— OUR PARLIAMENT IS EVADING THE LAND LAW — When the Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the People's Assembly, Mr. Aleksandër Meksi, announced on Thursday that the number of deputies who had spoken had reached 60, and that no consensus had yet been reached, I was reminded of this conversation: Some time ago, we were in Parliament together with the American Republican Mary Catherine Andrew, head of a section of the Republican Institute for Studies with the Outside World. When I asked her what she thought of changing the name of the Labour Party to the Socialist Party, she replied: «It is just as if I put on a different suit and called myself not Mary, but...» And indeed, that answer was correct. It was driven home even more by the position the socialists are taking on land. They admit that our cooperative system failed disgracefully. They raise their voices to say that livestock has been seized, with some people left without even a single sheep. Land, too, has been divided in many villages, in some places even according to customary law. Produce is being seized, not to say stolen. Even the crops are being harvested before their time. In other words, another loss or crime against the economy. And yet they hold to the absurd view, just as our government of stability has done in its draft law, exactly as the Socialist Party's programme stipulates: that land should remain state property. It will be given to the farmer only to work. I ask: What state are we talking about, when the farmers themselves have taken the land? And further: Which programme of Europe's socialist parties says that land should be state-owned and remain a public commodity, as we are sadly experiencing? Why, at this crucial test of how much they have renewed themselves, do the socialists return to the positions of conservative communists, who had such a passion for the word «state» and for state ownership? At the very least, why have they not drawn closer to the communists of 1945–1947, when, on the land question, they were in more advanced positions? Yes, this is true. In the History of the Party of Labour (second edition, page 197), we read: «... the fundamental measure that would overturn the situation in favour of the working peasantry was agrarian reform, which would give them the land. Immediately after liberation, the Party raised the slogan “The land to those who work it.”» And two pages further on: «They [the lands] were distributed to landless and smallholding peasants, free of charge, as private property.» This was done, as Enver Hoxha wrote, because «at last the dream of our villagers had come true, the dream of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, the dream of all old and young patriots, the dream of all those who love the Albanian people and Albania. Our villagers awoke to find themselves on their own land.» And he argued that «democracy cannot be understood otherwise than through major social, economic, political and cultural reforms and... first and foremost, agrarian reform...» (E. Hoxha, Works, p. 86). At that time, this was right, just as the opposition's demand is right today—the deputies of the Democratic Party and Omonia, along with the other parties outside Parliament—that farmers become masters of the land, that they own it. For one cannot conceive of a state seeking to join the European family and enter the market economy while continuing to keep land in state ownership and making the farmer feel like a hired hand. But our new socialists, who embrace Craxi and meet Robert Kennedy and many other businessmen, smiling at them to show that their thinking is almost like theirs, take on a different face when it comes to land—when it comes to giving farmers what we have unjustly taken from them for half a century. They reveal themselves for what they really are: people and a party that have never sought to end state domination. Come on—what conditions does America demand of Albania, when Albania... and remain a public good, return to the positions of conservative communists, who had a great the very least, why did they not draw closer to the communists of 1945–1947, when they held more advanced positions on the land question? of Labour (second edition, page 197), we read: «... cultural reforms and... first and foremost, through today—the deputies of the Democratic Party and Omonia, together of a state seeking to join the European family, seeking to enter the market economy, while continuing to keep land as state property and making the farmer still feel like a hired hand. Yet face when it comes to land—to are: people and a party that have never sought state supremacy. Come on, what conditions does America demand of Albania, since Albania...

Among other things, we learn this from the financial police in Tirana: the citizen Abaz Perati from Shijak was caught trading goods of national value. Here are some of these objects: silver crosses with chains from the Zadrima region, men's waistcoats, women's aprons, belts, and pocket watches of various brands. According to the assessment of the ethnographers of folk creativity, Abaz Dojaka and Spiro Shkurti, the aforementioned objects have museum value and are not permitted to be traded abroad. But this does not concern the profiteers. For them, only one thing matters: filling their pockets with money. Who buys these goods? Abaz Perati was caught with them in front of the «Tirana» Hotel. Anyone who has passed by this hotel in the afternoons, especially on Thursdays, has surely come across such profiteers. Tourists buy them. But they say the «ADA» company buys them too; its offices are still on the 12th floor of this hotel (for what reason?). Perhaps Abaz was taking them there that day, since, they say, such visitors often go up to the doors of «ADA». One day, as I was waiting in the corridor on the 11th floor of the hotel with one of the employees, the elevator doors opened, and there were two men inside, around thirty years old. The hotel employee asked them: «Where are you going?» «To the “ADA” company. We’re going to meet Besnik Kapo.» Do we know the laws of the market economy when we are concerned about this? But this is not a case of someone exchanging a commodity according to their own interests. This is the plunder of wealth that belongs to our national culture. After economically ruining this people, it seems they have now taken it upon themselves to impoverish it spiritually, mutilating the culture it inherited. Who gives these profiteers the right to put the values of material culture up for auction? Is there any inspection at customs posts of antique and archaeological objects of artistic value, as well as objects of worship and others? Are there so many of them that foreign companies are involved in taking them away too? The material collected, for example, in the field of metalworking is very small compared with the great wealth we have inherited from the past. Our own museums are poor in these objects of national culture. Aware of this, cultural workers and the relevant institutions have made an urgent appeal, with deep civic concern, for action to be taken and measures adopted to categorically prevent these objects from leaving the country's borders. But it seems the customs authorities have been little concerned by this, unless there is also some internal connection behind this kind of smuggling. The role of the state authorities has been entirely ...; in this regard, they should be responsive. To stop this kind of profiteering, this exodus, I think the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports should open purchasing points for citizens who wish to sell these objects for various reasons. In setting the price, the offer should be taken into account so that the seller does not seek to sell them here illegally on the street. The time has come for us to heed those sounding the alarm about why the values of national culture are in the hands of profiteers. GANI LEKA — Where are you going? — — What do you want with Besnik? — We sold some national costumes and have now come to collect the money. — Where do you get the costumes? — We buy them in villages. — And where are you from? — From Vlora. And a National Museum employee, not far away, on another similar occasion. She had met some young men from Mirdita, who had told her that they had delivered folk costumes and other ethnographic objects, in large quantities, to one of the employees, the elevator door opens, and inside are two people around thirty years old. The hotel employee asks them: — Where do you get the costumes? — We buy them in villages. — And where are you from? — the narrow 11th-floor corridor of the hotel, together with asks them: — Where are you going? — — What do you want with Besnik? — collect the money. — Where do you get the costumes? — We buy them in villages. — And where are you from? —

On Wednesday, a meeting took place at the headquarters of the Republican Party between the PASOK delegation, led by Mr. Akis Cocopoulos, secretary of PASOK's Steering Committee, and including Mr. Aleks Papathopulos, a member of the Greek Parliament, and Basilis Çikas, a member of PASOK's Committee for International Relations, and the PRSH delegation, led by Mr. Sabi Godo, chairman of the Republican Party, and including Mr. Vangjush Gambeta and Zef Bushati, deputy chairmen of the Republican Party, and Mr. Çerçiz Mingotaj, head of this party's foreign affairs section. The meeting discussed issues of interest to both sides concerning the situation in the Balkans, the exceptional situation in Yugoslavia, and the positions the two sides hold on these issues. The talks emphasized the need to strengthen Balkan cooperation among the various political parties, as well as consultations and joint action to resolve troubling Balkan problems peacefully, in accordance with the requirements of international documents. At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that the talks would continue at a second meeting as soon as possible. Correspondent of «Republika»

On Saturday, 13 July 1991, the Tirana branch of the Republican Party organized a peaceful protest demonstration in front of the Yugoslav Embassy in Tirana in support of the Albanians of Kosovo and other parts of Yugoslavia. Several hundred residents of the city of Tirana took part, along with a group of Kosovars living in Fushë-Krujë and the surrounding villages. The demonstrators held slogans such as «Kosovo Republic», «We support the Republic of Kosovo», «No agreement on Yugoslavia without the Albanians», «Stop Greater Serbian terror in Kosovo», «No bloodshed in Kosovo», and others. At the demonstration, the chairman of the Tirana branch, Mr. Maksim Haviari, spoke on behalf of the PR branch in Tirana. He stressed that the Republican Party strongly and unreservedly supports the Republic of Kosovo and every other right of Albanians in Yugoslavia. He also called on all the political forces in the country, remembering that the national question is what unites us in a single ideal, to support the Republican Party's initiative to sign a petition of Yugoslavia. His speech was accompanied by applause and chants such as «Republic of Kosovo» and «Kosovo Republic». At the end, the demonstrators dispersed peacefully. GENCI ÇOBANI ... that belong to Albania. in a single ideal, to support the initiative of the Republican Party to sign the petition in support of the Albanians of Kosovo and the other Albanian regions end, the demonstrators dispersed peacefully. GENCI ÇOBANI

AN UNFORGETTABLE EVENING The town square of Kavaja was filled on the evening of 10 July 1991 with hundreds and hundreds of [?] of different ages. The town square of Kavaja was filled on the evening of 10 July 1991 with hundreds and hundreds of men of different ages. At 9 p.m., amid a deep silence throughout the square, hundreds of candles were lit in the clock tower and at a spot below the main road in the Sallbeg neighbourhood. The people of the town honoured the memory of their son Josif Buda, the first martyr of Albanian democracy, who one year earlier, on the evening of 10 July 1990, with his pure blood marked the beginning of the struggle for democracy in Albania. On this occasion, at his family's home (Continued on page 4)

We export carpets for 17 to 20 dollars per square metre, depending on the markets. Based on the costs incurred per unit of production, converted into dollars according to the export methodology currently in force, this price should be 24 dollars. We make hand-embroidered bedroom sets for 50 dollars. Calculating the costs, which are influenced mainly by wages, according to the approved percentages, shows that this price should be at least 80 dollars. Countless examples from the work of Foreign Trade could be cited, and they clearly demonstrate that this monopoly, like many other acts of the monist regime, does great harm to the economy and to the people's standard of living. It took 46 years for the PP to finally understand that things could not go on this way and to accept as its only alternative a way out of this situation, calling the market economy the solution. At this point, the views of all the parties converged. When it came to the ways forward, in a manner (Continued on page 2)