MESSAGE TO COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania TIRANA Comrade Ramiz, Representatives of the comrades, men and women, who have come from various districts of the country and expressed their free wish and will to be tireless activists for the true ideals of democracy and for strengthening stability in our beloved homeland, gathered in the historic 2,400-year-old city of Berat, have decided to establish the «Enver Hoxha» Union of Volunteer Activists, which will stand before the National Flag. The «Enver Hoxha» Union of Volunteer Activists is neither a new political party nor an association established to defend the interests of any particular party. Our Union was born on tense days and at a tense hour, when the people are seeking calm and stability, security for today and security for tomorrow as well. We welcomed with joy the concrete measures taken by the Party of Labour of Albania for deeper democratization and pluralism of thought, which would serve progress in every respect. We are living through an extraordinary situation which can be faced with extraordinary work. Albania’s honor lies in work and unity, the message says further. Yet, at a time when a natural outpouring of new energies was expected, they laid the first foundations of plants and factories, and, standing waist-deep in water, built the dams of some of the largest hydroelectric power stations in Europe. That heroic youth cemented freedom and democracy on railway tracks and raised the level of knowledge and scientific thought in the service of the people. Freedom and democracy were cemented by this entire people, who had survived through the centuries, emerging through the fire and smoke of wars. In writing to you, we believe that the slogan we often hear, «We want Albania to be like all of Europe», is belated for those who may think they are the first to wish for this. A better way of putting it than «we want» would be «let us make it so». When we set out on the road toward Europe in 1945, while we numbered two million and lagged behind Europe through Europe’s fault, the message continues, we sought friendship and cooperation with the peoples of this continent, but at the same time we did not expect to make the passage from a terrible medieval past to bright days solely through what Europe could do to help us, but first and foremost through our own efforts. And superhuman sacrifices were made so that Albania, emerging from the millennia-old darkness of the centuries, could finally enjoy the light of life. Not so long ago, just 25 years ago, the militants of the Party of Labour worked for the good of the people. We are volunteer activists and, of course, we seek no offices. Our headquarters is patriotic dialogue with people. We are volunteer activists and do not ask for cars to travel here and there. Let our legs be our cars as we walk the soil of our homeland. We do not ask for microphones either. One can speak with the people without microphones and loudspeakers. Today we are only a handful ourselves, but the number does not matter, since we know that within just a few hours this number could reach five hundred thousand, and within a few days who knows how many. We wish the wisest and most level-headed minds to follow our example, because we are all indebted to the people. In our union of volunteers, at the proposal of a group from Tirana, we have accepted as members the Heroes of Freedom Qemal Stafa, Vasil Shanto, Mustafa Matohiti, Manush Alimani, Perlat Rexhepi, Margarita Tutulani, Nazmi Rushiti, Ajet Xhindole; heroes who gave their lives after liberation, such as Bardhok Biba, Ndrec Ndue Gjoka, Alqi Kondi, Hasan Kerxhalliu; and personalities who were active during the years of building a new life, such as Myslym Peza, Aleksandër Xhuvani, Haki Stërmilli, Jakov Xoxa, Qibrie Ciu, Omer Nishani and Josif Pashko. We dare to spea- ... the last of ... a deeper democratization, pluralization of thought, so that everything would serve progress. We are living through an extraordinary situation that can be faced with extraordinary work. Albania stands by work and unity, the message goes on to say. But at work is expected, and when even more solid stability is anticipated, unfortunately the opposite has happened. We believe that certain forces have emerged that are using the freedoms and rights of democracy not to stabilize the situation, but to destabilize it. The great ideal of democracy gives us strength and inspiration, and we are blessed to make our modest contribution in its service. But we cannot stand with those who exploit this great ideal and who cannot assume the postures of the nation’s leaders and tribunes, indeed almost its squanderers, without even turning to modesty or simplicity for the sake of courtesy. Even the great Skënderbe, who was a genius of his time, once told the people, “I did not bring you freedom; I found it among you.” Almost 500 years later, the distinguished democrat Fan Noli wrote: «We did not create patriotism; we only tried to organize it. Freedom and democracy do not exist today. They were brought by the blood of 28 thousand martyrs, by those wounds that were inflicted and remain on the bodies to this day. Freedom and democracy were cemented by those thousands upon thousands of heroic workers who ... ... unity, the message goes on to say. But thousands of heroic workers who ... ... not to have seen the transition from the terrible Middle Ages to bright days as something that could come about only through what Europe might do for age-old tragedies of the centuries, could finally enjoy the day militants of the Party of Labour roamed the highlands to persuade villagers to send their daughters to secondary and higher schools. It is easy today to write and make a show of oneself over certain shortcomings that may exist in the countryside, but how difficult it was yesterday to persuade a villager to send his daughter to school. of oneself about unity, but how difficult it was 25–30 years ago to reconcile all the blood-feuding clans throughout Albania. of oneself about moving toward Europe, but what colossal work was required precisely to move toward it. They do not understand, or do not want to understand, that the life and work of Enver Hoxha cannot be divided into separate compartments, because the glory of this colossal life and work has been established once and for all by history, which bears the people’s signature. Dear Comrade Ramiz, We took upon ourselves the patriotic duty of volunteer activists to give, wherever we are in Albania, our modest assistance ... ... named. We first and foremost rely on Albania, emerging from the a villager to send his daughter to school. we are in Albania, our modest assistance ... ... only through what Europe might do for a villager to send his daughter to school. we are in Albania, our modest assistance ... I want to set off come here. This is a utopia, so let us not wait for it; let us work harder and genuinely quicken our steps toward it. ... the solutions and actions that we must take to deal with the situation. those thousands upon thousands of heroic workers who ... ... was referring to this event. those thousands upon thousands of heroic workers who ...

We want to move toward Europe. It is the people’s legitimate right and goal to enter the European family, to live much better than we do today. But how will we achieve this? Here we have pluralism, with political parties, independent organizations and associations; here we have freedom of religion and conscience; here we have economic models that «guarantee» abundance. And so on... We could mention other transformations, unimaginable before, that have been accomplished so quickly. And yet the «mountaintop» of democracy is far away. Far away in particular is economic democracy, the most eagerly dreamed-of kind for us in this present time of hardship and poverty. When will it arrive? No one of sound and clear judgment expects it to come in a single day, like a sun appearing after storm clouds and rain. Let the recommended economic model be the latest miracle of the world; it remains only a model that still has to be built. Everyone says this. That is little; if we stop at words, it is nothing. Others have learned this over time, and those who wish us well do not hesitate to advise us: «do not think that a multiparty system will solve everything...» All the worse when there are particular forces that want to lead the way to democracy along the edge of abysses, conjuring calamity. Worse still when, instead of giving a hand to an economy in crisis to lift it out of the depths, people put their hands to squeezing it further and further down. Unbridled passions are making us forget that democracy cannot come without patriotism and humanism, without wisdom and tolerance, without conscious discipline and sensitivity, without [unclear], even though so much is said about them. But democracy cannot be achieved or understood without work and without an economy. Let us stand firm, even if this may grate on the ears of some, a pseudo-democrat, or even make them allergic. Some continue to shout and raise their fingers in the air for democracy, and that is their business, except that they forget to gather and take up their tools for work. Those who rose up against politics and politicization, which had indeed gone too far, are today burdening people more than ever and becoming indebted to ordinary people through politics that breeds tension and confusion. Energies are being wasted for nothing at home, in the streets, in cafés and at workplaces, day and night. People’s nerves are frayed and their feelings shaken, until they are left with fear and insecurity. If these energies and tensions were distributed more fairly between politics and the economy, they would surely serve democratization better. If this were done, we would not produce so little chrome ore, blister copper and ferronickel, so little pig iron and steel; we would not produce 6,800 tons less milk; and construction and assembly work would not fall short by 40 million lekë... Difficulties and shortages in supplies, sluggishness and bureaucracy in administrations, destruction for the sake of politics. For now, the people are heartened by the news that wheat, sugar, rice and beans are being unloaded at the Port of Durrës. But this is a temporary warmth: if we do not start preparing now, we will shiver later. We say with regret that in this respect we are doing nothing... Fields of wheat and fodder that were not sown; wheat that was sown, then grazed by livestock; vegetables that are not tended... This is how we will be distressed in summer, let alone in winter. The road to the future must pass through the healing and recovery of the present. Like any major operation performed on an organism, economic reform, whatever the model, can be carried out successfully only under certain organizational conditions. Are we, then, forgetting the economy, forgetting work, which give birth to and develop human society? Work is like a mother. And nothing is worse than when she is spurned and abandoned by her children. The Europe toward which we want to go did not find what it has today laid out for it in a single day, or even over a few decades. In Europe, wealth and abundance were found everywhere; they do not multiply unless you add to them. Work is therefore the greatest «democrat» of all time. There is no other road than work to take us to the heights of democracy, to lead us to Europe or elsewhere. We worked for 45 years, and what did we gain! Today one often hears it said, from free conversations to rallies and demonstrations for democracy organized by the Democratic Party, in the pages of RD and elsewhere: They worked and achieved things. They worked and made mistakes. They also made mistakes, and we were correcting them through a comprehensive and profound reform to overcome the difficult situation that had arisen and to aim for the realization of a more advanced society. This is what underlies the platform of the Party of Labour. You cannot be a democrat by denying everything. Let us put political passions and election fever aside, but not one thing: let us not despise what our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, did for a free Albania, built up from its foundations. As the saying goes: Are we to let the Drin overflow and flood us, ask the candidate to make light, «reclaim the marshes so they can cover them»? Are we to close the mines and factories built so that we can return to the plough and let the land lie fallow? Or are we to summon the school and the law to «teach us» and light the way to democracy? And why? Only because what we have achieved was led by communists! All the worse when denial goes as far as destruction, of which we are witnesses precisely on these days when all day and all night, with other means and forms, we talk—or pretend to talk—about democracy. After the events in Elbasan, Shkodër and Durrës, we are facing a second destruction and tragedy, a greater one. Truly, it is painful and heartbreaking. The people see their city burning in flames. And most painfully, democracy is being invoked amid such clashes on blood-soaked paths. Who caused them? - They are people, - comes the reasoning. We do not wish to call them anything other than people either. But is that enough? People who, simply out of anger that they were not allowed to break the law, commit acts of revenge, violence and destruction. People who have built, through great sacrifice, the cities and works we have. People, too, who on that night or the following morning would have gone to those shops to look for bread for their children. So both sides are equally people! We have again seen these nights the soot-blackened walls and ashes of a warehouse burned in Peqin. Are those who burned it people just the same? And the one who accosts a girl in broad daylight, in the middle of the street—is he a person? Let us leave it there, so as not to recall more such sad reports and events. Their perpetrators—people, indeed. But I would say they are not the people of the democracy we seek, not the people of work and true European culture, not the people of the rule-of-law state we need. Without these people, while we talk and say we want to move toward Europe, in fact we are waiting for Europe to come here. That is utopian, so let us not wait for it; let us all work and quicken our steps toward it in real terms.

- KOLONJE - The results achieved in January and in the first ten days of February by the economic enterprises in the Kolonjë district demonstrate discipline in the broadest sense of the word and an overcoming of the slackness observed in the first days of the year. At district level, the plan targets for total industrial production were fulfilled at 108 percent. Among the leading enterprises, with substantial overfulfillment, are NGP Ersekë, the Municipal Housing Enterprise and SMT, followed by NGP Leskovik, NPD, etc. But what of the final result — the production of goods for sale? This indicator at district level stands at 32.7 percent, thus approaching fulfillment of the first-quarter targets, with around 337 thousand lekë above the target. Here too, NGP Ersekë is in the lead; its example should be followed by NGP Leskovik, the Municipal Housing Enterprise, etc., which, although they generally fulfill their targets, are lagging behind on this indicator. Results are also positive in other areas. Thus, targets have been exceeded in retail trade turnover, the volume of land reclamation, mining work, repair services and production for the public, municipal repairs for the public, electricity production, etc. District export targets have been exceeded by 32.7 percent, thus approaching fulfillment of the first-quarter targets. Mobilization at the start of this year is also evident among agricultural workers. The main front in these days of snow and frost is livestock farming. The care being shown for it has ensured that there have been no diseases. The fulfillment of tasks both in economic enterprises and in agricultural cooperatives has also been accompanied by an increase in the incomes of workers and cooperative members. A meaningful indicator of this is the significant growth in their deposits in savings banks. Thus, it is enough to mention that within 10 days, more than 800 thousand lekë were deposited in savings banks. By February 8, at district level, the plan for deposits forecast for the first quarter had been fulfilled, or about 70 percent of the annual plan. KOÇO LIGORI

At its meeting of 16 February 1991, the Council of Ministers discussed a request by a group of students at the University of Tirana «Enver Hoxha» to remove the name borne by this important institution of national education and science. The following conclusions were reached on this matter: 1. The name and work of Enver Hoxha are not connected solely with the Party of Labour of Albania. As leader of the National Liberation Antifascist War and founder of the Albanian state, Enver Hoxha belongs to the entire people. Therefore, the Council of Ministers does not agree with the request submitted. 2. The request to resolve such issues through a referendum cannot be carried out for two reasons. First, these issues concern the entire Albanian people, not a particular section such as the students, lecturers and employees of the institution. Second, under Article 67 of the Constitution of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, the decision to hold a referendum of any kind falls within the competence of the People’s Assembly. As is known, the People’s Assembly cannot convene now because, under Article 68 of the Constitution, it has been convened and its mandate has ended. Therefore, it is for the next Assembly to decide everything. 3. Although around three quarters of the University’s students have returned to their districts and families, a group of students have declared that, if the request to remove the University’s name is not fulfilled through a university referendum, they will declare a hunger strike. The Council of Ministers considers this an action that does not help reduce social tensions, and therefore calls on this group to find a way to act wisely and without passion, in harmony and in a spirit of understanding and coexistence, for their own sake, for the sake of their families, and for the sake of society as a whole. 4. The Council of Ministers calls on all political parties and social organizations, in keeping with the agreement reached among them, to make a genuine commitment and use all their strength to prevent events of this kind, which do not help ensure the necessary social calm and normal conditions for conducting the election campaign. This would help not only the Council of Ministers and other government and economic bodies in coping with the economic and social difficulties the country is going through, but also the various political and social forces themselves, in ensuring democratic and lawful solutions to the problems that have arisen. COUNCIL OF MINISTERS Tirana, 16.2.1991

Minister of Justice Enver Halili summoned representatives of the initiating committee for the establishment of the «Free and Independent Miners’ Trade Union» to the Ministry of Justice, in connection with their request for approval of this independent social-political organization, in accordance with Decree No. 7442 of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, dated 17.12.1990, «On the Establishment of Political Organizations and Associations». After reviewing the program and other documents, which are in accordance with the Constitution of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania and the aforementioned decree of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, he communicated his order approving the request to permit the establishment of the social organization «Free and Independent Miners’ Trade Union», as well as its registration in the relevant register and the deposit of its documents in this ministry’s archive. A copy of this order was handed to the initiating committee for the establishment of this organization. (ATSH)

Yesterday at 12:20, around 720 students and lecturers from various faculties of the University of Tirana «Enver Hoxha» and from the capital’s higher institutes gathered at the «Studenti» Palace of Culture and declared a hunger strike. They stressed that they would continue the hunger strike until their well-known demands were met. (ATSH)

The Copenhagen branch of the Party for Democratic Prosperity has sent an Appeal to the wider Albanian public, which says, among other things: The processes of democratization and political pluralism carried out by the Albanian government led by President Ramiz Alia were welcomed by us, because with a democratic, multiparty Albania, the Albanian nation as a whole would more readily adapt to the new European rules as a single state, in order to achieve peaceful and historic goals for the benefit of the entire nation. We appeal to the entire Albanian public in Albania, and especially to its emigrants, and to the Democratic Youth, to remain vigilant and distance themselves from the actions of destructive groups, from those who act vandalistically in the name of democracy and try to disrupt order and calm in the country, thereby also harming the PDSH and other parties by paralyzing their work ahead of multiparty elections in Albania. At this decisive moment, when the question is «To be or not to be», let all of us, the Albanian nation as a whole, seek democracy with composure, but not that incomprehensible kind of democracy that fights the past; rather, let us seek a democracy that moves us forward and leads us far from fratricide, toward peace and the unity of the entire nation. The Appeal is signed by Remzi Loku, Chairman of the Copenhagen branch of the Party for Democratic Prosperity.

Mobilization at the start of this year is also evident among agricultural workers. The main front in these days of snow and frost is livestock farming.