Socialist plan for the local elections SP seeks a pre-election alliance and a joint campaign with the Pole page 3

The word “strike” has been back on the pages of Albanian newspapers for two weeks, and yesterday Albanian workers even tried it out for an hour—workers who, for four years, have behaved as if they were Swiss. It seems that, along with autumn, the season of strikes is knocking at Albania’s door too, sounding like a bad omen for Albanian politics, in which a strike has never meant an economic protest. It should be noted here that the protagonists of the trade-union agitation are both the Independents of Mr. Xheka and the confederalists of Mr. Muça. Indeed, this time it seems that the Independent Trade Unions are the most militant, which for many observers is more than merely significant. The autumn 1996 strikes have thus come unexpectedly, after a four-year silence, and that is another significant element. They did not take place when the price of bread was rising, when the cost of living was increasing, or when laws contrary to the interests of workers in every field were being approved. Albanian trade-union life was so passive that a majority of the population was coming to believe that the Albanian trade-union bureaucracy was returning to the accursed tradition of “the transition tripartite bodies.” Their sudden awakening, while marking a return to trade-union agitation in Albania, makes one wonder whether this breaking of the trade-union silence might herald political turmoil. Although history does not repeat itself, the fact cannot be ignored that, up to now, our trade unions have been more familiar with political struggle, in which they are by no means ineffective. Such a conclusion is also compelled by the fact that the season of strikes is taking place on the eve of local elections and that its protagonists are not the left-inspired unions, but the official ones, close to the Democratic Party. The connection between these two facts makes the recent strikes highly intriguing. Add to that the creation of two factions in the government, with the prime minister opposing the strikes and the deputy prime minister calling them a means of restoring himself, and the question marks multiply. If the matter had been referred higher up, it would, without any doubt, have been Mr. Meksi. In that case, we would have had a second prime minister brought down by strikes, but not a judicial change in the premiership. VLADIMIR PRELA

In the dock: Pali Miska, Enver Halili, Qemal Bregasi, Hysen Shahu, etc. Yesterday, Pali Miska in the dock photo A. BABANI Yesterday, Pali Miska in the dock. photo A. BABANI

Where and how much you can earn VEFA, Gjallica, Kamberi, Xhaferri, etc., speak in figures page 9

FOR THOSE WHO WON AND WANT TO WIN (Near Hotel Dajti) Read on page 16

On the anniversary of Peza, the Minister of Defense conveys the president’s message page 5