International

'The global crisis has exposed for what it is the naïve belief that neoliberal globalisation would eventually lead to peace and prosperity for everyone. Complete freedom for big capital turns out to be an almost impossible to dismantle booby-trap for international cooperation, national sovereignty and social agreements,’ So said SP Senator Tiny Kox this weekend in Nicosia, Cyprus.

As leader of the United European Left group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Kox called for an energetic struggle to rebuild and extend the international rule of law and combat the brutal neoliberal order under which might makes right. 'Because in the end such an order renders us all powerless.’
Kox was speaking in Nicosia at the invitation of AKEL, the Cypriot Workers’ Party, the country’s biggest political party, which enjoys the support of more than 30% of the electorate. AKEL leader Dimitris Christofias was elected President of Cyprus in 2008. In his presence, and that of a large number of foreign guests, the AKEL conference looked at what progress had been made over the last few years. The central problem remains the division of the Mediterranean island, with almost 40% of its territory occupied since 1974 by the Turkish army, in contradiction of numerous United Nations agreements and the legal rules of the Council of Europe, to which both Cyprus and Turkey are affiliated. Despite the considerable efforts of President Christofias, the Turkish government appears to have little appetite for co-operation.

Kox expressed his support for proposals from the Cypriot government and called, as he had done two weeks earlier in Antalya, Cyprus, for the Turkish government to put an end to the illegal occupation and allow Cypriots to determine their own future. Turkey is currently holding the Council of Europe rotating presidency. 'Turkey must now demonstrate that the government is really committed to human rights and to the core values to which all forty-seven member states of the Council of Europe have subscribed.'

Kox said that Cyprus was an example of how it was not legal regulations but relations of power continue to determine what happens in the world. He stressed how wrong it was that since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the United States has been allowed time after time to undermine the international rule of law. The US believes that this best served its own interests and those of Big Business, most of which is based in America. And the rest of the world let this happen. The United States set itself up as a powerful advocate of complete freedom of movement for big capital and for itself and thus turned its back on the International Criminal Court, the anti-land mine treaty and the Kyoto protocol, refusing to work towards disarmament, a refusal in contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

'We have allowed big capital and the sole surviving super power to go their own way undisturbed for a very long time. It’s now time to understand that we must be done with this brutal order of power and instead further the struggle to protect and extend the international rule of law,” says Kox. “if you want to give peace a real chance, or build a better and safer world, if you want a fairer society, then you must combine your strength with that of everyone who stands for a civilised international rule of law.'