Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot trade unions rally together to mark Labour Day, on May 1st, for the first time in decades, and call on workers on both sides of this divided island to unite against neoliberal policies and austerity measures.

This year`s event at the stadium of Cetinkaya “conveys across Cyprus a powerful message of unity and resistance of the working people of Cyprus”, said in a Joint Declaration the trade unions of PEO, DEV-IS, KTOS, KTOEOS, BES and KTAMS, which are organising the event.

“Both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot workers are suffering from the impact of the brutal neoliberal policies” they said, rejecting the Memorandum agreed between Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades` government and Cyprus’ international lenders (EC, IMF and ECB) as well as neoliberal austerity policies imposed by Turkey.

“The global economic crisis and its consequences reveal the common class interests of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot workers and the need to intensify their struggles against the policies of austerity and the abolition of working people`s benefits. They stress the need for a joint struggle and the solidarity of workers” they said.

The trade unions described as a “positive development” the resumption of the intercommunal talks to solve the Cyprus problem, adding that they “remain firmly committed to the effort to achieve a bi-zonal bi-communal federal solution with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality, and with political equality of the two communities as set out in the relevant resolutions of the United Nations”.