Highlights from the day’s events Under Article 26 of the election law, today the first phase of the campaign begins: presenting candidates for deputies to the People’s Assembly to the people. This is a very important moment in the election campaign, because in these mass discussions with the people every independent entity will put into practice how well it has hit the mark with its proposed candidates. People’s meetings will be organized by block or neighborhood, by village or workers’ center. These meetings will be organized by the Democratic Front, the broadest mass organization, which brings together the overwhelming majority of the population. We stress that the Democratic Front’s role is only to organize these meetings. If an independent entity wishes to organize meetings itself to present its own candidates, it may do so. There is no legal obstacle to this. At these meetings all the independent entities will themselves present their candidates for deputy, making known to the people what each person’s “biography” of life and work represents. The people will freely express their views on every candidate. They have the right to speak for or against the candidates presented, just as they have the right to propose new candidates. However, under the election law, it is the independent entity itself that makes the final decision as to which candidates will proceed to the vote. Independent candidates will not be discussed by the people. For example, if they have obtained 300 signatures in an electoral zone, they are immediately registered as candidates by the election commissions. The organizers of these people’s meetings will, of course, have to ensure the broadest possible participation by all sections of the population: young people and intellectuals, workers and cooperative members, men and women, and so on. Voters themselves will assess these meetings seriously. The main thing is a civic-minded discussion: we must insist that candidates for deputy to the People’s Assembly be as capable as possible, people closely connected with the concerns of the people and suitably prepared to successfully carry out their duties as deputies in the highest organ of state power. “Victory” makes the deputy a central figure of power. These mass meetings will certainly be marked by a spirit of free and democratic debate. Everyone has the right to express an opinion about every candidate without any kind of prejudice. Order, ethics, tolerance, calm, respect for dialogue and for the tradition of such popular discussions are, without doubt, essential requirements to be observed at these meetings. We are convinced that this important political activity will once again demonstrate the wisdom and democratic culture of our people.

Recently, some people have been waving the “flag of initiative,” claiming to have initiated the democratization processes taking place in our society. Certainly, everyone has the right to say what they think in this situation. Nevertheless, it is difficult to deny a truth as clear as daylight, plain for all the people to see. The initiator and leader of all democratic measures is the Party and its leader, comrade Ramiz Alia. It is understandable: these reforms, which began with the Party’s 5th Plenum less than a year ago and have been deepened and advanced irreversibly by the Party of Labour, could not have been undertaken by any other political force, because no other had appeared on the political scene. Now that political pluralism has become a reality, anyone who tries to deny what the Party of Labour has done and is doing to deepen democracy is not serving democracy or the ethics of dialogue. That the Party of Labour, and no one else, initiated reform of the political system is something no clear-thinking person would even question. Who initiated the removal from the Constitution of the Party’s leading role in society? The Party of Labour. Who initiated the authorization of political pluralism? The Party of Labour. Who initiated the separation of the Party’s functions from those of the state? The Party of Labour. Why did it do this? Precisely because it has had a clear mind throughout its fifty years of existence, and undertook these processes. It undertook them to give political and social life in Albania new breathing space. It undertook them because these steps are vital to the present and future of the people and the Homeland. It was the Party of Labour, and no one else, that confronted the danger of creating the so-called party-state and state-party, and the harmful consequences this entails for both the party and the state. Who initiated reform of the legislation, beginning with the fundamental law, the Constitution of our Republic? The Party of Labour. Here, too, it acted because it clearly understands that the framework of the rule-of-law state is the true path to progress and to Albania’s integration into European and global developments. It did so because only in a state governed by law can all people’s intellectual energies be freed and used to enrich Albanian material and cultural values. Who initiated economic reform, the transition of our economy onto the tracks of the new economic mechanism? The Party of Labour. Here, too, it acted with its eyes and mind on the people and on improving their well-being. Anyone who denies this, like an amateur with no more than school-level knowledge, will hardly convince anyone of the “negation” of the new economic mechanism. Of course, we also have many difficulties and bottlenecks in distribution and other problems; we do not eat, nor claim to eat, with a golden spoon. But critics who try to gain political capital by exploiting the difficulties the country is facing today have no argument. Even if some people believe only their “beautiful” words and not the practical actions to overcome the difficulties, that is no argument for claiming the initiative. It is the Party of Labour, together with the people, that is struggling with confidence to put the situation right. This is a concrete fact that people can see with their own eyes. Who undertook all these changes in the social sphere, who took the step toward a new approach to religion and religious institutions? The Party of Labour. And many other very important steps to build our society during the past year. Anyone who denies these intensive democratic developments, anyone who claims authorship and initiative for them, should not forget one thing: what the entire people have acknowledged and acknowledge every day—that behind these most democratic developments are the Party of Labour and comrade Ramiz Alia.

At the lamp factory, Vlorë. (Photo: N. Xhufka)

. — Impressions gathered yesterday in several districts of the country about the PPSH’s electoral program —

Retiree Ahmet Kaqorri told us that after reading the electoral program for the election campaign and for the coming legislature, he thought of Lurë, where he was born, and of the ruined life in Dibër. Retiree Ahmet Kaqorri told us that after reading the electoral program for the election campaign and for the coming legislature, he thought of Lurë, where he was born, and of the ruined life in Dibër, where he grew up and spent his life as an activist. “The growth is unparalleled,” he says. Only someone who has experienced this in the harsh conditions of the past, someone who grew up learning to read and write on slates, could say this. Each year the flock has grown by 15–16 percent, or 16–18 thousand head, says zootechnician Shaban Alia. In 1990 the number reached 130,000 small livestock, up from 97,000 two years earlier. The cooperative members’ household plots received 36,000 small livestock from the flock. The achievements were clearly visible. Last year 4,000 quintals more milk and 400 quintals more meat were produced than the year before. The cooperative members’ household plots also delivered

A major Soviet economic and trade delegation has arrived in Tirana, represented by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the State Planning Committee of the Soviet Union, to hold talks with representatives of Albania’s Ministry of Foreign Trade, State Planning Committee and Committee for Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries concerning the forthcoming signing of the Agreement on trade and economic and technical cooperation, as well as the protocol. (Continued on page 2)

BERAT January began with work and interest from everyone in learning about the PPSH program for the election campaign and for the coming legislature. Seriousness, confidence and pride are evident in every sector. Here is what communist Argjile Ziu, a mechanic at the textile factory, told us: “As soon as I got Zëri i popullit, my eyes went to the Party’s program. For us and the working masses, this program is the Party’s objective and contemporary interpretation of all the problems our country faces today and in the future. It is the wish and conviction of all of us that our country develop and progress without interruption, integrating into today’s Balkan and European processes. To do this, first of all, requires more”

KORÇË Anesti Polena is one of the outstanding specialists in the field of mechanical engineering. It is no coincidence that his name is associated with the new die-production facility. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation we had with him yesterday. “The Party’s program says that the food industry, light industry, services, and so on will be developed more rapidly. I consider this entirely right. A weak link in the food industry in particular is packaging. Modern packaging is essential for large-scale trade. But packaging cannot be supplied without dies. There are also many tasks involved in making dies for various light-industry products. Recently we received such a request: the plastics factory in Lushnjë, in cooperation with the metal-products enterprise in Pogradec, wants to produce plastic chairs, which until now have been imported. I think that is very good. We can make them. This also brings to mind dies for electronics, which we have imported up to now, for children’s toys, and so on. The experience so far at our facility, which operates on its own-account basis, is encouraging. Cooperation with foreign firms, with which we are in talks, will enable our facility to be equipped with modern machinery and take on the characteristics of an advanced factory, capable of producing in large quantities and exporting.” It seemed that Anesti was straying from the subject. But he was not. The Party of Labour’s program first of all prompted him to think about this: as many concrete economic solutions as possible for an optimistic future. KOSTAQ DUKA (Continued on page 2)

— KORÇË — Workers from workplaces across the district, cooperative members from nearby villages, communists, intellectuals, veterans, military personnel, young men and young women took part in the rally. In his address, the first secretary of the district Party Committee, comrade Vangjel Çërrava, said, among other things, that the meeting expressed our shared wish to show solidarity with the Party of Labour and its correct line. Looking at the great transformations in the country over 46 years of free life, we see the superiority of our system and a better future. Speaking about the Party’s program for the election campaign, he said that it brings together carefully considered elements and forward-looking steps for the progress of our Homeland, integrating it into contemporary European and global processes. The Party of Labour and comrade Ramiz Alia are the leaders of the processes democratizing the life of the country, and all the changes are… The development paths offered by the Party of Labour embody a call to the masses for economic reform, in our country and in the district. Yesterday the Party Committee of the Korçë district organized a solidarity rally in “Demonstrata e Buzës” Square in support of comrade Ramiz Alia’s very important speech at the PPSH National Activists’ Meeting, as well as its program for the election campaign for the forthcoming legislature. Workers from the “Enver Hoxha” plant in Pllasi, Mërmita Bajraktari, military man Jani Samara, veteran Todi Cican and actor Petra Kiza also spoke at the rally. They pointed out that in comrade Ramiz Alia’s speech and in the Party of Labour’s election program they once again saw the continuation of the path the Party has followed and continues to follow in safeguarding freedom and independence and in the country’s uninterrupted development. They promised that they would advance with the greatest determination in further democratizing life, led proudly by the Party of Labour; that they would work tirelessly on their respective fronts; and that they would cast their votes in the February 10 election for the candidates of the PPSH, the Party of Labour. A telegram was sent from the rally to the First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee, comrade Ramiz Alia. — VLORË — Yesterday morning the Party Committee of the Vlorë district also organized a rally in the Historic Flag Square, attended by residents from the city and villages, in support of comrade Ramiz Alia’s very important speech at the PPSH National Activists’ Meeting and of the program. (Continued on page 2)

— FIER — The Party of Labour’s program found people taking their first steps in the initial stages of implementing the new economic mechanism. And concerns, as with anything new, are natural. “On the whole, the Party of Labour’s program, and especially its economic program,” says Flamur Gashi, director of the Marinzë oil-extraction enterprise, “provides confidence that production will be normalized, within a short time, with respect to raw materials. In this process, our role as oil workers is distinctive. Economic reform aims first and foremost at making good use of the national wealth. In this requirement we clearly see ourselves and our responsibility. Oil is the blood of the economy; it is vital to its functioning. Therefore, getting to know, examining in depth and defining as quickly as possible the tasks arising from this program is the foremost requirement for the Party organization and the workforce. The point is that for every oil well, not only must a specific task be defined, but it must above all be exploited properly. These days at the port of Durrës