Domesticating radicalism or radicalising domestic politics? A reply to Trimikliniotis

Abstract

Trimikliniotis’ (2018) analysis has captured the contradictions of a political system that has largely failed to grasp the fast pace of change in the structure, economics and ideology within Cypriot society. The response to this analysis focuses on three main issues: a) the urgent need for a pro-peace radical movement in Cyprus that meaningfully engages with a Marxist political economy; b) the dilemma facing AKEL between a bourgeoisie defined “credible and prudent” fiscal policy and the urgent need for the party to support the alienated working classes through the articulation and implementation of radical macroeconomic reforms; and c) A strategy for reconnecting politics and action in an organic way where the former feeds the latter and vice versa. The validity of a confident social movement approach is confirmed not through the macroeconomic orthodoxies of neoliberalism but the creation and implementation of a radical agenda that speaks to the needs, expectations and experiences of the working classes. The author suggests that a radical agenda only becomes meaningful when it allows the creation of organic alliances and moves beyond narrow ideas of ideological purity.