Akel: no longer the ‘progressive party of the working people’

Akel, or as it is called, the Progressive Party of Working People was founded on August 15, 1926. It is a Marxist, Leninist party.

It is supposed to place particular emphasis on rapprochement with the Turkish Cypriots. It is supposed to be a strong supporter of welfare benefits. So, why are some of its members opposed to the new national health service?

It wants nationalisation of everything. How profitable and useful will that be, I ask? It is opposed to Nato. Why? Is it because it looks West, not East? What world do we live in? Surely, Communism died back in 1991 with the end of the Soviet Union.

When the party was first created, it aimed to help the working person as all leftist parties tend to do and promise. As with the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, Akel now needs someone young and dynamic with fresh, progressive ideas to take the party forward.

I feel that Akel has become archaic and backward in its approach to certain things as the years have gone by, refusing to change with the times.

Its thirst for power, by whatever means possible, will eventually lose its loyal voters. People are now aware of political games and acrobatics carried out by some past presidents of this divided island.

In his book, ‘Open Letters from Cyprus,’ Raymond Hiscock observes that “Akel cared and struggled for Cypriot survival and so they remember the original name of those who cared, even if today the self same drive large Mercedes motor cars.”

You begin to question whether it is a “Party for the Working People,” after all. It is a shame that a Party, founded 93 years ago and is one of the oldest political parties of the island, should be in such a dire mess.

Marie-Angela Ayiomamitis

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.