DECLARATION OF "THE CYPRUS GREEN GROUP" FOR THE 1996 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN CYPRUS

NOTHING IS MORE POWERFUL THAN A MATURE IDEA

We stand sceptical before our lives. Facing a semi-occupied homeland , with its people living behind the wall raised by foreign invaders twenty one years past, in 'comfortable temporariness', that turns into status quo the most appalling bisection.

On the other hand, we live in degrading circumstances, in hostile cities, an almost miserable situation. An inhuman, vandalising development model, supported directly or indirectly by all the political parties, is raping mother-nature, contaminating our water, selling off our shores to the ever-growing tourism industry, crowding the people in cement-towns, devastating the social web and enclaving us in the dictatorship of automobile metal, the decomposition of nature and life alike. It is the same model that promotes non-stop consumption, draining the workforce, miserable human interrelations, corruption, solitude, indifference, passiveness, stress and neurosis. The same model that generates both scandals and corruption of its leaders, enhances the use of favouritism, policing, and politician politics.

THERE IS HOPE AND IT IS GREEN

Suffocated by the degradation of quality in our lives and the detachment of society and nature, withstanding the environmental crisis threatening the whole of the planet and wondering as to where the logic of 'development' is leading us, we are ready to fight for a citizens' society, trying to save something of tomorrow that we are being robbed of today. In parallel with the intervention into social conscious, something that we've been doing for years through our active role in the environmental movement of our country, this fight is now passing through the stage of intervention into political norms. We are called upon to react to the environmental degradation and social decomposition by creating new social cells and resistance, in view of recomposing social relations through positive intervention guided by a true vision for tomorrow's world. We believe in matching political and personal life, matching the ends with the means, developing mild techniques, means and norms, searching for non-violent ways of action, building differentiated structures, and at the same time restructuring our ingrained daily norms. Our way of life as well as the world that we live in have to start changing here and now, so that they can really change tomorrow. What we are proposing is a new model for society, liberated from the logic of the ambiguous 'progress' and unbounded economical growth, a model based on autonomy and self-organisation that re-establishes harmony between man and nature.

Such a society can certainly work with dignity towards its visions; The recognition of human rights for all Cypriots, the unity of the country, the termination of any geographic boundary based on ethnic origin or religion, true independence, the ethnic and social groups living together in harmony, the peaceful future which will comprise the outline of our expectations and the necessity for true prosperity.

ON THE ROAD TO ITHAKI

It is clear to all that the realisation of the above goals is not an easy matter. The political and economic interests that support today's state of matters are indeed very strong. Our weaknesses are a fact. We are trying to go past the traditional political party territorial boundaries, and set out new paths. In order to establish that, we must seek and reinforce the factors the unite us, while exhibiting the required self-control and tolerance (both insufficient in the Cypriot society) towards the opinion of others. Our aim is not necessarily to get elected to the House of Representatives. Primarily, we are interested in the sincerity and authenticity in expressing and developing a really different proposal, in making a new assertion, a fresh presence in the political scenery. We aim to offer a proposal that is expressive on what we believe in rather than persuasive. Our goal is to ascertain that our word will not be fake, that our conscious will not be led astray, consumed in the struggle for power or turned into old cliche slogans.

We dare appeal directly to the heart and the mind of our fellow citizens, rather than addressing their reflexes, projecting ideas rather than faces, proposals rather than magical solutions, visions rather than hidden personal interests. Towards a better future for our country without dividing lines and barricades, and for our common home, the earth.