The Party of Labour of Albania (formerly called the Communist Party of Albania) was founded in Tirana, Albania, under the conditions of Italian fascist occupation on November 8, 1941. The founding of the Party of Labour of Albania was the single most important event in the life of the people and nation of Albania. The founding of the Party of Labour of Albania brought to the front the subjective conditions necessary for the genuine liberation and progress of the people and nation of Albania. The brave Albanian people, by creating the glorious Party of Labour of Albania gave birth to their own bright future, their own genuine liberation and progress. Within a matter of just over three years after its founding, the Party of Labour of Albania fulfilled the age-old aspiration of the people and nation to be genuinely independent and brought to a culmination the historic struggle for national liberation and progress for which the Albanian people struggled heroically for centuries. Though small in number,the Albanian people havegreat aspirations and are rich in culture, with the lofty ideals of progress inscribed on their struggle not only for their own emancipation and progress but for the emancipation and progress of the entire mankind.
The PLA was born in the crucible of rigorous anti-fascist struggle imposed on it by the fire and sword of the fascist invader. The PLA faced formidable enemies from home and abroad with gun in one hand and pick in the other, with the closest possible unity with the masses of people and with complete faith and determination to liberate themselves and embark on the road of social progress. Though small in number at the beginning (only 200) and with a very small proletariat and a large amount of treachery and betrayal by the Trotskyists and other opportunist sects, the PLA grew steadily in strength in the heat of struggle. Thirty-six years of the PLA are years full of an unprecedented courage and heroism shown by the PLA in struggle against its most formidable external and internal enemies. The PLA faced the Italian fascist occupiers and the German invaders. The PLA faced the internal reactionaries and the Trotskyists and opportunists of all hues. The PLA faced the sabotage and subversion by Titoite revisionism during the years of liberation struggle and more specifically the years following the victory of the National Liberation War. The PLA faced the brutal interference and sabotage by Khrushchov revisionism just as it faced continuous threats from imperialism led by U.S. imperialism and its agents. The PLA faced all its enemies with courage and determination and with faith in the final victory. We hail the glorious exploits of the PLA!
Today, the PLA is waging a determined struggle against Khrushchov revisionism and all its currents and opportunism of all hues. It is the PLA which stands in the forefront of struggle against the modern revisionists of all hues and against the anti-Leninist theoreticians of the “three worlds” and for the defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism. The PLA has Comrade Enver Hoxha at its head, the great Marxist-Leninist, the Marxist-Leninist of the calibre of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tsetung. He stands at the helm of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement. All glory to the PLA for such an outstanding Marxist-Leninist, Comrade Enver Hoxha, at its head! Great struggles give rise to great leaders. The PLA has led great struggles and its prestige and influence has continuously increased day by day. The revolutionary prestige and influence of Comrade Enver Hoxha is increasing on the world scale every day.
We are living through an historical period when Khrushchov revisionism and other revisionist currents and opportunism of all hues are creating maximum ideological confusion. These revisionist and opportunist trends are floated by imperialism headed by the two superpowers. The imperialist world is in the grip of an all-sided social, political, economic, cultural crisis. Objective conditions are ripe for revolution in all countries but the subjective factors are lacking. The merit of the PLA and other genuine Marxist-Leninist parties is to prepare the subjective conditions, prepare the working class for the seizure of state power and for the overthrow of capitalism. The PLA is doing so by resolutely defending the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism. The defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and of the principles of proletarian internationalism is necessary and decisive work for the preparation of the subjective conditions. Any relaxed attitude on this fundamental question is fraught with danger for the struggles of the proletariat against capitalist exploitation and wage-slavery and for the struggles of the popular masses. The crime of the revisionists and opportunists of all hues is that they attack Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism. They revise, distort and emasculate Marxism-Leninism. They lead the proletariat and people away from the revolutionary path and create reformist illusions amongst them.
The question of war is an important concern for the people of the world. The activities of imperialism headed by the two superpowers is an important concern for the people of the world. But how should this question be dealt with. Here lies the merit of the PLA! It squarely advocates that this question should be dealt with through social revolution. In the capitalist-revisionist world, it means proletarian revolution. In the countries where the national question exists, it means national democratic revolution. The PLA correctly points out that the national liberation movement is the reserve of world proletarian revolution and the international proletariat is at the centre of solving the problems facing mankind. This activity of the PLA sets the other genuine Marxist-Leninist parties on the right path through example. The PLA does not use pressure and blackmail and interference to make fraternal parties accept its point of view. On the contrary, the PLA wins over fraternal friends by its example, by its resolute defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of proletarian internationalism.
It is a matter of extreme importance that each Marxist-Leninist party leads the class struggle in its country through its own efforts, political consciousness and organization. But this does not mean that a fraternal party can take the view that the theory of Marxism-Leninism is not applicable to its own country. The unity of Marxist-Leninist parties is based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. There is no other basis and there is no other unity. The PLA is in the forefront of building this unity and we highly estimate the work of the PLA on this front as well.
Our Party has established fraternal relations with the glorious PLA. These relations are based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. These relations are not against this or that party as some agents provocateurs claim. These relations are established in order to learn from each other’s struggles and to build unity to oppose our common enemies.
The thirty-six years of the PLA have been years of vigorous struggle and the PLA has established steel-like unity of the people around itself. The PLA is the political party of the proletariat and its sole leading force. It does not share the leading role with any other organization. It is the leading force in all aspects of life in the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. To establish this leading role with rigour is an accomplishment which deserves much applause from all genuine revolutionary forces, because it is on the question of the leading role of the Marxist-Leninist party that the revisionists cause maximum confusion. They equate the leading role of the party with the “dictatorship of the party”, while it is actually they who have dictatorship of the revisionist party in place of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Seventh Congress of the PLA is an important historic milestone in the history of the PLA. The echo of the Seventh Congress has reached all corners of the globe. The Political Report delivered by Comrade Enver Hoxha has been translated into many languages and is distributed widely. The correct political line of the PLA adopted at the Seventh Congress is leading the Albanian proletariat, the cooperativist peasantry and the people’s intelligentsia in socialist revolution and socialist construction. The Seventh Congress of the PLA has major international significance as well. It is an important event in the life of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement and the single major event in the last few years. The Seventh Congress is the consolidation of the unity of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement and the culmination of the struggle of the past few years and the starting point of a deeper and broader struggle against modern revisionism and all its currents and opportunism of all hues.
We learn from the revolutionary experience of the glorious PLA and apply it to the concrete conditions of Canada. We do so on the basis of our own needs and requirements. Our attitude towards all fraternal parties is one of learning from their revolutionary experience in order to apply it to our own concrete conditions and we firmly support their struggles. Our starting-point is the concrete conditions in Canada. We established our Party. This was the first response in terms of dealing with the concrete conditions in Canada. It is natural that in order to establish and consolidate our Party we learn from parties which have experience of revolutionary practice of many years and who are defending the purity of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. But learning from them does not mean skipping the level and scope of our struggle or ignoring the important conclusions drawn from the struggle of others. We have established the Party on the basis of our own strength and by keeping the initiative in our hands. We zealously guard the solidity of our own organization and the correctness of our own political line.
The PLA is one of the outstanding parties which organized and built itself on the basis of its own efforts. It has remained loyal to the teachings of Marxism-Leninism and, at the same time, it has repeatedly defended the purity of Marxism-Leninism against all sorts of revisions and distortions. This is a glorious legacy of the PLA which we admire.
On the thirty-sixth anniversary of the founding of the glorious Party of Labour of Albania, we sent our great joy and happiness to our fraternal comrades for having such a glorious Party as their Party is. We rejoice at all the victories of the PLA and we congratulate the people of Albania for giving birth to such a great Party. We are certain that the PLA will keep on its revolutionary course with the firmness and conviction in defending“ the purity of Marxism-Leninism that it has shown in the past. We wish the PLA every success in its glorious work which not only has significance for the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania but has great bearing on the outcome of struggle internationally. We send very deep and warm revolutionary greetings to the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania and wish Comrade Enver Hoxha a long, long life.