Of particular interest is the integration of the discourse on the Union into the political programs of the Left in Greece and Cyprus
NIKOS CHRISTOFIS (ed.), Between Nation and Class: Leftists and Cypriots, 1920-1974Tsophides publications, Thessaloniki, p. 376
One of the most important difficulties that the Left had to face over time in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey was the attempt to find the necessary balance between the class struggle and national integration. Products of the modern era, “social class” and “nation” formed the axes around which the social and political structures were formed in most states and shaped collective identities from the 19th century. until the dawn of the 21st century The “people”, as an expression of the partnership – alliance of the lower classes against social inequality, was an integral part of the national whole which, however, required social discipline, recognition of the new hierarchical structures and limitation of the manifestation of class antagonisms in favor of a controversial national interest. The attempt, therefore, on the part of the Left to keep unadulterated its internationalist principles and the goals of the class struggle alongside the need to prove its patriotic identity has been a difficult undertaking from the outset.
Nikos Christofis, a young but experienced historian (professor at China’s Shaanxi Normal University and scientific associate of the Netherlands Institute of Athens) has edited an excellent volume in which six expert researchers of the Greek, Cypriot and Turkish realities record the transformations of political identities born of the bipolar social class/nation within the context of the Left in this sensitive triangle of the Eastern Mediterranean. The texts, apart from the editor, are signed by Alexis Alekou, Ahmet Tzavit An, Spyros Sakellaropoulos and Antonis Antoniou, while Nikos Trimikliniotis has written an informative epimeter.
Contrary to the traditional historiographical trends, which dealt with the Cyprus problem as an issue that primarily concerned international relations and diplomacy, but also rejecting the ethnocentric view of the problem, the articles in the volume aspire to highlight those elements that contributed to the formation of a left-wing view of the Cyprus issue from the interwar period to the early 1970s. The “national question” is treated as the basic framework within which the Left was obliged to articulate its social claims, to respond to the expectations of the working class without lose its grounding with the dominant attitude of the majority of the people/nation. The transition, for example, from the popular slogan “free Cyprus to free Greece”, of the era of the Civil War, to the acceptance of the struggle of EOKA and the perspective of the Union by EDA, as a necessary condition for the resolution of both the national and class issue, is an indicative example of the adaptability of the discourse of the Left to what was dictated by the current social dynamics and historical developments.
The well-documented scholarly contributions deal vigorously with the impact of the Cyprus Question on the timeless transformations of the Cypriot labor movement and the island’s communist Left, both on the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot sides. At the same time, the evolution of bicommunal relations and the search for a single left-wing perspective to solve the issue during the period of colonialism and the anti-colonial struggle are studied. Of particular interest is the integration of the discourse on the Union into the political programs of the Left in Greece and Cyprus, the interpretation of national duty from the leaderships of the left forces and the effect that the developments of the international environment had on the manifestation of different approaches to the key questions of the Union, Independence, the form of the coexistence of the communities and finally on the organization of the class struggle, especially during the Cold War period. Finally, the study of the positions of the Marxist Workers’ Party of Turkey, which was legalized after 1960, positions that combine the issue of class struggle, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist rhetoric with the national view of the Cypriot, allows a fruitful reflection on the role it had the National in the classy and vice versa in the relatively “unknown”, for many, Turkish reality.
In closing this brief presentation, we must underline the important contribution to the strengthening and renewal of the Greek literature on Cyprus by the Tsophides publications and Christos Mai and Maria Keletzi. Their audacity to get involved in the torturous – but also highly charming – field of publishing in a period of manifold difficulties seems to have succeeded as a result. And the Cypriot series “Rotsos” of the publications, directed by Andreas Panagiotou, is unique in its kind and allows the Greek public to come into contact with new readings, sometimes unpopular, of an issue that, although it remains open and traumatic, has many unknown aspects that deserve our attention.
* Lambros Flitouris teaches European history at the University of Ioannina
