodoxy, eventually to be praised for guiding Greece through internal devaluation and out of special measures.

Finally, the book ends on a dismal note: there was no emergence of a sense of international working class solidarity. Indeed, the dominant leftist response is similar to the national restructuring of that of the Corbyn movement, retrenching behind national barriers. Greece has been left where it was in the world economy, after over a decade of suffering.

This tract is worth reading and digesting because the Greek lesson must be learnt.

Pik Smeet