A matter of the day Not only I, but many of my fellow specialists at the Institute of Forage Research, are concerned about the progress of work in agriculture, particularly in the livestock sector. We have visited several districts of the country in recent days, and it pains us that we are turning our backs on the work. We have imported, and continue to import, livestock products at a time when our country’s conditions make it possible not only to meet our needs, but also to export some of them. And the situation in this sector, judging by what we see in the fields and apparently in the market, is getting worse. Less meat, milk, eggs, etc. are being produced because the feed base is lacking. This “seasonal illness” has become chronic and year-round. The facts show that livestock needs have not been met even once from July of last year until today; indeed, in many districts the deficits have been considerable. This situation is expected to continue until April. We think this will be the case unless full measures are taken to tend the existing forage crops and plant other crops. At the same time, we observe that sowing alfalfa is being delayed. We are not issuing orders, but we will have our say. It is regrettable that work has not begun on a single farm. By the end of January last year, considerable areas had already been planted with this crop. Professional pride compels us to remind managers and specialists that early sowings, from January 20 to February 20, yield as much as second-year alfalfa fields. Our scientific data here at the Institute, and production experience, have confirmed that early sowings ensure 500–600 quintals of green fodder per hectare. You surely know this well, so why is nothing being done? It is primarily up to us specialists to get to work immediately, with the aim of completing sowing in the warm zone by February 15 and throughout the country by the end of February. Increasing alfalfa production depends on the investments made in the sowing operations. But often, and primarily through our own fault, this requirement is still not being implemented. Another troubling problem is the waste of the feed base in the fields. The young forage crops are being extensively damaged by grazing. At a time when we expect to obtain the earliest possible crop, grazing delays production and lowers yields. This negligence and indifference will cost us dearly if, while producing, we do not fight to improve the state of forage crops, especially alfalfa. To encourage interest, we should start thinking now about ways to provide incentives for cooperation and remuneration. ISMËT BOKA Candidate of sciences

● During this period, the employees and specialists of the collection enterprise in Peshkopi exceeded the plan by 10 percent and supplied twice the planned quantity of products for the foreign market. ● The fruit-growing brigades on the agricultural farms of Tropojë district have cultivated the soil around the crowns of 100,000 trees, out of 450,000 in total. More than 22,000 trees have been fertilized with organic manure, while 78,000 have received chemical fertilizers. Spraying with lime to protect the trees from various diseases is also continuing; so far, it has been carried out on 70,000 trees. ● The employees of the various-goods trading enterprise in Lushnjë have exceeded their goods-turnover plan, measured in lekë, by 500,000 lekë. ● Potato planting is continuing on a large scale in almost all agricultural farms in Durrës district; at district level, 50 percent of the target has been completed. Meanwhile, sunflower sowing has also begun, and has been carried out on more than 200 hectares. ● The young miners in the underground section of Kalimash No. 2 and in the Këçel section, in Kukës district, have exceeded the daily norm by an average of around two percent and have so far extracted more than 400 tons of chromium ore above the plan. They have also met 100 percent of the ore-quality requirement.

Carrying out one’s duties—that is how the situation is mastered — SHKODËR — It seems timely to write about those who have returned to work and are striving to bring January, the first month of this year, to a successful close. — SHKODËR — It seems timely to write about those who have returned to work and are striving to bring January, the first month of this year, to a successful close. Against the gloomy picture of work observed in some enterprises, the efforts of the collectives that are successfully completing their January duties are an inspiring example that makes one glad. It makes one glad and fills one with enthusiasm, because it is work that gives people their full wages and brings happiness to their families. It is work that puts the economy back in order. If the miners of Karma fulfilled the copper-extraction plan even two days ahead of schedule, this was good not only for them, but also for the smelters of Rubik, who are waiting for this copper. The government’s decision to increase by 60 percent the wages of miners working underground has greatly encouraged them to devote themselves more seriously to their work. The head of the planning department of this enterprise, Gjovalin Mirashi, tells us that we have also completed the January plan for kaolin. The enterprise’s transport fleet helped us greatly, using its own vehicles to transport kaolin from Korthpula to Mjedë station. Thus, when we say the production plan has been fulfilled, we mean that the goods have actually been produced and sold. As we spoke with him, he was making calculations to see how far production of metallurgical quartz had also progressed. In any case, everyone here is convinced that January will close with the plans fulfilled. Work is what convinces us of this. The production of goods for sale has been achieved for January, the director of the Bletë plant, Leonard Qyteza, also tells us. This too makes us glad, because it shows that work here has been progressing. Machinery has been produced for grain-cleaning lines for the collection enterprises, as well as several items of equipment and machinery for the forthcoming harvest campaign and for securing the livestock feed base. This is a good thing: the tasks are being fulfilled in the kinds of production that enable the workshop to enter its upcoming campaigns well prepared. This year, efforts are being made to maintain this work rhythm and then improve it further during the first quarter. So far, around 60–70 percent of the raw materials needed for this has been secured. In conversation with the manager, we learn that January is drawing to a close without difficulty: people are still talking, someone says, “I read this or that article,” and unproductive debates begin during working hours. But ever greater efforts are being made to return properly to work, by setting the example of those collectives within the plant, such as the entire preparatory department, the woodworking department, and the assembly department, where there has been more order and discipline at work. “We too are closing January with our duties fulfilled,” says Xhafer Kraja, director of the motor-vehicle repair workshop, which bears the name of the Hero of Socialist Labour, former worker at this enterprise Todo Kavaja. Order, work, and discipline are part of this collective’s tradition. They make it possible to fulfill the tasks. The fact that this workshop has experienced absences that were not usual before shows that the slackness at work is not felt here. This is a collective devoted to its work. The workers here understand clearly that people in towns and villages are waiting for the buses they repair to provide urban and interurban services. They carry out this entrusted duty honorably.

— LIBRAZHD — Speaking with Rifat Sfaru, engineer and director of the Librazhd Wood-Processing Enterprise, about the start of work this year, we learn that the January tasks in several categories—including construction timber, mine-support poles, timber for props, sawn beech timber, railway sleepers, etc., connected with the work of the miners’ construction crews and the railways—were completed 10 to 15 days ahead of schedule, so that we could honor our contracts with others. Speaking with Rifat Sfaru, engineer and director of the Librazhd Wood-Processing Enterprise, about the start of work this year, we learn that the January tasks in several categories—including construction timber, mine-support poles, timber for props, sawn beech timber, railway sleepers, etc., connected with the work of the miners’ construction crews and the railways—were completed 10 to 15 days ahead of schedule, so that we could honor our contracts with others and ensure that they did not suffer work stoppages or supply shortages because of us. Industrial production targets for the month were also met on January 25, since there had been no slackening or stoppage of work. Under what conditions do the sawmill workers work? we asked. “They are working like heroes now, and they have made the enterprise heroic too! Through their work and sweat, they are meeting their obligations to the homeland and democracy, even during these January days when the temperature at their work sites is as low as 10 degrees below zero. They too have entered the new economic mechanism, and their main obstacle has been and remains the transport of timber from the forest. For two years they have received no chainsaws at all. Last year, through the fault of the comrades in the relevant ministry, they were not given the railway sleepers for export, and this year they are again being prevented from supplying sawn timber to a foreign company. But they have complete faith that the problems will be resolved patiently, through dialogue, because we live every day with the country’s troubles and difficulties; what awaits us is not a demand for two wages all at once.” Should we think about them too? “Of course, because their work front is not far behind that of the miners and geologists, and they too benefit from the latest measures increasing wages and implementing the new economic mechanism.” Here, at the stabilization of the center, a representative of a foreign company said to the saw operator, “Well done, master!” because the operator was working normally. But the foreigner did not know that this saw had once been found discarded at a sister enterprise and brought back to life because it was needed to set up the industrial-processing line for railway sleepers, as well as for sawn timber, parquet flooring, barrels, and packaging crates. This line provided jobs for dozens of women from the town of Librazhd and skilled men. Previously, sleepers were produced with an axe, which not only resulted in poor quality and low productivity, but also meant that around 0.4 cubic meters of every cubic meter of railway-sleeper timber was wasted as shavings or left to rot in the forest. This amounts to millions of lekë a year for the benefit of the economy and the homeland. XHEVDET ALMETA …a lack of supplies from us. Industrial production targets for the month are also met by January 25, as there has not been a single stoppage or interruption we asked. «They are now working in the mountains under one or two metres of snow, in the forests of Stërblevë, Qarrishtë, Dardhë, Stravaj, Sopot… They have their troubles and difficulties, but we share their troubles, and they share ours—the troubles of the country—and they measure democracy by their work, by the sweat of their brow. Let me give you two examples,» he tells me. «The brigade led by communist Shaban Projku in Stërblevë is a heroine in its own right. Its life has been bound up with the establishment of this facility in 1954, and since then there has not been a single stoppage of work; it has met the targets for every month and year, reaching 110 percent. And now this brigade may have begun working for the next century. Shaban recalls only one work stoppage in 37 years: the week during the harsh winter of 1956, when the blizzard forced them to leave the forest, after temperatures fell below 20 degrees. When they returned a week later, they found even the forest birds frozen among the beeches…» «Another example: if the other brigades achieved the output of Mahmut Biçaku’s brigade in Qarrishtë, the enterprise would fulfil two annual plans in a single year. That’s the kind of…»

— LUSHNJE — Despite the difficulties that have arisen, Selim Molla, director of the oil and gas drilling enterprise in Lushnjë, tells us, the oil workers’ strength and their energy in overcoming every obstacle are great. Here is the evidence: in recent days the drilling-well brigade led by Todi Bici has brought a gas well into production. It is the second well in a row to produce gas and the fourth since last year. Was such a success achieved easily? Of course not. The difficulties caused by shortages of spare parts, batteries, and other items are serious obstacles, but the oil workers have not slackened their work. On the contrary, they have found a source of strength to achieve success. The construction enterprise bears the greatest burden in the district for quickly completing the projects being built. Many concerns have arisen there, and workers are rightly demanding explanations and ways to resolve them quickly and properly. If there is no cement, iron, etc., or if supplies are insufficient, the workers say this is a shortcoming in organizational work. Had work been organized and disciplined for a long time, the raw materials would to some extent have been secured. They themselves offer a solution to the problem. They do not think that striking or stopping work in the various sectors improves the situation. Indeed, this way of acting damages the links in the organization and brings nothing new to the successful implementation of the new economic mechanism. Pëllumb Çela, director of the construction enterprise, says plainly that waiting weakens our activity as builders. It does not help secure income for the workers. What does he suggest? Efforts to find raw materials through various means and channels have increased. A positive solution was found just a few days ago. From these conversations I will draw out only two points that struck me. One was the suggestion that “we could go as far as having wages, once a minimum limit has been set, determined by the enterprises themselves.” There are two criteria: the assessment of an individual’s work in terms of quantity and quality, and the enterprise’s income and effectiveness. That wages—higher, certainly, than they have been until now—should be linked to the quantity and quality of an individual’s work is absolutely necessary. But setting wages (the basic wage rate, in relation to the enterprise’s income and effectiveness) seems to be an idea that raises a series of questions and uncertainties. My view is this: the basic wage for a profession should be the same in all enterprises in the branch. As for what economic rules and… (Continued on page 2)

Yesterday, Romanian State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and member of the government Romulus Neagu arrived in our country for an official and friendly visit. At Rinas Airport, he was received by Sokrat Plaka, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, and other officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also present were Piro Vito, Albania’s ambassador in Bucharest, and George Miku, Romania’s ambassador in Tirana. (ATSH)

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Isuf Baca, announces that on January 30, 1991, a meeting took place between the border authorities of the two countries at the Hani i Hotit border crossing checkpoint. The Yugoslav side handed over 210 Albanian citizens who had crossed the border illegally and stated that it would also hand over all the other Albanian citizens who had done so. (ATSH)

AT THE DEBATE TABLE Economic relations are presented first and foremost as relations of interests. Whereas the workers of our state do not have opposing interests. And the foremost factor in meeting workers’ material and cultural interests is undoubtedly pay. Through it, every worker meets the greater part of their needs. It naturally follows that pay must be continually improved, with the aim of making it capable of stimulating growth in material production and, on that basis, better meeting (within economic means) the demands of the working masses. The intensity of calls for a review of wages, in different settings and forms ranging from informal discussions to strikes, demonstrates that the economic and planning bodies, including the highest ones, have been late in addressing this matter. It is a fact, acknowledged by many specialists, that our wage system should have provided greater incentives to raise and improve the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the economy. It must be acknowledged that one of the causes of our arrival at this difficult economic situation is this very fact: in many sectors, pay has not provided an incentive; in easy or difficult sectors, for good or poor work, with little or much work, pay ended up being almost the same; the capable and the incapable were paid alike, as were those on difficult and easy fronts, not to mention the paradoxes. But better late than never! At the initiative of the Party of Labour and by decision of the Council of Ministers, work on reviewing prices and wages has been completed. With the aim of contributing even a little in this regard, we would like to offer some thoughts. Two television interviews with two economic specialists and officials, broadcast a few days ago, prompted these lines. From those discussions I will single out just two aspects go as far as setting wages by the enterprises themselves, once a minimum threshold has been established». and efficiency. There is an undeniable need to link pay—more effectively than hitherto—to the quantity and quality of individual work. But setting wages (by which I mean the basic rate in relation to an enterprise’s income and efficiency) does not seem to be an idea that would not raise the basic wage for a given occupation What economic irregularities and… (Continued on page 2)

At the wood-processing enterprise in Përmet, our photojournalist Niko Xhufka learned about the collective’s outstanding achievements and photographed two of its workers during the work process: Romeo Çumani and Minella Tasi.

MUNICIPAL LIBRARY TIRANA

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