Not 10%, but a 20% increase in wages and pensions -The situation indicates an imbalance in the economy and a loss of government control over macroeconomic indicators, and it could hardly have been otherwise. “I fear the bomb has not yet exploded.” -The urgent measures that must be taken are: 1. An average 20 percent increase in wages and pensions. 2. Devaluation of the lek against the main foreign currencies (the dollar), with the aim of bringing the value of our national currency closer to reality. 3. Liberalization of credit and interest-rate policy in favor of investment and economic revitalization. 4. Allowing private banks: the “Achilles’ heel” of banking-system reform and the economy’s breathing space. Read on page 4

At the headquarters of the Socialist Party: Yesterday, PS vice-chairmen Namik Dokle and Ilir Meta received the vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo, Dr. Rifat Blaku, at an official meeting. “Despite the few opportunities we have had,” said the vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo, “we value our contacts with the PS, as well as with other Albanian political forces, very highly. We have also regarded the PS’s contacts with Mr. Rugova and others as an important step toward achieving a unified political view on the national question. For us, there are no large or small parties, in power or in opposition, when this issue is at stake,” said Dr. Rifat Blaku. “It is important that everyone understand this idea,” his interlocutors told their guest from Kosovo. “That is why the PS programme identifies the need for a unified national platform as a principal issue. This is a programmatic commitment, one from which [the text is garbled]—and from this commitment they have not departed. Those who have still not understood this, or who have fallen into the trap of malicious explanations about the PS, will write tomorrow. The PS is open to further meetings and contacts with all political forces in Kosovo, because mutual understanding and cooperation serve the resolution of the Albanian question.” The vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Party, also in his capacity as chairman of the Refugees and Emigration Committee in the Kosovo parliament, went on to report on the situation emerging after the expulsion of Serbian refugees to Kosovo. Both parties unanimously expressed the view that this was an attempt to realize the old dreams of Serbian chauvinists and that it should be opposed with political courage by all Albanian forces. The political aim of the leaders in Belgrade becomes even clearer when one considers that Kosovo is the most densely populated region and three times poorer than the regions of Serbia. Albanian politics should therefore be an active bridge for opposing this anti-Albanian act. Many other important political issues were also discussed in a spirit of brotherhood and full mutual understanding, and the need to continue contacts between the two parties was underscored. Correspondent of “Zëri i popullit”

By Roger Hallhag President of the Socialist Youth International Five years ago, the peoples under the Soviet Empire liberated themselves through peaceful democratic revolutions. At the same time, they freed the world from the terror of the Cold War and the falsification of truth by communist regimes. Once again, words such as equality, solidarity, peace, justice, socialism and democracy had the chance to recover their true value after a long period of abuse. Nevertheless, the liberal-conservative right made a great effort to present the changes as its total victory and as an opportunity to rewrite history according to certain blind prophets in their own way. All proposals for social equality or for a serious role for the state were declared by them to be unacceptable evils, with no distinction made between dictatorial and democratic states. The right also tries to implant the idea that social democrats are waging a crusade against communism by building a powerful democratic labor movement throughout Europe. The right-wing illusions about communism have collapsed. Likewise, today’s illusions about liberalism are collapsing. Prosperity did not come to everyone, as promised, but to certain privileged groups. And what is very surprising is that a good number of these privileged people are the very same ones who were privileged under communism. Workers and employees, as always, have to work extraordinarily hard to make ends meet and improve their lives. The right-wing disillusionment with the “real socialism” of communism and the “democracy” of neoliberalism has created a loss of hope. Both these ideologies, which promise quick solutions to human problems, have failed. In both cases, these solutions depended on an elite. But true democracy, economic progress and social justice must be built from the ground up, by citizens and for citizens. And this is not impossible. But it takes time. A new future after the destruction of communism and beyond the failure of liberalism is the principal task of our socialist and social-democratic comrades in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of all those who rejected both kinds of illusion. Their success in building such a future will not be ours alone. Because Europe can no longer have two futures.

In today’s contradictory reality, often full of incredible paradoxes, the Monster of Slander howls and extends its claws, seeks victims, and stages the moral or political massacres of opponents, prominent figures and opposition personalities. Page 2

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-An invitation to the Albanian Helsinki Committee- Page 6