THE LEVEL OF THE BENCH, EQUAL TO THE LEVEL OF THE SERVILE WITNESSES A strange unease, circulating among all the other people, and exercising power with unprecedented force and brutality. The son of trusted people, people of the PARTY, first secretaries, members of the CC, heads of State Security) mechanisms assembled in the service of crime, unparalleled communist segments. These were the prosecutors, judges, investigators, and jurists of the past. Politicization and ideologization to the extreme further increased their incompetence and misery. Look at them today! The new era has laid them bare before the people, completely bare. The clearest, most visible example is the trial of Nexhmije Hoxha. For days and nights on end, the small screen felt insulted by the systematic use of the words: spoons, forks, plates, medicines, coffee, three-lek notes, which people listened to and followed with astonishment. Perhaps Nexhmije Hoxha deserved such banal and ordinary trials too, because that is what she herself was like, and, moreover, this is what they punished this people for. In any case, the real economic plun-* [?] dering is not spoons and medicines. They are the bottom line of Mrs. Hoxha’s account. This fact must be borne in mind; the question arises by itself: Which investigator was it who reduced the great lady to nothing but spoons, forks, and medicines, and, ultimately, why did he do such a thing?!! This question becomes irrelevant when you watch and follow the bench closely. Prosecutor Mosko, when he begins to compose his third sentence (even though it is January), is covered in 40 layers of sweat. Meanwhile, when Comrade Ramiz starts speaking as a witness, he can barely keep standing. Undoubtedly, the most laughable scenes were those with the witnesses. There, the level of the bench melted into and became one with the level of the servile witnesses. Only Nexhmije, throughout all the days of the trial, spoke as she once did, sweetly, innocently, with all her authority. Nexhmije Hoxha’s “spectacle” trial will remain a synthesis of the mediocrity and misery of Albanian justice, a justice they themselves gave birth to and will die alongside. P. SKENDERI

To help the travelers, for whom their “hearts ache,” so-

When I sat down to write this political line and not rallies. Con- I thought to myself that our con- ference really does not noise. Even that very short notice ference will keep making us— that TV made, it distorted it with other people’s calculations. It is unfortunate regret, moving away easy to understand that such a from our purpose. According to time has come when politics is...

then the market economy has arrived A few months ago, even the price of bread went up. Bread, which for decades had been an ideological “monopoly” of the Albanian communists. “We have never lacked bread,” Comrade Enver used to proclaim. People were used to the price of 20 old lekë per kilogram, and when its price moved, something broke in the mentality of things “guaranteed” by socialism. All of us, let us accept this “all” as absolute, doubted the setting of this price: Was it something unconsidered? Was it being done deliberately to cast doubt on democracy? Is it unacceptable to the ordinary buyer? Is... the BREAD of the children at risk? Naturally, it was no small matter. It was a question of daily bread. A whole people who had been fed only BREAD and with the mentality: Just don’t let us run out of bread, just bread... Let the rest be wiped away! No cooked food and no books, no TV and no culture is fine, just don’t let our Bread be put at risk... BREAD, BREAD! In those days, it was even said that the “socialists” would know how to exploit the moment when the price of Bread rose; more than that, people would rise up and demand BREAD, BREAD, only BREAD. We don’t want democracy or freedom of speech, we don’t want to go to Europe either, we only want bread... «Zëri i Popullit» hoped for this for a long time. It and its mother, the PPSH, had worked for a long time to make life equal to eating, only BREAD. But in vain...! People got used to the price of bread. They GOT USED—not simply to the PRICE itself, but to the change in bread’s role in their own nutrition and that of their children. It is well known that Albanians stand out in Europe for the large quantity of BREAD they consume. Even though we all know the value of bread, especially in relation to the value of other foods, nevertheless they call it BREAD. The market economy declares, after the rise, your and your child’s needs; food not only bread, but especially other values. We are all witnesses to the variety of foods we find on the market. From bananas to video TVs. From hundreds of private service outlets to the flood of cars on this country’s still narrow roads... Nevertheless, «Zëri i Popullit» insists that THE PRICE OF BREAD WAS RAISED BY DEMOCRACY (or «Voice of ... BREAD»!!!!). RAISED BY DEMOCRACY, insists «Zëri i Popullit» (or «Voice of ... BREAD»!!!!). Yes, naturally it went up. Who would dispute such a thing? Who wants to keep deceiving this people with low prices for bread and services and various fees?! Democracy has as its own prerequisite the disclosure of all truths, first and foremost PRICES. Until we get used to prices, until we understand their regulating and stimulating role, real work will never begin. People will never get to work. The production of material goods in the country will never begin. Only then will production affect prices. It is understandable, and something to be expected, that there will also be a degree of price-gouging by certain private operators. A certain lack of experience in mutual state-private relations, and more broadly private-consumer relations, is also to be expected. Prices are often unreasonable, but all of this will nevertheless lead to GETTING USED TO PRICES. «Zëri i ... Popullit» must accept this logic if it is not interested in continuing to have people and its readers regard it as an extension of the spokesperson for the former Central Committee of the PPSH (now PS). We undoubtedly agree that the Government should be as open as possible about the measures it takes; it should certainly explain things, even price increases, but first of all, we must all be willing to get used to the logic of prices in a market economy. Without price movements, how would a market economy differ from a socialist one?!

To “help” travelers, for whom the socialists’ “hearts ache,” «ZP» on January 17 published the table of travel prices. To “help” travelers, for whom the socialists’ “hearts ache,” «ZP» on January 17 published the table of travel prices; to “help” the people in general as well, on that same day it published the article “Enjoy your homes, forgive me the rents,” a call concerning the increased rent, a call concerning the rise in medicine prices, a call concerning the Government’s increase in prices generally, presenting this decision as an adventure and the Government itself as uninformed (not getting the news). And, finally, to bring down the facts and the people’s perennial grievances, «ZP» concludes that politics should not complain! The pseudonymous writers Bëqir Shkreli, Shkëlqim Devolli and Pranvera Shkëndij of «ZP» (in such cases, whenever they “help” the people, «ZP»’s journalists turn into pseudonyms), using pseudonyms, are trying through a filthy campaign (continuing) to stir up protest against the reform, while keeping silent about the fact that liberalization is the only path to a market economy. «ZP», what anarchy! It says that prices have gone up! The next day, people rushed, confused, into the shops to check whether the prices of sugar and rice had suddenly risen across the board. It is being said plainly that prices are not rising, everything! But, as mentioned above, there was a flagrant doubling and tripling of everything! But it was said that most prices were as before. The private sector had nothing further to liberalize; the free prices were the same. Some had even fallen. Only the basket of goods was liberalized, but this, it seems, remains the only path! «ZP» is trying to create anarchy! By inciting protests among travelers, the press gangs, the sick and the rest of the population. Reform is painful; that is well known. Some will have to pay more and others will have to sacrifice something. If «ZP» is helping everyone in this regard, would it not be better to offer, instead of the Government’s decision, some hurried adventurism, rather than the deep anarchy and rebellious spirit it sows? For example, would it not be better if its intellectual economists, among whom Nano, Pellumbi and others stand out at the very top, helped the people by publishing through «ZP» their broad views and suggestions about the Government’s decision, so that the country could pass through that phase with less pain, instead of resorting to petty and irritating reasoning? In any case, an economic statement would be better and more appropriate for «ZP» than the base, warmongering spirit it sows among everyone and the insults it directs at the entire public. And so, first of all, it should come to the people’s aid. And so, in turn, truly!

When I sat down to write this political line and not rallies. not rallies. Our conference really isn’t— I thought to myself that it’s loud. Even that short notice that TV made, they will keep making us in other people’s calculations. It is easy to understand that such a time has come when politics has become rather garrulous, especially when it gets into the mouths of socialists or the pens of socialist soldiers. The ZP, which never forgets you, had the honor of giving us a— and a report on the National Conference. The Eurosocialists of ZP tell us what happened at our Conference, things that we did not know. They issue appeals to the participants and, as their hooligans are in the habit of doing, they lie shamelessly. To tell the truth, about 200 people attended our Conference, our representatives from around the country. And this is enough to show that our FORUM had no intention of holding a rally with 2,000 people, as some majority Forum, and not a right-wing one, has made a habit of doing. We gathered to achieve our republican aims. With this purpose we gathered to discuss our problems, not to make a fuss and fill a hall with people shouting for a solution, and then spend all the time reading a newspaper. The Republican Youth (Continued on page 2)

On Wednesday at 8:00, the madwoman N. knows, you don’t want to. Then pvespi Sulo... ; Nexhi; Enveri: Ramizi... the comrades have not been blocked. Allah demands a sacrifice, the criminals into the fire...! The madwoman N., unable to face the whole crowd of students and police who had gathered, climbed the steps at the courthouse gate, raised the hatchet horizontally above her head and shouted: «Stand up!...» Judgment. In the name of the people, I acquit Nexhmije Alia and Ramiz Xhu-li. Ramiz, for his testimony to history. The testimony of the time before imprisonment in dollars. Not at prosecutor Mosko’s exchange rate. At Sejdia’s rate. The criminals, if actually convicted, are sentenced: Kino Buxheli—life imprisonment, Mico—one—101 years inside, Mico—two—100 years. The Durrës cleaner, 10 years in mug-bu. Kajo Tarafi—99. The one who laughed—her teeth are broken. Order! This is a courtroom, not Han F… etc. Hands out of your pockets! I’m done. No appeal, Sulo, zha-verdict! Spaç is full. The prison is being transferred to Hotel Tirana... Long live the Party. The madwoman N. wanted to speak some more, but the police, despite the students’ protests, took her away from the courthouse door. In the afternoon, the madwoman N. was seen in the T-rasa register with a tiger she had placed beside her like a scarf. THE CHRONICLER

In its January 15 issue, the newspaper «RD» publishes a quotation from Ramiz Alia’s book concerning a conversation he had with Mr. Sabri Godo in March 1991. If «RD» considers that book historical testimony, let it publish the whole thing (since there may also be «economic considerations»). We need and used a more «extended» republic.