Statement by the Communist Initiative of Cyprus on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Cyprus, on 15 August:
"On this day 100 years ago, the Founding Congress of the Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC) was held in Limassol. It was the culmination of a process that had been developing for years, as the first socialist groups in Cyprus had already emerged in the late 1910s. News of the October Revolution reached colonial Cyprus as well, giving fresh impetus to the workers’ struggle against wage exploitation.
The CPC carried out its activity under particularly difficult conditions throughout its 18-year existence. Despite its leadership initially being caught by surprise, the CPC took part in the October 1931 uprising. As a result, on 26 October, Vatis and Skeleas were arrested and, without being convicted by a court, exiled to Britain. By decree of 16 August 1933, the Party was officially outlawed. Nevertheless, the struggle continued, and the CPC expanded its influence even under conditions of illegality through its intervention in the trade union movement.
At the same time, the CPC upheld proletarian internationalism, both as a member of the Communist International and through the participation of Cypriot communists in the International Brigades and on the anti-fascist fronts of the Second World War.
The CPC’s 5th Congress, held in 1944, was also its last. The precise causes and circumstances that led to the dissolution of the CPC require further historical study.
A century later, the historical legacy of the CPC remains alive. Social conditions may have changed to some extent, but the fundamental causes that gave rise to the need for a revolutionary workers’ party continue to exist. The activity of the Communist Initiative of Cyprus today forms part of this historical continuity.
With this legacy as our guide, we Cypriot communists must intensify our struggle for a just solution to the Cyprus problem, for the liberation and reunification of our entire people, through an end to the Turkish occupation and the elimination of all its consequences. Only a revolutionary party that unites the vanguard of the working class, regardless of community, origin, language or religion, can lead the struggle against the occupation and the fight for a united and independent Cyprus, without foreign guarantors or protectors and free from imperialist-imposed solutions. A solution born out of the people’s own struggle, for a society free from the exploitation of man by man.
We, as members of the Communist Initiative of Cyprus, draw courage and strength from our political forebears and pledge that, despite the adverse balance of forces, we will continue with unwavering conviction to struggle for the realization of the aspirations of the pioneering communists who, a century ago, laid the foundations for the organized struggle of the Cypriot working class, with the aim of building socialism-communism.
One hundred years later, we continue the struggle."
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