THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE DEMOCRATIC FRONT CONVENED
A forum for the masses’ free thought — COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA’S SPEECH —
Dear comrades,
This meeting of the General Council of the Democratic Front of Albania is taking place in a situation characterized by important positive changes in every field. The decisions of the 9th and 10th Plenums and the legal acts of the latest session of the People’s Assembly have created everywhere a healthy atmosphere of work and civic commitment. As the comrades who took part in the discussion also said, they have further invigorated the political and social thinking of the working masses and increased their creative role. Workers and peasants, intellectuals, veterans and young people alike are moving resolutely forward along the path of the comprehensive development of our society.
The unanimous approval by the people’s masses of the decisions of the Party, the Assembly and the Government, and their enthusiasm, stem from the fact that these decisions not only respond to present-day needs, but also pave the way for a clear prospect of the country’s development and progress. political and social life.
This atmosphere was also expressed at this meeting of the General Council of the FDSH, which, as Comrade Nexhmije said in the report she delivered, aims to define the tasks facing the organization in keeping with this stage in the development of our socialist society.
The role of the Democratic Front has always been important, but its tasks grow and multiply at moments such as the one we are living through, when our people are required to have and ...
... their own political personality and identity, which was expressed in close cooperation with the Party in formulating ...
Yesterday, in one of the halls of the National Historical Museum in the capital, the General Council of the Democratic Front of Albania convened. The Council members and guests applauded as Comrade Ramiz Alia, First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, entered the hall.
Nexhmije Hoxha, Chairwoman delivered the report, “Let us increase the role of the Democratic Front in the process of further democratizing life in the country.”
Those taking part in the discussion highlighted the enthusiasm and optimism sparked throughout the people by the decisions of the 9th and 10th Plenums of the Party’s Central Committee and the laws adopted by the People’s Assembly to improve the economic mechanism and legislation, which are imbued with the great idea of further broadening and deepening socialist democracy. They shared the experience of Democratic Front organizations in various districts of the country in working to strengthen and democratize government, provide the masses with legal education, further steel the unity of the people, advance the country’s democratic process, and place the people—the broad masses—in its center more effectively. Emphasis was placed on the tasks facing Democratic Front organizations, in cooperation with other mass organizations, to advance the democratization process, engage in broader and more active work with the masses, participate more actively in formulating state policy in various fields, encourage the progressive thinking of workers, peasants and intellectuals, and consistently implement and respect the civil rights guaranteed by law in the fields of the economy, work and society. It was pointed out that the Democratic Front should make a greater contribution to clarifying, explaining and reasoning with the masses, by broadly involving specialists in various fields, in order to curb tendencies to fulfill and exceed targets, encourage their campaigns and movements, etc. In this connection, the good work of Democratic Front organizations in the districts of Tirana, Shkodër, Vlorë, Durrës, Korçë, etc., was mentioned.
Amid the enthusiasm of those present and with a ... Comrade Ramiz Alia’s speech. Comrade Ramiz Alia’s speech was listened to with great attention.
During the break between the meeting’s sessions, Comrade Ramiz Alia visited the antiques exhibition opened He praised the various relics displayed there, including household furnishings, vases, jewelry, religious objects, woodwork, porcelain, metalwork, textiles, etc., made by our own and foreign artisans from the 14th to the 20th centuries. Comrade Ramiz Alia congratulated the Museum staff and the employees of the Institute of Popular Culture on the meticulous work they had done to open this exhibition, the first of its kind in our country, which displays only a part of the great treasure of our people’s material culture.
(Photo: ATSH) (ATSH)
... all the patriots of this country. The second political pole that attracts and unites them—
people are required to have and directly exercise more power and rights, when the line of the masses needs to be expressed more strongly, and when the creative thinking and initiative of workers must be raised to a higher level. The country’s progress, the safeguarding of its freedom and independence, the continuous strengthening of people’s power, and the freedoms and rights of citizens deriving from our Constitution would remain halfway without the Front, without this organization for cultivating people’s democracy, and without its intensive activity.
The Democratic Front is the most representative and most authoritative social organization in our country. In Marxist literature and in our propaganda, mass organizations are often described as “levers of the Party” or “transmission belts.” In view of the tradition and practice to date, I think this description does not fit our Front organization in particular.
The Democratic Front was created on the initiative of the Communist Party at one of the key moments in the history of our people and in response to a concrete political need. It was not created because some universal ideological postulate existed, but because there was a fervent popular desire for freedom, democracy and progress. Its aim was to gather all the sound and nationally conscious forces for the liberation of Albania and the Albanian people from fascist rule. Its program was even clearer, understandable and entirely unambiguous: the creation of a free, democratic and people’s Albania, completely independent and sovereign. Its organization respected an ancient Albanian tradition—that of popular assemblies, whose origins date back at least to the time of Skanderbeg—and was based on broad, pluralistic representation of different strata of the people and of individuals distinguished by their devotion to the cause of the homeland’s freedom and independence.
The fact is that the Front was led by the Party, that its political program did not differ from the Party’s, nor could it have differed, since their political objectives were essentially the same. But the Front had, especially during the National Liberation War and for a long period afterward, a recognized initiative in thought and action. It had its own political personality and identity, expressed through close cooperation with the Party, mutual inspiration for joint political activity, and a fruitful reciprocal influence in making major political decisions. The relationship between the Party and the Front was like that which exists in life between leaders and the masses when there is democratic communication between them, when the popular masses not only have a voice and an opinion on various issues and developments, but also play a decisive role in resolving and directing them.
We must bear this tradition in mind so that, today as well, under new conditions, the Front’s role in mobilizing the patriotic forces of our people, distinguished people with established standing from among workers of various kinds and the intelligentsia, may be unique and irreplaceable.
The Democratic Front has developed and continues to carry out extensive activities in many fields. It makes a major contribution to the patriotic and revolutionary education of the masses, to mobilizing them for work in building socialism, to social and cultural transformations, and to establishing new moral norms, etc., etc.
But the political magnetic pole that has brought and continues to bring the masses together around the Front has been and remains the ideal of freedom, independence and national sovereignty of the country, symbolized by this organization; it is the imperative of national and popular unity and the struggle to secure it. The question of national freedom and independence has not been, and cannot be, a matter solely for the Party, a question of ideological affiliation or cultural preference. Since it includes the fundamental condition for preserving the people’s national identity, originality and individuality—their very self—and is a necessary prerequisite for being an independent subject in international relations and a basis for independent spiritual development, it is an issue for everyone, regardless of any affiliation.
Everyone has the sacred duty to defend this freedom and independence, just as everyone has the right to express their own free opinion on how they should be defended. The Front creates precisely this opportunity for all our citizens, for that attracts and unites the masses in the Democratic Front is the defense of people’s power, its strengthening and improvement, and its further democratization. National freedom and independence and people’s power cannot exist without one another. They are bound together by a shared historical destiny, since if one is lost, the other disappears too. They constitute two of the fundamental pillars of the existence and development of the new Albania.
The other vital issue that links the masses to the Front is the building of a new life, the creation of a just society, a socialist society without social or national exploitation and oppression; a society where there is equality, where everyone lives by their own work and is valued and respected for the contribution they make to society’s development and progress.
These clear ideals, around which the political unity of the people is achieved, are also the basic source of the Front’s strength as an organization; they form the spiritual motive that inspires and sets the political activity of the masses in motion.
Another basic factor underpinning the Front’s strength as an organization has been, and must increasingly become, its representation of the broadest strata of Albanian society, free discussion and a democratic spirit in decision-making. The Front has never worked in closed offices or narrow circles of individuals. It has raised and discussed issues directly among the masses.
The Front organization must preserve and continue this tradition and practice. It must preserve and further develop the outstanding traditions of holding popular assemblies on major political and social issues, such as those concerning the mobilization of the masses in the National Liberation War, the collectivization of agriculture and voluntary work, the emancipation of women and elimination of backward customs, and aid and solidarity among the country’s various regions, etc. These are the traditions of assemblies, of discussion and expression, of meeting halls that include not only elders and notables, but also people from the democratic strata of the working population; of bringing forward their interest in work and production, enabling them to participate actively in formulating state policy in various fields, granting them decision-making authority and protecting civil rights.
After emphasizing that bureaucracy and its practices have been, and remain, particularly serious and dangerous obstacles to the democratization process, she pointed out the major role of the masses as the only way to counter bureaucratic pressure. This is also the aim of the decisions adopted at the latest session of the People’s Assembly concerning the new economic mechanism and the improvement of legislation, the transfer of many powers from various state and economic bodies and their expansion at the grassroots level, and the definition of terms of office for leading cadres at all levels, etc.
The Front organizations must fight to ensure that these measures are implemented as well and as fairly as possible. They must develop their own civic courage and that of the workers against every shortcoming and weakness, against incompetence and mediocrity, and encourage the people’s initiative in finding quick and effective solutions to problems. The Front must particularly encour-[?]
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