How, then, will you be able to bring all of you together, gentlemen Albanians? The state is named in the name of the people. The Republic bears the name of the people. The People’s Council bears the name of the people. The People’s Front bears the name of the people. The People’s Army bears the name of the people. In the name of the people, the national undertaking is overturned. The people fell into the trap of deception that happened with their human and national pride and identity. One of the fundamental means of national creation was stolen from the people: language. Instead of a common national Albanian language, it was replaced with a confused and deforming creation called literary language. The people were robbed of the right to move freely within their natural ethnic environment. Not only was movement within this environment forbidden, but the crime of splitting apart and annihilating a part of it was also committed. The people were robbed of property through all forms of plunder, nationalization, collectivization, and beheading. The people were robbed of the right to free speech. Both orally and in writing, the people must say only what they are told and the way they are told. The people were robbed of history and replaced with a portrayal distorted to the point of grotesque. The notion of historical identity was replaced for the people by the notion of class identity. The people were robbed of the right to practice religion and it was replaced with worship of the party. The people were robbed of the right to political orientation and social self-expression, which were replaced by the party’s orientation and by puppet social and political organizations. The people were robbed of everything. But in the end the people were robbed even of their name. Some time ago a friend told me ironically that instead of the name people, we should use the name pashallek, because the latter supposedly expresses our qualities and condition better. Sometimes I think to myself that my friend’s irony is not without foundation. If one judges the condition of Albanians as a whole, it turns out that we make up not one people, but several peoples. As is known, Albanians constitute one nation, but do they form one people? The answer would be yes, if at least some basic conditions were met. A single people has the same spiritual identity, expressed through the same national literary language. It has a shared historical memory. It has a religious affiliation, or else its religions are tolerated mutually without discrimination. It has the same political and cultural orientation, that is, the same historical destiny. It has its own undivided ethnic territory where each person can move freely. And, above all, it has a shared political and legal order. Now the question is: what unites us Albanians? The language? No. The standardized language is not a common national language. On the contrary, it is a tool of division. History? No. At least not the history after 1944. In this period separate histories were created and historiography was ideologized to an extreme degree. Religion? That does not unite us either. On the contrary, it is being used for differences and divisions. The ethnic territory? No, not even that. A good part of our nation lives divided and without the right to normal movement. Political orientation? No. Albanians have been dispersed into different political and cultural systems. A common legal order? No. So what makes us one people? Perhaps only the spoken language, old historical memory, and a vague sense of ethnic belonging. But that is not enough. The Albanian people today are more divided than ever, and this division is the direct result of anti-national policies. If we truly want to speak in the name of the people, first we must know where the people are, how they have been fragmented, and how they can be reunited. Only then can the phrase “in the name of the people” carry moral and political weight. Otherwise it remains an empty formula, an alibi for power, and another way of speaking in the name of those who are never asked.

[text partially unreadable] organization [?...], of PDSH and PD [?...]. [Faint text cut off at the edges of the column.] [This article is not fully legible from the provided photograph.] “These signs should be solved, solved.” It is a fair demand of the miners of the Valias mine for profit. The slogan circulating around, but every day for profit the miners of the strike who are confined in Tirana have gone on strike. Will it be taken into account by the union, the management and the government? (Photo: Arben Kristani) [?]

Tirana, which is being tested as the largest city-Albania in the world, is also feeling even more heavily the consequences of the all-embracing crisis on the threshold of the second winter without hope. The new leadership is moving slowly; hopes rise and fall according to the pace of decisions and opposition. Albanians everywhere feel that they are entering a new time, but at the same time uncertainty is great. [unreadable text] can also be clearly seen in everyday life, in the ruined economy, in the many shortages, in despair and in the thirst for free speech. [Continued on page 6]

[partially readable text] ... University of Tirana, on the morning of 11 December [?...] [Continued on page 6]

[Continued on page 6] [the visible text on this page is partial and very faint] ... [the columns continue from page 6 and are not fully legible in the image] ...

: Chairman: Pjer Zogaj Members: Paqif Kove[r]ca [?] Haxhi Aliaj Mito Cela Kujtim Çashku Edl Hila Teodor Keko Cane Pollo layout by Mentor Shohu Editor-in-chief: F[r]rok Çupi