The Communist Initiative of Cyprus expresses its solidarity with delivery workers who are facing fascist attacks while at work. These actions by fascist groups aim to terrorize workers in their struggle for employment and life with rights. We support the struggle of the delivery workers with all our strength, as they are an integral part of the working class of Cyprus. We unequivocally declare that any attack on a delivery worker is an attack on the working class of Cyprus.
These attacks add to the pogroms that took place a year ago in Limassol and Chloraka, the murder of Anisur Rahman seven months ago by the bourgeois state, and other similar incidents faced daily by migrants. Through the police, the government attempts to downplay these incidents as imitation behavior by groups of young people. The delivery workers’ struggle to claim their rightful demands—highlighted by recent strikes and the negotiations that led to a collective agreement—seem unwelcome to big business interests. The fascists, acting as a paramilitary force, try to intimidate delivery workers to prevent further pursuit of their demands.
The attacks on delivery workers reveal the impact of the nationalist and racist rhetoric that permeates Cypriot society daily, fueled by the government’s and bourgeoisie parties’ dominant policies. The bourgeoisie class, in its attempt to obscure the causes that intesify poverty, unemployment, and exploitation of workers, tries in every way to cultivate in the consciousness of the Cypriot people that all these are the fault of the migrants.
Migrants and refugees are victims of the same policies that oppress the working class and the popular strata daily. These are the policies of the EU and other imperialist organizations, which, in the pursuit of profit and power superiority, increase the foci of war in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, thereby causing flows of refugees and migrants. These are the same policies that render migrants “illegal,” stripping their rights so that large agricultural and livestock businesses, hotel owners, contractors, and digital platform companies can profit from their exploitation. Guided by proletarian internationalism, we stand in solidarity with delivery workers in their fight against racism and fascism and in their pursuit of their fair demands.
Experience has shown that no achievement can be secured except through organized struggle and mass actions of the working and popular movement, with class-oriented direction that promotes the needs of the workers. A struggle that correctly places delivery workers’ demands, which are primarily:
- The recognition of them as salaried employees without conditions or prerequisites.
- Stable earnings, including ATA (COLA) and the securing of all their labor, union, and insurance rights through collective agreements.
- The free provision of protective equipment and clothing.
- The securing of the maintenance and insurance of the means of transportation.
- Prohibition of deliveries in hazardous weather conditions.
Communist Initiative of Cyprus
