ALBANIAN PEOPLE! DO NOT BELIEVE THE SLANDER AND PROMISES OF THE SOCIA- LIST PARTY. AS A WORTHY DAUGHTER OF THE “MOTHER” PARTY, IT SEEKS TO HOLD- ON TO POWER THROUGH LIES, WHEN COMMUNISM–SOCIALISM- AS A SYSTEM HAS BEEN ELIMINATED BY ALL OF EUROPE.

ZEF BUSHATI Vice President of PRSH WE REPUBLICANS ZEF BUSHATI Vice President of PRSH In a truly democratic and pluralistic society, different parties compete, each representing specific alternatives for the development of society. Each of these parties is tied to particular visions of development and to certain social strata and groups. Starting from a specific position, each offers its own alternatives for overall social development. We Republicans, our Republican Party, certainly has its own specificity. It brings together those who share the same vision of social development and common interests. In this regard, two important moments are of particular significance, on which other elements are based. The first concerns the political aspect, while the second is connected with the factors of economic and social development. Many aspects matter for the development of society, but according to a republican political group, the fundamental point, the most important moment, is the transformation of the political system of society according to republican conceptions. Of great importance are the normal functioning of the legal order, the market economy, respect for the principle of every citizen’s equality before the law, human freedoms and rights, the right to private property and inheritance, the right to practice religion, the inviolability of the home and the secrecy of correspondence, free movement within and outside the country, etc. But the most important point is that all the others, which become guarantees for the development of everything else, depend on the construction of a modern republican political system built on contemporary principles. The Marxist argument, according to which the economic basis of society is state social property, is not correct and lacks historical validity. This was demonstrated especially by the communist experiences and experiments in the history of this century on the one hand, and on the other by Nazi-fascist practice. It is true that even in a society based entirely on private property, favoring big capital, if relations within the political system are distorted, that country not only fails to overcome the crisis, but sinks, in addition to economic chaos, into an extremely dangerous political adventure. This was also borne out by the Bolshevik communist experience. Communist leftists claim that establishing social ownership over the means of production would also perfect political power. This did not happen. Serious defects in the political system became important factors in plunging the country into a grave, general crisis. We Republicans firmly state that, on the contrary, in those countries where life was built on the basis of a genuine system, in line with republican traditions and their continuous improvement, democracy was not only stabilized, but society also experienced great economic and technological development, and the most perfect example of the republican system is the United States of America. The republican idea is that the people, the electorate, citizens, and peasants, in order to secure all social values, such as their freedoms and fundamental rights, and their economic interests based on the development of ownership, must first and foremost give priority to protecting and improving the representative political system, and then build everything else on the basis of the great priority values of republican politics. It is a reality that in the last three or four centuries almost every major social movement has been based on republican values and principles. What are these values? We Republicans would say that these values are of a dual nature: traditional republican values and modern republican values, both of which were developed by strengthening and consolidating each other. Among the traditional values would be the building of power on the basis of free elections, the division of local powers, the sovereignty of the people, etc. Among the modern republican values would be the creation of multinational representative systems, the blending of the republican political system with a highly advanced system of freedoms and rights for the individual, the extension of the principle of elections and representation to the most minute cells of society such as enterprises, and the maturation of the republican political system together with the perfect well-being of society, etc. Among the fundamental philosophical and legal concepts on which Republicans rely, and which are a continuation of traditional republican values — indeed, at this point we would say that others have borrowed from them as well — is the concept of power as an empty place. This means that, according to this concept, no class, no social stratum, no political party, no matter which one it is, has the right to say that I am the state, that I won the state by blood, therefore I will defend it with blood, that those who have won the state by the will of the people will keep it for life, even if it is completely deformed and entirely stripped of its original values. Power, according to republican concepts, is not recognized as a possession, as material objects or property are. Power can be gained only with the support and will of the people and is handed over on the basis of procedures strictly defined by law, when the people lose confidence in the holders of power. The second concept is that of a state built on laws enacted democratically. The republican ideal in economic terms is that the republican system becomes possible only on the basis of the flourishing of private property, on the basis of the large accumulation of capital, on the basis of the growth of individual wealth and, consequently, the growth of the wealth of society as a whole. There can be no full system of individual freedoms and rights outside the right to private initiative, without the right to private ownership of material goods. A system of free trade and the circulation of every individual initiative, and its encouragement, are essential for a strong economy. It has been proven that state property based on rigid planning of decisions harms not only well-being but also the individual and collective rights and freedoms of citizens. The concept of human rights is based on the idea that the individual’s fundamental rights, which guarantee all the others, are freedom that is legally and actually guaranteed, to challenge through legal means everything that appears unjust, and the freedom to express opinions opposed to it, even opinions contrary to the official views of the state. We Republicans, the main issue we want to raise, have the possibility of peaceful coexis- (Continues on page 3)

— Ndebële, Toronto, Canada LETTER This voice comes to you, friends of Albania — Ndebële, Toronto, Canada — Amnesty International Group 76 Cobourg, Ontario — Jacob Gluckman M. A. (Econ) — Graf-Adolf Str. 77 55000 Köln 80 Germany — Maroje Stewart — Thornbury, Ontario, Canada — Kristen Lamorte Immns Edge, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — Wilfried Roggenkamp Germany 40358 10 8000 Munich — Claus H. Walter Amnesty of the FR Germany, Postach 170 229 D 5300 Bon 1 — Annie Izabela Gordon Edinburgh United Kingdom — Hans Willi Doep Margareten Str. 22 D 5000 Wuppertal Germany — Bezirk Bergich-Land Judith Kamin Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Belgrade Ladies and gentlemen, Your interest in human rights, in Albania and in the rights of man in Albania has been great and is truly appreciated. It is now easier for us to show in the light how things are unfolding today. 1. Even in our South, human rights as the foundation of the democratic legal state are not recognized by the people. Even interventions, remarks and the interest of friends remain like ordinary correspondence among those in power, who, once they receive them, file them away in the archives of their institutions or in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without informing the public about them through public disclosures. 2. Albania in Europe is worse than Palestine in the Middle East. In practice, physically, police beat people with clubs, gun them down with firearms, burn them with napalm, and destroy the republic’s lifeblood across the four states. Malti i Zi, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Italy and Albania itself. Please investigate this matter in places around Albania’s borders, and you will clearly and easily notice this. Gentlemen and ladies, As I am writing these lines, television is showing images of the youths with napalm who were taken from work in Greece and, after being gathered at border posts, were beaten and made to lie down, (Continues on page 2)

YOU CANNOT RULE WITH.... YOU’RE JUST PRETENDING!... — THE BOLSHEVIKS GAVE UP POWER EVEN IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY! — THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DICTATORSHIP ARE HURLING FIREBRANDS AT EVERYONE — COMMUNISM IS TURNING ALBANIA BACK TO THE YEAR... 1944! — THE PEOPLE DO NOT ENDANGER DEMOCRACY WITH DICTATORSHIP — THOSE WHO HAVE RULED AS COMMUNISTS CANNOT LEAD AS DEMOCRATS! A meeting of the “socialist” Kastriot Islami with the electorate. From the hall comes a written question: What is your opinion of the trio Sali-Berisha-Skenderi? The former chairman of the Presidency of Parliament reads this question as follows: There is a question about the trio ES-ES-ES! (The allusion is clear, in fact it is not even really an allusion, but a direct formulation of the accusation already proclaimed by the Socialist Party and published in its «ZP»: that the awakened OPPOSITION — PD, PR and PSD — is FASCIST.) At another meeting with the electorate, the senior PS spokesman, Fatos Nano, declares that PD will take this thing from them, will turn it back on them! Facts and statements like these are easy to find everywhere. «THE BOLSHEVIKS WILL KEEP POWER AGAIN...» (!) — LENIN Fatos Nano has the duty to fight for his Party. We have doubts about his will. He has declared it. Clearly, decisively, without hesitation. So be it, if that is also in the people’s best interest! On the eve of his SECOND resignation, Prime Minister Nano had declared in England that he had nothing whatsoever to do with political parties, that he had no political prejudice to write about and sharpen, that he? But immediately after the moment when he was no longer prime minister, the idea was brought back to him that power (must not be let go) could also be preserved as Party No. 1! It is known that for the revolutionary working class, power, taking it and keeping it at any cost, is the main issue. “Bolsheviks must keep power,” watches Volla?ja! And what does Andreuoti think?!: “Long power tires you, power wears you down. But of course, it is not good to lose it!” Naturally, the Nano-socialists cannot accept such a thing. Andreuoti! They are followed by the sentence of the Italian communists, who put it even more plainly: “Power tires you, power wears you down, but it must not be lost(!).” Moreover, since the Italian communists, according to the half-distanced Enver, are Eurocommunists (that is, Albanian anti-communists), the sentence seems positioned in the concrete circumstances of our country! Power, the most coveted thing... how is it won! The problem is that our Balkan “socialists” (that is: non-European) have no favorable circumstances for continuing their lust for power. These tall fellows know and feel very well: even if they had won the March 31 elections 100 percent, they would have handed them over unconditionally par- YLLI RAKIPI, FARUK MYRTAJ (Continues on page 2)

THANKS TO THE U.S. EMBASSY This week, the U.S. Embassy in Tirana donated to the newspaper «Republika» a Ford passenger vehicle, together with a Xerox machine. A few weeks earlier you had also donated a «Macintosh» computer. You have also given us free of charge a fax machine, a camera, black-and-white film, and several dictaphones, which were donated by the U.S. International Media Fund. If we also add the newspaper paper that was donated to us from the U.S. for continuing the electoral campaign, your help has so far proved to be exceptional. For this we are obliged to thank you from the heart, as brothers and friends, and we hope that the activity of the democratic opposition, through sincere cooperation, will be further strengthened. THE EDITORIAL STAFF

HAPPY HOLIDAY MOTHERS AND SISTERS! Happy holiday, mothers and sisters! This March 8 found you with the right to speak freely denied for half a century, but, unfortunately, still under a communist-socialist government and system. The leaders of our national misfortune, under which women were subjected to great suffering and unequal exploitation, claim that today they are free, that they have become like the European socialists. For the sake of their own existence and the preservation of power, they are ready to deny mother and father and change their name whenever their interests demand it. Do not believe them, because they are the cause of your misery, of mass unemployment, of the exodus of sons leaving their beloved mothers and slaughtered sisters. Do not be deceived by any promise or small charity they may give from the money stolen from the people. We appeal to you, in the name of your sons, in the name of Mother Albania, to use your vote to punish and secure the full victory of democracy in town and in the countryside. All the more so in the countryside, where PRSH, the mother of PS, turned the cooperative woman into a creature made only for work, forcing her to perform the hardest tasks. We wish you, as it comes, to celebrate joylessly the holiday of? a democratic future is coming in a doubled pace and the economic blessing of liberated Albania.