— FROM THE SPEECH BY COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA AT THE MEETING OF THE SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE ALBANIAN PARTY OF LABOUR ON 20. 9. 1990 — At this meeting, devoted to several issues concerning the ideological and scientific education of the student youth, a group of distinguished young activists from the University and other institutions of higher education also took part as guests. In a lively discussion of this subject, the meeting developed into a warm, collegial conversation, characterized by a constructive spirit of debate, a critical analysis of experience and shortcomings, and a scientific concern for the tasks ahead. Comrade Ramiz Alia and the other comrades of the Secretariat exchanged useful views with all those present on bringing about positive qualitative changes in work with the student youth. Student youth, Comrade Ramiz said in this discussion, are precious to the whole country. The future cadres will emerge from their ranks: those who will advance the economy and culture, those who will strengthen and further develop the homeland. The people rejoice when they see young people’s diligent efforts to learn, to advance science, to rise intellectually; when they see them forging their will and discipline at work, taking the people’s concerns to heart and striving to resolve them. Student youth, Comrade Ramiz continued, deserve special attention. Cadres, specialists, researchers, and people of science and culture have become one of the most important factors in socialist progress. Their sound preparation is therefore a major investment in the future. He pointed out that a numerically strong intelligentsia, with a high cultural and scientific level, has now been created in our country. It is successfully meeting the tasks before it. The fundamental point is that it is connected with the people, and that its interests are bound up with the development and progress of socialist Albania. This is due to the correct policy pursued by the Party, the comprehensive support it has given the intelligentsia, and the confidence it has continually shown in it. The wisdom of the Party’s approach to the intelligentsia is also borne out by the present times. Since the liberation of this country, the enemy has made many attempts to turn the youth and intelligentsia into its reserve, but no one has succeeded, nor can anyone succeed. Comrade Ramiz then emphasized several urgent tasks related to strengthening the ideological and scientific convictions of the younger generations in schools. The role of science, research, knowledge and scholars, he said, must be further increased in every sphere of our life. Our aim should be for scientific thought to guide every task, rather than the order of a bureaucrat or the preference of a leader. The times have called upon science and rigorous study to play new roles in defining the directions of development and carrying them out. They must lead development in every field and show the most rational way forward, from cultural life to society as a whole, becoming an important part of the life of the country at every level. To achieve fruitful results in the economy and politics, in culture and defense, this course must be followed. The growing role of science, he went on, is also required by the deepening process of democratization. If we must rely on economic laws and methods to solve economic problems, then in dealing with issues arising in other fields we must rely on their own internal laws. The logic and operation of objective laws must replace the sway of bureaucratic apparatuses and administrations. Governance by administrative methods is a product of the fetishization of apparatuses and administrations, which are necessary and have an important role, but only if they operate scientifically—when they give the recommendations of science the force of implementation through state laws and directives. Our intelligentsia, researchers and student youth, Comrade Ramiz said, must help raise our work to the levels required by the times. Outstanding people, talents and capable activists will emerge in this work. Democratization is a major process that embraces all working people, but it must not be allowed to become a tool for speculation by individuals acting against the interests of the people. Public opinion should therefore be shaped by progressive people, true fighters for socialism and the democratization of life, pioneers of the vanguard and communists, the revolutionary intelligentsia and youth—all those men and women who want Albania to remain free and sovereign, as our people have forged it with blood and sweat over these five decades. We must shape opinion in favor of progress and democracy, socialism and well-being—not through rumors or café talk, but through work, hard work, discipline, indeed rigorous discipline, knowledge and science. Only on this basis will the country progress, democracy expand, initiative grow and life improve. There is no other honest path that serves the people and guarantees the freedom and independence of the homeland, nor can there be. Our youth, on this issue too, must develop knowledge on a world scale, just as they have things to affirm to the world from the values of our national culture. Increased contacts between our youth and the world, whether through publications, translations, performances, etc., must be seen as a necessary two-way process of giving and receiving, and pursued without complexes or prejudice. Speaking further about youth recreation, Comrade Ramiz pointed out that their demands in this sphere should be considered entirely legitimate and met in accordance with the country’s economic capacity. We should not judge young people’s wishes for recreation by the standards of years gone by, he noted. I have become acquainted with some of their requests for spaces for relaxation and entertainment, and I have not noticed any excessive demands among them. Young people have many wishes, but they also understand the country’s problems well, so their demands are quite reasonable. The Secretariat of the Central Committee has recommended that the Government speed up the implementation of several projects submitted by youth organizations to build recreational facilities in Tirana and other cities. Any investments made should be used with high efficiency. In closing, Comrade Ramiz reiterated the importance of the decisions of the 11th Plenum of the Party’s Central Committee concerning student youth and expressed confidence in their creative and practical abilities. (ATSH) rational way forward, from cultural life to society, as a necessary and practical abilities. (ATSH)

On the occasion of the 2,400th anniversary of the founding of Berat Berat is celebrating its 2,400th anniversary as a city. As a settlement, it is 300 years older. The Berat mission is of national and international importance. More than one of Albania’s ancient cities, more than one settlement center in this Adriatic region, could have received this recognition in time. Congratulations to the one that did! A jewel of millennia-old architecture, Berat speaks of our people’s contribution to the development of civilization in the Balkans. After the War, Albania declared it a museum city and has done much to ensure that Berat lives up to this title, deserving to be declared a museum city protected by the world. We do not doubt that it will be. The architectural and urban treasures, and the artistic and artisanal riches of this White City, have been well brought to light. The new Albanian scholarship has devoted a significant and valued part of its work to them. Through these, Albanians can learn about 24 centuries of their history and culture, and the world can learn about just as many centuries of history in the Balkans. When we mention Berat, we recall the history of the Illyrians, Romans and Arbëresh, the Despotate of Epirus, the domains of the Muzakaj, the age of Skënderbeu and the resistance against the Ottomans, the autonomous Albanian pashaliks, the beginnings of the Albanian national movement, and the Liberation of the great year 1944. We recall Glavinica, Ballsh, the first nearby kingdom, the famous codices of Mjeshtëria and the epitaph of Aranit, a pinnacle of art with Onufri and his many successors, Nezim and Naib, who committed Albanian to paper. We recall the city of yesterday, agricultural and artisanal, now an industrial city. At this great celebration, everyone also sends good wishes to cities such as Shkodra, Lezha, Durrës and Vlora, in turn, for their millennia. Durrës could have celebrated its 2,600th anniversary in 1973. Why does Selencia not celebrate the 25–26 centuries of its mine? In 1006, Elbasan could have commemorated the 500th anniversary of its construction, while also recalling the 18 centuries of Skampa, with the three-way Via Egnatia. Even today, Skampa preserves its name in the Shkumbin River. But it is not only ancient centers that deserve to be celebrated. How many years do Voskopojë and Vithkuq, once flourishing towns, have? Përsi is a new city—but since when? How old are Kukës and Peshkopia as cities? How long have Laçi, Përrenjasi and Memoriali, among others, existed, whose founding as cities we witnessed? Cities are a source of civilizational pride.

— The “Zëri i popullit” reporting team — The Party’s 11th Plenum currently opens up new prospects for the expansion and extension of municipal services and crafts. The decisions of this Plenum provided a basis for analyzing the situation in this sector to date, guided the search for more effective forms of organization, and opened new paths for initiatives and greater activity in municipal services and crafts. For more than two months, the Party bodies and organizations, as well as the government and economic bodies in the district, have had these decisions in their hands. What has been done to implement them? To find out, in recent days we observed the districts of Durrës, Elbasan and Tirana. The “lightweight” services sector Let us say at the outset: the state of municipal services and crafts, not only in the district we observed, does not meet contemporary needs. The public needs more services, greater variety and quality, and reliability in their delivery. Citizens are tired of the typical expressions “born” in the service sector: “come tomorrow,” “come in a week’s time”... They are also tired of waiting a week for work to be done... They are tired, too, of delays in getting services done quickly and in having items and models made to order. They want city streets bustling with the work of craftspeople and the movement of customers... Competition among service units, between private businesses and state units and artisan cooperatives, publicity and advertising to attract customers... But all these things, here and elsewhere, remain imaginings. The opportunities are not being turned into reality. If someone is surprised and asks, “What? Are they going to open so quickly?”, public opinion and the people’s demands say: we are late—in fact, we are dragging things out considerably! Do not these figures themselves point to delays, a failure to understand and a failure to appreciate the issue: in the districts of Durrës, Tirana and Elbasan, 26, 43 and 33 units respectively have opened in these two or three months (quite a few of them are polishing workshops). These are three districts with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. You want to learn how an artisan cooperative is organized. But where can you find one?! In Durrës they say: a [word unclear] has been set up for the artisan cooperatives (you can also find this in the materials of the meeting of the Bureau of the District Party Committee dated September 11). Thus, under the way things are being done, the prospects that are opening up—the new mechanism or new forms of organization—are narrowing; the state service units are turning... Difficulties that grow Difficulties are brought to the fore both by the low level of service in existing municipal-service and artisan workshops, and by the shortcomings observed in their further expansion. Why does a unit have no customers? “The material base is lacking, the spare parts,” they say, pointing to the services provided per capita and the purchasing power absorbed by services. In the districts of Elbasan, Tirana and Durrës, with their very large populations and considerable movement and clientele, services worth 400–450 lekë per capita are provided annually, absorbing, respectively, 7, 8 and 9 percent of purchasing power. These indicators alone tell you that there are many shortcomings in the work of the services, and that they constitute a “lightweight” that the pressure of the people’s demands will easily shift! The scope offered by the new mechanism The new economic mechanism also offers new and varied paths for municipal and artisan services. It opens up broad opportunities for extending and expanding services; it prompts ideas for setting up new workshops, and provides economic incentives to contribute more to the country’s overall development, including on a global scale, just as there is much from our national culture’s values to affirm before the world. These translations, performances, etc., should be seen as an essential process of exchange and should be carried out without complexes or prejudice. the spare parts,” they say— (Continued on page 2)

Yesterday morning in the city of Fier, the National Committee of Veterans of the War of the Albanian People and the district veterans’ committee organized a meeting with leaders and distinguished activists of this organization from all the country’s districts. The meeting discussed the work carried out in the patriotic and revolutionary education of the masses and the tasks arising in order to deepen this activity, in accordance with the decisions of the Party Central Committee’s recent plenums and the instructions of Comrade Ramiz Alia. Also present were the chairman of Albanian People, Shefqet Peçi; Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Pilo Peristeri; chairman of the district Executive Committee, Anastas Pone; and other comrades. Participants in the meeting expressed their appreciation for the work done so far and for their valuable contribution as Party militants to the patriotic and revolutionary education of the masses, through numerous propaganda activities, particularly to transmit to the younger generation the outstanding traditions of our people in the struggle to liberate the Homeland and build socialism in the country. Comrade Shefqet Peçi also spoke at the meeting. Among other things, he drew attention to the good work of veterans in villages and cities in implementing the instructions of Comrade Ramiz Alia. He said that the tasks currently set for further democratizing every aspect of the country’s life must receive greater attention from district veterans’ committees. By involving their members and the entire body of veterans more actively and in various ways, their work should have a strong influence in helping people correctly understand and assess the circumstances in which our country is building socialism, and the measures the Party has taken to deepen the democratization of society. These measures are fundamentally aimed at strengthening the defense of the Homeland’s freedom and independence and advancing the victories along the path we ourselves have chosen. Veterans, he continued, are needed and have an important role in the life of the country. Their work must the victories along the path we ourselves have chosen. (Continued on page 2)

From cultural life in the districts The polyphonic group of Bënça in Tepelenë is among the most highly regarded in the district’s cultural and artistic life. Its “biography” to date records participation in more than 350 events. The group has a rich and varied repertoire of over 220 songs, many of which have also been recorded in the archives of radio, television and the Institute of Popular Culture. The group has also attracted the attention of foreign researchers, including Germans, Greeks, French and others. These days, a series of events marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of this polyphonic group were held at the “Mustafa Matohiti” House of Culture in the city. An anniversary session was organized and a photo exhibition of the group’s activities was opened. Several concerts were also organized for music lovers in Tepelenë, with performers from the Lapardha folk ensemble of Vlora also taking part alongside the group; they had been invited for these events. SEJМEN GJOKOLI

Yesterday a delegation of the European Community arrived for a visit to our country. It was composed of the political directors of the foreign ministries of Italy, Ireland and Luxembourg. Talks were held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between the European Community delegation and the Albanian delegation, headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sokrat Plaka. The delegation also met with the director of the Institute for the Study of International Relations, Prof. Sofokli Lazri, and was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Reis Malile. During the talks and meetings, views were exchanged on relations and cooperation between Albania and the European Community in the economic, trade and other fields. Discussions also covered current international developments in Europe and the Mediterranean, the process of Balkan cooperation, and the steps taken by Albania to join the process of European Security and Cooperation, etc. Yesterday the European Community delegation left our country. (ATSH)

Difficulties that grow