Dear colleagues,
This year marks fifty-six years since the coup d'état of the colonels of April 21, 1967. Led by Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, the dictatorship in Greece suspended key articles of the Constitution and suspended the functioning of parliament, adopting political persecution, deportations, censorship, imprisonment and torture as standard practices against dissidents. Various cells of resistance in Greece and abroad, with the significant contribution of the intellectual world, Greek and foreign intellectuals, as well as the culmination of the student movement with the occupation of the Polytechnic, were milestones in the anti-dictatorial struggle.
The fall of the April dictatorship, which for seven consecutive years crushed democracy and suppressed every human right and freedom of expression, came after the treasonous coup of the junta of Demetrios Ioannidis against the duly elected President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, foolishly giving Turkey the excuse to carry out an invasion that allowed it to realize a long-standing goal: the conquest and partition of Cyprus. Under the weight of its national responsibilities in the Cyprus problem, thanks to the blood, suffering and sacrifice of Cyprus, the dictatorial government handed over power to the politicians on 23 July 1974, thus inaugurating the period of the Third Greek Republic, the longest period of political normality in modern Greek history.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On May 1, we celebrate the anniversary of Labor Day in commemoration of the historic bloody uprising of the Chicago labor unions in May 1886, demanding the establishment of eight-hour work. The day was established as a workers' holiday during the founding congress of the Second International in Paris in 1889 and has since served as a commemoration of the establishment of the eight-hour day, the creation of insurance funds, the introduction of labour contracts, the determination of minimum wages and other labour rights won in the course of the labour movement, honouring all those who stood up against the brutal exploitation of human labour.
In Cyprus, the labour movement already in the first decades of the 20th century and under the strong resistance of the British administration launched its efforts for institutional organisation and collective action, demanding better working conditions, social justice and dignity. Since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, the foundations have been laid for the successful development of trade union organisations, as well as the framework for healthy industrial relations and the acquis communautaire we all enjoy today.
(Text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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