— RALLY WITH THE PEOPLE OF DËSHNICË — Yesterday, Suka had practically become the centre of Dëshnicë, with those hundreds upon hundreds of cooperative members who had also come from Podgoran, Fshati i Ri, Katundishta, Balaban, Zhepova, and the entire region. Gathered on the slope of a hill that resembles a natural amphitheatre, they all awaited Comrade Ramiz Alia with applause and loud cheers. He greeted the cooperative members warmly. Comrade Ramiz Alia was accompanied by the first secretary of the District Party Committee, Shkëndër Kuçi, and the chairman of the district Executive Committee of the People’s Council, Bashkim Xhakollari. The enthusiasm of the people standing on their feet did not abate. “I’d better sit down,” Comrade Ramiz said. “Then we can have a more relaxed conversation.” A young woman immediately brought the region’s and all of Përmet’s traditional refreshments—the renowned raki and gliko. “I raise this glass to you,” Comrade Ramiz toasted. “May you have happiness and good fortune. Long live the Party.” “Long may you live, Comrade Ramiz! Bless your feet for coming!” the people of Dëshnicë replied. Hajbi Kopo, secretary of the cooperative’s Party bureau, spoke about the work and achievements in the economy and other fields, about people’s lives becoming more prosperous and cultured, about the enthusiasm aroused by the decisions of the 10th Plenum, and about the efforts of all the cooperative members to put them into practice. Everyone wanted to tell the leader what they felt, so the microphone passed from hand to hand. “Our village of Podgoran-Fushë has been built up with new houses over the past five-year period,” said the village youth secretary. “The youth organization is at the forefront of the work with wheat and corn. Our brigade alone will produce 300 quintals of wheat above the plan.” “My father went abroad to work in the mines of France, while the Party gave me, his son, a higher education,” said the teacher Hekuran Pashollari. “The people wholeheartedly deserve the decisions of the 10th Plenum, because they strike a chord with the peasants and workers, the intellectuals—everyone.” He then spoke about our Party’s positions on Albania’s relations with other states, arguing his case with conviction and confidence. “Well done,” Comrade Ramiz congratulated him. “You explained these foreign-policy issues very well. That shows that you have understood them correctly.” A young man from Zhepova described how they had divided the livestock of the small flocks among the farmyards and the great care they were taking of them. The people of Dëshnicë had followed Comrade Ramiz’s visits to Korçë and Kolonjë attentively, and now that he was among them, they wanted to hear him speak as soon as possible. Taking the floor, Comrade Ramiz Alia expressed his joy and pleasure at being among the people of this area, then said: Improving the people’s living standards is the Party’s main concern, the aim of all its plans and decisions. The progress in this field is great and incomparable with the past. But the Party is always thinking about doing more: raising workers’ material living conditions to the level of their culture and education, and to the level of the needs of the times and the population’s purchasing power. When we speak of living conditions, food is the basis. Therefore, ensuring the necessary food products from agriculture is a fundamental condition for the people’s well-being and health; it is a guarantee of livelihood. As the saying goes, when you have bread, your eyes are open and wide awake. Today, however, we are seeking to make a food programme a reality that meets society’s needs and constitutes the basic factor in increasing the productivity of people’s physical and mental activity. The Party’s policy for development (Continued on page 2)

Yesterday afternoon, in the «Zihni Sako» theatre hall in the city of Gjirokastër, Comrade Ramiz Alia met with leading cadres of Party and government bodies and the economy, as well as frontline workers of the district. Those present welcomed Comrade Ramiz Alia as he entered the hall with applause and cheers for the Party. “I was in Korçë and Kolonjë these past few days, in Përmet yesterday, and today I could not fail to come here to Gjirokastër,” said Comrade Ramiz. “For many reasons: because you are good people and I have missed seeing you, because this is Comrade Enver’s birthplace, and because the Party’s work requires every cadre to meet people as often as possible.” Then the first secretary of the District Party Committee, Manxhar Binaj, briefed Comrade Ramiz on the work of the Party organization and on the mobilization, momentum and revolutionary enthusiasm of the city and village workers in implementing the decisions of the 10th Plenum of the Party Central Committee. Cadres from enterprises and agricultural economies also spoke. They discussed their work and the results achieved in fulfilling tasks in agriculture and livestock breeding in order to supply the people as well as possible with agricultural and livestock products; the effectiveness in production of new forms of work organization and remuneration in economic enterprises and agricultural cooperatives, in line with the tasks set by the Party at its recent plenums. They noted the response and approval among workers, cooperative members, intellectuals, youth and the masses for the measures the Party has taken to further democratize the people’s material and spiritual life. Comrade Ramiz Alia then took the floor at the meeting. Those present listened to Comrade Ramiz’s speech with particular interest. Amateur groups from the city’s cultural centre presented an artistic programme. (ATSH)

— FROM THE SPEECH AT THE MEETING WITH CADRES OF THE GJIROKASTËR DISTRICT — After greeting the people of Gjirokastër, Comrade Ramiz spoke about several issues concerning the correct understanding of the decisions adopted at the 10th Plenum. Continuing on this subject, he said: of the Party’s activity under current conditions. These aims are expressed comprehensively in the 9th Plenum of the Central Committee. They were reflected in the deepening everywhere of the mass line and the struggle against bureaucratism, in the development of a programme of measures to improve relations in production and the basic legislation, as well as in strengthening the active role of the country’s foreign policy. The 10th Plenum of the Central Committee further advanced these objectives and gave them concrete form through specific measures and practical actions. It is a continuation of the previous plenums, a continuation of the entire Party line. This explains the cohesion of public opinion at home, the increased interest of workers in their work, and the vigorous upsurge of initiatives among the working class, the cooperative peasantry and the intelligentsia. The deputies and the state and economic bodies are preparing for the forthcoming session of the People’s Assembly, which has been convened to consider and decide on the specific problems of the new economic mechanism and the comprehensive socialist system. In the course of discussions in the electoral districts, these numerous and complex problems are bringing to light the main areas on which the Party’s work must currently and in the future focus, so as to make the best possible use of the advantages of the proposed measures. A substantial increase in income, providing for future needs and ongoing changes, and the mobilization of the energies envisaged and their mobilization to put those changes into practice are decisive factors in all the work ahead of us. Experience shows that this step is successfully achieved when every workers’ collective and every individual makes the Party’s guidelines their own vital interests, opening up new prospects for progress and well-being. The decisions of the 10th Plenum of the Central Committee offer real opportunities to increase labour productivity and the efficiency of the economy, as well as workers’ incomes. Knowledge of the Plenum’s decisions must everywhere be accompanied by the mobilization of internal reserves for increased production and income, for quality and savings, for speeding up work and making use of favourable weather conditions in agriculture. The essential thing is to take practical steps everywhere and achieve concrete results. This is how the degree to which the new tasks set by the Party are understood is demonstrated, the correctness of the programme we are undertaking is confirmed, and conviction is strengthened to move forward resolutely. During discussions in the economic bodies and at the grassroots, the view has been expressed that the measures we are taking will have the desired effect if they are accompanied by a regular supply of material and technical resources. It is clear that production cannot advance without the necessary range of raw materials and supplies, without foreign-currency resources and the necessary machinery and equipment. But this material and technical base does not come about by itself. It depends on the fulfilment of production and export plans, on the struggle to economize, and on the strength of social mobilization. If gaps arise in fulfilling plan tasks, there will inevitably be difficulties in the following year. From this point of view, it is not reasonable to set conditions for achieving the objectives of the decisions we are undertaking when the material means to achieve them are in the hands of every workers’ collective, every worker, cooperative member and cadre. Every financial resource is secured only through increased production and improved quality. If these two aspects of production are not considered in parallel, it means that something is amiss in the mechanisms of planning, finance and economic management. Thus, however one looks at the problems of material and technical supply and imports, it is evident that every organization, every collective and every worker must first fulfil their production and export tasks themselves, and only then make demands of others. The economic mechanism that will operate in enterprises with independent accounting will enable them to hold substantial accumulation funds in the bank, amounting in total to billions of lek. In this way, the enterprise gains the right to secure and manage its own due income, to finance the expansion of production and meet other needs. But the allocation of these funds is determined by the state plan. Objectively, this is a kind of constraint, even a kind of contradiction, which can be resolved only by properly harmonizing the interests of the grassroots and the enterprise at the planning stage. Economic levers at the grassroots cannot operate as desired unless they are accompanied by skilful planning and appropriate economic methods in the central bodies and in the districts. Practice will be the best teacher. But it is necessary to anticipate developments in their various connections with work activities and to make rapid improvements in organization, methodology and the working model of the central bodies, with the aim of increasing grassroots initiative. The economic methods and levers of the mechanism (Continued on page 2)

On the eve of the People’s Assembly meeting As preparations continue for the forthcoming session of the People’s Assembly, the standing committees on Planning and Budget and on Health and Public Utilities met yesterday in Tirana. At the centre of the discussions of the Planning and Budget Committee, which met under the chairmanship of its chairman, deputy Luan Muhameti, was, in particular, the draft law on «Enterprises». The deputies asked questions and sought clarification on a number of articles in the draft law. The Director-General of the State Bank, Comrade Qirjako Mihali, speaking about the definition of the Bank’s role, stressed the need to increase its credit at this stage, given the study, design and implementation of three new economic regimes, as well as the establishment of a new form of economic organization and management in accordance with Committee. At the same time, Comrade Ramiz Alia, which better harmonizes the interests of the individual, the collective and society. The Minister, permanent secretary of the Council of Ministers, Enver Halla, underlined the need for the draft law to support improvements in the drafting of laws and regulations, which complete the framework for implementing the tasks of the 10th Plenum of the Party Central Committee. The Minister of Finance, Andrea Nako, provided clarifications on the better use of fiscal sums, the participation of workers in their use

The democratization of economic and social life and the growth of the driving forces of our society are primary objectives of the Party’s activity under current conditions.

Impressions About an hour before Comrade Ramiz’s meeting with the people was to begin in Suka, Përmet, we were talking in the shade of a centuries-old plane tree, declared a cultural monument, with Kastriot Hasan, a veterinarian who is also chairman of the village Front organization. I asked him to tell me something about what had been done here regarding the village-level discussion on the livestock of the small flocks, as called for by the 10th Plenum. He told me: “You journalists sometimes have a bad habit. You try to put something in the newspaper that your fellow citizens haven’t seen with their own eyes.” “But you’ve seen it, haven’t you?” I said, realizing that he was right. “That’s different,” Kastrioti clarified. “I can tell you something that’s truly about the village, but the question was how you—or one of your colleagues—could have seen, when we held the meeting, that the village wouldn’t have any difficulty finding the right words.” “Well, then, I’ll leave you to play the journalist’s role,” I said. And Kastrioti continued: “We held a meeting with the whole village. At first we discussed what we should do…” (Continued on page 2)