Neither Davos nor non-Davos
Or Why we are indifferent to the schemes of all kinds of clowns of power:

An Anti-Authoritarian Proposal: The Nation-State, Nationalism, and the Competing Ruling Classes

1. If there is a problem today that can be defined as the “Cyprus problem”, it certainly cannot be confined within the territorial framework of Cyprus, nor within the time frame of the period after ’74, ’60 or even ’50. The problem has its roots much deeper in history and stems from the competition between the two imperialist — and therefore expansionist — states of Greece and Turkey for economic, political and military dominance in the region.

2. The antagonism between the various ruling classes is one of the most intense contradictions of capitalism and which often leads to military conflicts between them, dragging into them the exploited classes on both sides — who are the “raw material” in these conflicts, “the cannon fodder”. The existence of an ideology that justifies in the eyes of the exploited such massacres and everything related to their preparation and conduct (taxes for armaments, militarization of society, uncontrolled centres of power, etc.) is necessary.

3. The Nation-State is the ideological extension of capitalism-statism (Western and Eastern) in society and nationalism is the point where it touches people’s consciences. We will not deal here with the nature of nationalism, its extensions in the patriarchal society and how it is planted in the consciences of the oppressed (religion, education, etc.). We will suffice only to say that the basic function of nationalism in the social imaginary is the identification of the state with the ‘great and powerful’ father and of the homeland with the ‘sweet and loving’ mother: an extension of the model of the patriarchal family — on which every class-industrial society is based — to the whole of society.

4. It goes without saying that the big winners of these intra-imperialist conflicts, which since the Second World War have usually taken place on the periphery of capitalism and rarely in the metropolis, are the arms manufacturers. The ruling classes of the militarily victorious state are still the winners, while the ruling classes of the defeated state will not take long to get back on their feet. The big losers, however, are the exploited classes on both sides who have borne the main, if not the entire burden of the war (dead, disabled, hunger, refugees, hardship, etc.) and who are in no better position than before.

5. By simultaneously projecting the threat of the evil other, the external imaginary (or sometimes ‘real’) ‘enemy nation’, nationalist ideology manages to unite people who have nothing in common with each other except their common allegiance to this ideology and to divide people who have every common interest in turning against this ideology as well as against those whose interests are in one way or another served by it.

6. The consolidation of nationalist ideology, which sometimes appears as far-right racism, invoking the “roots” of the “race” and sometimes appears as “left-wing patriotism”, invoking various Stalinist-Maoist theories and Neo-Orthodox nonsense, results in class cooperation (see national unity) and the defusing of social conflicts. And all this in the name of the “national economy”, the “non-shrinking of the nation” and a bunch of other crap. This of course does not serve the cause of people’s liberation at all.

7. [Possibly missing part of the text] The only beneficiary of this collaboration is the exploitative society (and the classes whose interests it serves) that perpetuates the domination of the economy over itself on the one hand and the domination of its ideology over the people on the other. Thus in times of peace the exploited are called upon to throw themselves into production, while in times of war they find themselves, whether they like it or not, on the front line.

The Competition Between Greece and Turkey

8. Greece and Turkey, even the small “South” Cyprus have long ceased to be colonies or third world feudal states and have entered the camp of imperialism, without this meaning that they too are not dependent on the metropolis (here a West Germany has not managed to escape the imperialist dependence of the USA, even though it is a first class imperialist power in its own right). It is on the basis of this position that we shall then examine what can be defined as the “ Problem” or the “National Issue” trying to avoid as much as possible whining.

9. Apart from the “Great” spheres of influence which are competing for political, military and economic control with the two main poles of capital accumulation and ideology, there are also the “smaller” spheres of influence which are competing for their sub-control with other smaller, but nonetheless imperialist states.

10. One such sphere of influence is the Eastern Mediterranean. Since Israel, the most developed capitalist state in the region, cannot exercise effective control (though it will never cease to pursue it) mainly because of its poor neighbourliness with the Arab states, this role is left to Greece and Turkey (and secondly or thirdly to “Southern” Cyprus) which are engaged in a competitive race at all levels.

11. This is of course nothing new. It is the Greek “Megali Idea” on the one hand and the dreams of the former Ottoman Empire on the other — expressed today in the modern Neo-Turkish expansionism — that have led the two countries sometimes to successive massacres and wars and sometimes to agreements akin to “Davos”, depending on the political circumstances.

[Missing subtitle text]

12. During the years of the Ottoman period, and especially after the Greek bourgeois-democratic revolution, nationalism was naturally transplanted to Cyprus within the Christian and Muslim communities from the metropolises of nationalism: Greece and Turkey, which suited the various ruling classes of Cyprus. From the Greek side, the Orthodox Church played a key role in this, as it was practically co-opted by the Turks and with the privileges granted to it by them (for their own political reasons, of course) managed to convince the majority of Christians of the Greekness of their origin. It is worth noting that the Orthodox community at that time was indeed the largest community but it was far from being the absolute majority.

    The Greek language invaded all the popular strata, intervening precisely at the stage where a common Cypriot language was being formed. A typical example is that of the Linobambaki, a minority who believed in both Mohammedanism and Christianity and who spoke a language-mixture of Greek and Turkish. The minority was eventually absorbed into the Muslim community as the “ counter” result of the Orthodox Church’s insistence on Hellenizing them. The reaction of the Muslim popular strata was to further adhere to their own religion as their only refuge.

13. The polarisation and the separation of the exploited classes into Greeks and Turks, into “good” and “bad”, into perennial “enemies” of one or the other nation, was slowly but surely taking place. And all this at a time when there was a significant “common” revolutionary tradition and the common uprisings of Christians and Muslims against the centres of power were not few (although theoretically Muslims were in a somewhat better situation since they did not pay tribute. But this differentiation, whose purpose was precisely to separate the oppressed, was of little importance, since impoverishment was a general phenomenon).

14. Of course, during all these years there have been settling of scores both internally and between the various elites (Greek and Turkish). For example, during the period of the Greek bourgeois-democratic revolution, the Ottomans purged the leadership of the church in order to prevent the spread of the Greek revolution to Cyprus, although it was later proved that the Church had no such intention, not wanting to lose its privileges. This was the first great nationalist uprising.

15. There followed a period (in the last years of the Ottoman period and during the period of English rule) when the common struggles between Greeks and Turks (and no longer between Christians and Muslims) became less and less frequent and the distrust between the two communities continued to grow. The first population movements took place and separate education was slowly imposed. The other communities, especially the Latin community, virtually disappeared. From the early years of English rule, the Greek community already constituted the largest section of the population.

    During and after the First Imperialist World War the Greek nationalist upsurge reached a new peak, which the English colonialists exploited and by applying the well-known “divide and rule” they managed to perpetuate the separation of communities. Since the 1950s (Enosis referendum) and afterwards Turkish far-right nationalism appears as a response to the Greek one.

16. The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), founded in 1941 by illegal cells of the CPC, was the only popular organisation that, even in the early years of its existence, had access to both communities. Subsequently, however, and as the Stalinist party that it was, the role it played in the issue of the Turks of Cyprus was hypocritical to say the least. The culmination of this hypocrisy was the adoption of the slogan ENOSIS WITH GREECE, UNDER ANY GOVERNMENT in the 1950s, thus becoming the tail of Greek nationalist ideology, which of course led to the strong reaction of the Turks of Cyprus (who from now on will be called Turkish Cypriots TC while the Greeks of Cyprus: Greek Cypriots GC). Of course, on an individual or even personnel level, there were many members of AKEL who fought for Greek-Turkish solidarity and many of them were victims of assassinations by nationalists on both sides.

    AKEL then remains neutral in the face of the national-“liberation” struggle of the extreme right-wing GC nationalists who, under the leadership of the fascist former leader of the battalion “X”, make it clear from the outset that the aim of their struggle is ENOSIS. For some strange reason, however, they simultaneously declare that this struggle is directed first against the communists, then against the Turks and thirdly against the English! (There is no doubt that within the ranks of this organisation (EOKA) there were also people who were romantic, liberal and noteworthy, but this is not enough to prevent the organisation from being described as fascist-nationalist).

Since Independence

17. The proclamation of the Cypriot state in the 1960s finds GCs on the one hand in an intense polarisation between left and right (which was to intensify further thereafter) and on the other hand having the upper hand in the economy of the country (although there is evidence for all this, a stroll in the Turkish neighborhoods of Limassol will convince you). The situation is as schizophrenic as the Cypriot state itself which had nothing to rely on, as it had to bridge the gap between two communities that had neither a common language, nor a common religion, nor a common economy, nor anything else that could unite them under the flag of a state (e.g. kingdom, race, etc.). The same schizophrenia is prevalent among the GCs who, while fighting for Enosis, found themselves with an Independent State.

18. Then in ’67, a change of guard in Greece (military junta) is confronted by the then President Makarios and his supporters (including AKEL) who in the meantime had adopted the more realistic line of INDEPENDENCE, although the ultimate goal always remained ENOSIS (“Enosis is desirable but not possible”). This leads to the effective rupture within the ranks of the GCs — even within the ranks of the GC right — dividing them into pro-Enosis and pro-independence factions (then called Grivikoi and Makariakoi). It is precisely then that the new nationalist ideology emerges dynamically (although its roots are older): NEO-GREEK-CYPRIOT-INDEPENDENCE which is strongly opposed to the traditional GREEK-ENOSIS and constitutes the two main principles and opposing trends of the same nationalist ideology since both are Greek. There was no NEO-CYPRIOT nationalist ideology since Cyprus has never been a Nation-State. What really existed was the struggle over which nationality would dominate by stepping on the other and imposing its own nationalist ideology and from Independence onwards it was the GCs who managed to identify the state with their own nation while the TCs, located in a defensive position, began to look forward to the creation of their own state.

    The ridiculous thing about this story is that Independence was much more to the liking of the GCs and it is precisely here that ideology is differentiated from economics. However, this emasculating sentiment was to determine the attitude of the GCs towards the TCs. The latter, with the declaration of independence, are effectively second-class citizens while important articles of the constitution (so much invoked later by GC politicians) concerning the rights of the TCs as a minority were not implemented, [missing part of text — the next 4 words are not from the text:] [somethnig that was used by the] Turkish ruling classes and the TC elite to promote their own economic interests and expansionist plans. The sequence of events is well known: the events of 63–64, racist massacres between GCs and TCs, the threat of Turkish intervention, the action of the TC far-right nationalist armed organization TMT and finally the forced — and not voluntary as they had no choice — confinement of most TCs in real ghettos. The TCs as a whole faced an immediate and real danger of a genocide (not to speak only of 22 but also of our own ‘Turkish eaters’ like Sampson, Yiorkadjis, Lyssarides etc.). They finally escaped thanks to the intervention of the English -who of course had their own reasons and interests, otherwise they wouldn’t have cared — who intervened between the opponents and created the famous green line.

19. The two tendencies of Greek nationalist ideology in Cyprus quickly lead to armed conflict. The extreme right-wing pro-Enosis organization EOKA B is again founded by Grivas and they accuse Makarios of being a traitor to Enosis. They then proceed to attack and murder of pro-independence individuals and leftists, while the response of the state and the pro-independence faction is similar.

    Except for the massacres of the TCs in 67, this issue is put on the shelf for a while as most have now isolated themselves in their wretched ghettos.

20. So things are leading to the new big explosion of all these contradictions of the hegemonic ideology in 74. The facts are again known: first the coup against Makarios planned by the Greek junta and executed by the GC National Guard. This is a rare case of political schizophrenia where the army representing the Nation is confronted with the State apparatus par excellence: the police. This then prompted the intervention of the Turkish army, which invaded the island under the pretext of protecting the TCs. It is known to all that this military operation (a large-scale landing operation that is completely impossible to plan and execute in a week) was planned much earlier and that behind all this there were other bigger political games being played. But what no one in South Cyprus today admits is the fact that the TCs then really were exposed to a huge danger despite all the radio statements of the coup plotters that the whole thing was concerning only the GCs (and if that was the case the TCs had every reason not to believe it since the Junta president was none other than the ‘Turk-eater’ of Omorfita, Sampson).

    The result of the invasion of the Turkish army was the definitive separation of the two communities and the creation of a gap between them that grows as time goes by. The truth is that the TCs in the South since long before 74 started to move North after suggestions or even blackmail from their leadership (and this was to break down the myth that GCs and TCs before the war lived as brothers. The truth is that nationalism had worked its miracle again). Anyway, it is 74 that the GCs in the north were displaced to the south and the TCs who still lived in the south moved north either because they wanted to, or because they had no choice, or because they were exchanged for GC prisoners. Then the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was established and at this moment in Cyprus there are two States with similar ethnic identification, no matter how “false” Southern Cyprus characterizes the North. What to do? This seems to be the way all states exist: they are built on violence, survive using violence and die using violence.

    The victims of course of this new intra-imperialist conflict were again the exploited classes of both communities, who were not entirely innocent. Infected to the core by nationalist ideology, they played the game of the bosses and of course lost.

21. [Missing point 21. and the text of the subtitle of the next point. Possibly there is no point 21. due to a mistake in numbering, or part of point 20. is point 21., with the numbering missing in the printed text, due to bad photocopying]

    After the crisis of ’74, “Southern” Cyprus experienced a rapid economic growth, what has been called an “economic miracle”. The first thing the authorities cared to do was to patch the holes in the economy opened by the war. This was of course done at the expense of the exploited classes who were asked to throw themselves into production and make sacrifices to restore the economy. It is precisely here that the maturity of the local capitalist class was demonstrated. It managed to avoid any explosive situation that might have arisen in the first two years after the invasion due to refugees, deprivation and unemployment. And this was done with the close collaboration of all the parties and trade unions that have sold out any workers’ struggle in the name of the National problem. The left-wing parties have been content to repeat their accusations against the right which has been in power ever since (don’t be fooled by the results of the last elections) for its inability to lead a national-“liberation” struggle, repeating again and again the rhetoric about the US-NATO imperialist conspiracy that was behind the events (who remembers the slogan GREECE-RUSSIA-ALLIANCE!!!!?). At the same time, and since Greek nationalist ideology was identified in the minds of most people with the betrayal of the Greek junta, it is neglected, with the GC nationalist ideology expressed mainly by the Makarios line being promoted. The phenomenon ‘from fustanella to vraka’ was also convenient for the GCs in the international political arena as they always sought to prove that the Cypriot state is one and that the only representatives are the GCs. On the other hand, they could not help but always display the Greek flag next to the Cypriot flag and maintain closer relations with the Greek state. Anyway, the fact is that in recent years there has been an upsurge of “pure Greek” nationalism which envisages the single or double enosis of Cyprus with Greece as the only way out. But all this again is a big chapter in which many other factors have to be taken into account, such as for example the competition between the Greek and GC ruling classes etc.

    Then, with the various aids from abroad (mainly from Greece and the USA) and with the various “refugee” taxes, the problem of housing the refugees was slowly solved. Finally, with the decisive shift of the economy to tourism, the issue of unemployment was settled to reach today’s GC society of 88.

Today’s Cypriot Fantasy

23. “Southern” Cyprus today is a petty bourgeois society that has gone from poverty to over-consumption in a very short period of time. A country that is becoming an important economic and diplomatic centre. We are talking about a modern cosmopolitan façade, but behind it lies a culturally miserable, spiritually castrated society where the most extreme egoism and reactionary patriarchal concepts coexist with thousands of offshore businesses and luxury hotel complexes. A small state on the tourist periphery of the metropolis of capitalism.

    The working class — the vast majority of them infected by all kinds of nationalist ideologies — have been made the property of the state and their trade union leaders with the only reward being the apartment with the VIDEO and the two cars. [unreadable part of the text — the beginning of the sentence does not come from the text:] [They have convinced themselves that the national problem is] the only problem that exists in Cyprus today and that all they can do about it is to blindly obey the laws of the state, work like donkeys to continue to have their petty bourgeois comforts, pay taxes for defence and trust their leaders to handle it.

The Autonomy of Society from the State, of the Individual from the Whole, of the Minority from the Tyranny of the Majority, of the District from the Centre, of the Marginal Culture from the Hegemonic etc., Are Facts Inconceivable to the Cypriot Conte

24. As a natural result of this situation, the racism of the GCs is also extended to the social level, targeting anyone who consciously or unconsciously refuses to submit to this daily misery. And we have the recent example of the open attack of the police and the state against marginalised youth and the creation of the special police units. The state of “Southern Cyprus” and the identification with it [creates a] society [that] cannot tolerate anyone who questions the centrality of the national issue as THE problem (here leftists go so far as to call for a Greek brigade on the island and support not only the army but also its discipline).

It Is for This Reason That Any Political Theory and Practice That Promotes National Unity Actually Serves the Dominant Ideology by Masking the Real Contradictions of Society and Exorcising Social War in the Name of the National Problem.

Perhaps the final points that we could characterize as positions of the group, without these being magic recipes, are:

1. WAR ON THE WAR OF THE BOSSES. Against a new Greek-Turkish conflict that will definitely involve Cyprus. Against militarism in all its forms and exposing the role of all kinds of armies starting with our own.

2. EXPOSING NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY WHEREEVER IT COMES FROM: left or right, Greek, Turkish, Enosis, Double Enosis, etc.

3. RESTATING THE PROBLEM ON ITS CLASS BASIS. Denial of the centrality of the national issue. The only problem of liberation that the exploited classes of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, as well as the whole world, have is that of liberation from the shackles of forced labour and daily boredom. Everything else is implied or is inlcuded. But to do this requires [sentence missing]

4. SOCIAL CRITIQUE, practical and theoretical. Alternative-antiauthoritarian discourse and practice.

5. RAPPROCHEMENT ON A FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL (and not on a leadership level) both for the two communities in Cyprus, and of the Turkish and Greek oppressed in the context of an Internationalist solidarity, exposing of course the fiasco of agreements such as Davos between the Social-Fascist Papandreou and the Ankara Militarists.

Since there are many questions that arise from what we have said above, we will try to answer some of them:

1. But isn’t the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is an illegal state built on violence?

   All states are illegal and all are built on violence. We do not divide states into “good” and “bad”. The issue is brought to us on the basis that all Two Cypriot states are built on violence and this was the result of so many years of mistrust and suspicion between the two communities. We do not of course support the presence of the Turkish army in Cyprus any more than we support the presence of the Greek, Turkish, English or any other army on this land. We know very well what the role of each army is and how many crimes they are responsible for against humanity.

2. Are you against an armed national-liberation struggle?

   These are all options that have been tried in the past and have only led to massacres. From a radical point of view, what needs to be done is to avoid a new war. After all, what did the national liberation movements of the 1960s — which also had an anti-imperialist character — leave behind them other than dictatorships and misery, and to what extent did they succeed in providing a revolutionary perspective? The national liberation struggle as a primary struggle always results in the strengthening of the state (centre of power) and the militarisation of society in exchange for the replacement of foreign oppressors with the local ones. This is precisely the very delicate point that anti-authoritarians must be both anti-imperialists and anti-militarists and it is certainly a subject that bears much discussion.

3. So you are against a war that would settle things?

   Absolutely. No war has ever settled anything but the conditions for the next one.

4. Are you against violence?

   Violence is the worst part of our everyday life and we will never stop fighting against it. But we accept violence as the means of of last resort of social self-defence and of waging the only war in which we will participate: the social war (and when we say violence we do not mean exclusively the extreme case of armed violence).

5. But in what you say you seem to put almost all the blame on the Greek and GC side?

   We have tried to put the issue on its class-social basis. If this is being done it is because we hear what the Turks have done every day. No one dares to stick their nose into Greek shit.

6. [question missing from the photocopy]

   We are not trying to justify any expansionism, especially Turkish expansionism. But try to justify Greek expansionism and you will see what game you are involved in (some people insist that the Greek state reaches as far as the Indies!). The point is not to argue one nationalism against another, one state against another, one army against another. The point is to expose the role they play in the oppression of humanity and to fight them, starting with what is most directly related to us: ‘our’ state, ‘our’ army, Greek nationalism, always in the hope that something similar will happen on the other side. As unrealistic as this may seem at the moment, it is the only truth for us. And after all, how much have we really tried in the direction of Internationalist solidarity?

7. But what about the refugees and missing persons?

   No one can question the human (not the national) right to freedom of settlement and residence (some of us are refugees and some sentimentality about the place we grew up is inevitable). However, it would be naive to think that a solution to this particular problem could be found through clowning like the one observed at Davos, whining at the UN or a war. The refugees have simply been the new victims of this eternal game and as long as the oppressed Gcs and TCs do not take their fate into their own hands this will be their role in history. And in a new such phase it will be all of us who will be feeding with our bodies the cannons of the militarists of Athens, Ankara and Nicosia. As for the missing persons, let them look a little in the mass graves of the coup.

8. And if the Turkish army tries to occupy the whole of Cyprus, what will you do?

   However serious the threat of a new war may be, let us not suffer more from the fear of it than from the war itself. Regardless of which side attacks, we categorically refuse to fight. But for this to be effective, an anti-war discourse in general and an anti-authoritarian discourse and practice in particular, both in “North” and “South” Cyprus, as well as in Greece and Turkey, must be articulated from now on, so that there can be an organised response to the difficult moment of the declaration of war. And it is in this internationalist direction that we should move, perhaps to prevent a new round of racist massacres (in the past there have been many cases of soldiers who organised themselves and effectively refused to fight, showing an unprecedented maturity). We need to finally get rid of the shit our fathers put on our backs and look for new ways of coexistence and understanding between individuals, social groups (not classes of course) and nationalities.

If any of this does not happen, we deserve our fate:

LET EVERY PERSON HASTEN TO SAVE THEMSELVES

ANARCHIST GROUP ANAFENTOS