Notes from yesterday’s session of the Tirana Party Committee As comrade Hekuran Isai, First Secretary of the Tirana Party Committee, said last night to journalists, the report presented at the plenary meeting of the district party committee analyzed the problems people are talking about today. At the center of them is the economic issue, the improvement of supplies, consumption, and services for the population. The issue is concrete actions and not just promises. Likewise, there was discussion of the fight against negative phenomena, of increasing the responsibility of the leading bodies, and of the need for party organizations to be closer to the people. In the discussion it was said that more realism, more sense of responsibility, and greater contact with the grassroots are required. Emphasis was placed on the need for decisions to be followed through persistently and to produce visible results in everyday life. Only in this way is people’s trust strengthened. In the report presented, the issue of preserves and the school food enterprise.

APPEAL BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS The representatives of the political front are gathering and discussing together the important issues of democratic development in Albania, for the stability of public order and the country. In their duly sanctioned and lawful role, as representatives of the country’s political forces, they are making a valuable contribution to democratic maturity, to the normal and peaceful development of the democratic processes taking place in Albania. We call on people of conscience, on the broader public, to take this fact into account. This is the path of dialogue, understanding, civilized political development, and not the path of force, violence, anarchy, and bloodshed. We all know that our country needs calm, work, order, economic development, and social progress. Our appeal is that ill-considered actions be avoided, that calm be maintained, and that the law be respected. All problems must be solved through dialogue, responsibility, and a democratic spirit.

These days people’s attention is also turning to the work of candidates for people’s deputies. In meetings and discussions they are explaining their programs, listening to voters’ views, and trying to reflect the real concerns of citizens. Much of the confidence that will be built in them also depends on organized work and direct communication. Voters are asking for seriousness, honesty, and the ability to bear public responsibility. In some places there have also been remarks about formalism and about the need for candidates to be more concrete in their commitments. This period requires political maturity and civic responsibility.

Citizens in agriculture, livestock, and forestry have been mobilized to see the situation up close and take measures. In many areas forested surfaces have been damaged and intervention has been carried out without criteria. Specialists are calling for the natural balance to be preserved and uncontrolled cutting to be avoided. At the same time, measures are being taken to increase grain sowings where there are real possibilities, without damaging forests and pastures. Care for the land and forests is a shared duty.

With the “plan” of the mëtinjgjëve we are doing well (!) “The first article” of democracy is work Everywhere you hear it said that there must be more work and fewer words. But in everyday life the opposite is often seen as well: mëtinjgje, endless discussions, and few concrete solutions. The irony of the title of this article places the emphasis precisely on this distorted relationship between words and work. Democracy needs participation and thought, but not empty noise. Its first article must be work.

Problems of supply, transport, discipline at work, and organization continue to affect many sectors. In various discussions it is noticeable that people are demanding greater responsibility and practical solutions. Instead of excuses, results are needed, because only in this way can trust be restored and progress made.