WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! SPECIAL ISSUE
Volume 11, Number 13
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA
November 29, 1981
Solidarity with SOCIALIST ALBANIA
Socialist democracy in Albania, a sharp contrast to capitalist reaction
Albania's Socialist Economy Is Free from Crisis
The capitalist-revisionist system has brought disaster to the Polish people
Salute the 8th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania!
A CONGRESS OF MILITANT SOCIALISM
40 Years of the PLA--Invaluable Lessons
November 29 marks the 37th anniversary of the complete victory of the Albanian people's heroic war of liberation from the Nazi-fascist occupiers. Since that day, for 37 years the Albanian working class and people have been forging ahead with steady and confident strides under the triumphant red flag of socialism. These days the militant vanguard of the Albanian working class, the organizer of the liberation war and of ail the socialist victories of the Albanian people, the Party of Labor of Albania, is also celebrating an important anniversary. November 8 marks the 40th anniversary of the PLA. Moreover during the first week of November the PLA held its 8th Congress, which charted out a sure course for the nonstop forward march of socialism in Albania.
The socialist reality in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania bears great significance for the struggles of the exploited and downtrodden masses the world over. It provides a beacon of socialism, a ray of light which helps to inspire the struggles of the working class and people with the magnificent perspective of the socialist future.
Fight Reagan and the Capitalist Offensive!
Throughout the capitalist world, the yoke of exploitation and oppression is becoming an ever more unbearable burden on the shoulders of the working masses. In the U.S., the monopoly capitalists have delegated Reagan to direct their offensive of hunger, fascism and war against the working people. The workers are being saddled with soaring inflation, a jobless rate of nearly 9%, man-eating productivity drives, and massive cutbacks in social benefits. This robbery is being enforced with a strikebreaking iron fist. Police-state measures are being put in place and the police and the fascist gangs are unleashing a reign of terror against the black people, the immigrants, and others. At the same time, Reagan is engaged in feverish warmongering, threatening the world with aggression and war.
The working and progressive people are outraged against Reagan and the capitalist offensive. The September 19 demonstration of 400,000 workers, the bitter strikes of the air controllers and the Philadelphia teachers, the massive protests against U.S. imperialism's intervention in El Salvador and its monstrous war preparations -- all these things are signs of the powerful class battles which are brewing.
The capitalists are doing everything they can to disorient and weaken the mounting opposition of the working people. They want to keep the workers' struggle within the narrow perspective of reformism. In particular, the capitalists are striving to reduce the movement to an impotent pressure group behind the other party of the capitalist offensive, the Democratic Party of smooth- talking liberal-labor politicians.
Socialism is the Goal of the Workers' Struggle
The perspective of the socialist goal, on the other hand, is an immense force for strengthening the resistance of the working people. There is indeed a way out of this capitalist hell. There is indeed a real alternative to perpetual crisis, unemployment, poverty, police- state measures, racist terror, imperialist war, cultural and spiritual devastation, and ail the other scourges of the capitalist system. The working class is indeed the standard-bearer of the inevitable socialist revolution which will overthrow capitalism, put an end to exploitation and oppression, and build a new socialist society.
Such a perspective inspires the working masses to struggle and sacrifice. It reinforces their fighting strength a hundredfold. This perspective helps raise the popular movement out of the capitalist framework and free the working masses from the grips of the Democratic Party politicians, the scab trade union hacks and the other front men of the bourgeoisie. It serves to build the independent movement of the working class. Consciousness of the socialist goal helps merge all the popular movements into a single irresistible torrent against the capitalist offensive of hunger, fascism and war.
As Comrade Enver Hoxha, the leader of the Albanian people, pointed out at the 8th Congress: "The ideas of genuine socialism have been and remain a great force to inspire, mobilize and organize the revolutionary struggle of the masses."
In Albania Socialism Is a Living Reality
The rich exploiters fight bitterly to discredit socialism. They say that socialism may be a nice idea but that it can't work. They preach that the division of society between rich and poor, exploiters and exploited has been determined by human nature. And the capitalists point to the collapse of the capitalist economy in Poland or to the dark fascist rule in the Soviet Union or to the crimes of the new Chinese rulers and other fake models of socialism in order to discredit socialism. However it is not socialism which is discredited by these examples, but the revisionist rulers in these countries, who have betrayed Marxism-Leninism and genuine socialism.
The example of socialism in Albania, on the other hand, cuts through ail the capitalists' lies. Thirty-seven years ago, with the victory of their people's liberation war, the Albanian working class and people emerged as the true masters of society. The capitalists and landlords were stripped of their wealth and power and have been eliminated as classes. The factories, mines, farms and other property have become socialist property; either in the form of state property belonging to the whole people, or collective property of the cooperative farms. The thriving socialist economy is based on a unified plan which is geared to satisfying the needs of the people rather than the profit margins of capitalist parasites. That is why Albania has become a land without economic crisis, unemployment, inflation, or the other capitalist diseases. There is no upper crust of rich bureaucrats in Albania. By law the wage differential between the highest paid official and the lowest paid worker is no more than two to one. All the sweat and labor of the Albanian working people goes into building a prosperous, dynamic, socialist life. In building this new life, the Albanian people stand firm against the entire capitalist world and the aggressive plans of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism in particular.
The Albanian people have provided living proof that socialism is not simply a dream but is a concrete reality. By way of example, socialist Albania helps strengthen the burning conviction among the workers everywhere that socialism is the goal of the workers' struggle.
Solidarity With Socialist Albania
These days workers and progressive people ail over the world are celebrating with the Albanian people 37 years of socialist victories, the 40th anniversary of the PLA and its 8th Congress. In the coming weeks the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA will be organizing meetings from coast to coast to celebrate these events. As part of these celebrations, the U.S. edition of Comrade Enver Hoxha's Report to the 8th Congress will be released in the MLP's journal Proletarian Internationalism.
These activities are being organized to develop solidarity with socialist Albania and to spread the word among the workers and progressive people about what the Albanian working class and people have accomplished. Marxist-Leninist Albania shows that socialism is the fully attainable goal of the working class of all countries.
[Map.]
[Graphic:
Celebrations on the OCCASION OF
*37 Years of Socialism in Albania
*The 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the Party of Labor of Albania
*The 8th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
Sunday, December 13,, 3:00 p.m. 2299 Piedmont St.
(International House, UC Berkeley)
CHICAGO
Saturday, December 12, 6:00 p.m. 656 W. Barry
SEATTLE
Friday, December 11, Ethnic Cultural Center 3931 Brooklyn Ave. N.E. 7:00 p.m.
NEW YORK CITY
Saturday, December 5, 7:00 p.m.
Room 136 Thompson Teachers College Broadway and 120th
BOSTON
Saturday, December 12, 7:00 p.m. 7 Temple St. (near Central Square) Cambridge]
[Banner at bottom of the front page: Fight Reagan and the Capitalist Offensive! Socialism Is the Goal of the Workers' Struggle!]
Today in the U.S., the workers and oppressed face a stern fight against the growing fascism headed up by the Reagan government. This is a government of casehardened racists and fascists. In his short time in office, Reagan has already more than earned his reputation as the Ku Klux Klan's favorite candidate. His administration has presided over brutal strikebreaking against the workers. Police murders of blacks and other oppressed nationalities have abounded. Mass deportations, concentration camps and a bracero-style slave labor program are the order of the day for immigrant workers.
The fight against this growing fascism is a class question, a question of which class stands for freedom and which for oppression. Reagan's fascist policy is supported not only by the Republicans, but by the Democratic Party as well. It is the bipartisan policy of the entire capitalist class. Beneath all of the noisy propaganda in the U.S. about "democracy" and "freedom" lies the savage rule of capital, of a handful of billionaires. Their power lies in their great wealth and their subsequent control of all means of power, including especially the state apparatus of armies, police, prisons, courts and the enormous bureaucracy. The capitalist state means democracy only for the rich ruling class, while it is a means of violence for the brutal suppression of the working class and oppressed masses.
The working class must wage active resistance to every fascist attack. It must rally all of the oppressed to its side and fight tooth and nail for even the most elementary democratic rights. In the struggle against fascism, as in the struggles against exploitation and war, socialism provides a magnificent perspective that orients the working masses.
In Socialist Albania -- Genuine Democracy for the Working Masses
Under socialism, as in Albania, the broad democracy enjoyed by the working people stands in stark contrast to the growing fascism in the U.S. Through the National Liberation War and the people's revolution which triumphed 37 years ago, the Albanian working class and people smashed forever the political power of the Nazi invaders and the traitorous capitalists and landlords. In its place they created people's power, a form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which outlawed fascism, racism and all national oppression and instituted broad democracy for the toiling masses.
The socialist state, the proletarian dictatorship, is the only kind of state which can ensure the broadest democracy for the true majority, the working people. This is because it is the unrestricted power of the working class, based on force, against the overthrown capitalists and landlords, and, with the elimination of the exploiting classes, against the remnants of the exploiters and all internal and external class enemies.
In Albania, the dictatorship of the proletariat, led by the working class, is based on the firm foundation of the worker-peasant alliance. This means it is the power of the vast majority of the Albanian people. The Marxist-Leninist party of the working class, the Party of Labor of Albania, plays a leading role in the state and society. Without its revolutionary vanguard party the working class would never be able to come to power, let alone consolidate its rule. But the vanguard does not rule alone. The toiling masses actively, Consciously and in an organized way participate in all the affairs of the new society.
The mass social organizations like the Democratic Front, the Trade Unions, the Labor Youth Union, and the Women's Union organize, educate and mobilize the masses for the line of the Party and play a crucial role in the system of people's power. The People's Assembly and People's Councils are elected by the masses and direct and control all other state organs. Laws, the economic plans and other important policies are only decided upon after broad discussions and debates are held among the workers, co-operativist farmers and people's intelligentsia. As well, every governmental and managerial body is subject to direct control and supervision by the toiling masses through their mass organizations, through special workers' and peasants' control groups, and by other means.
These few facts demonstrate that the dictatorship of the proletariat provides a broad and genuine democracy for the working people completely unheard of and unthinkable in any capitalist or revisionist country.
[Photo: Albanian miners gather 'round the latest issue of Zeri i Popullit, Organ of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania. In Albania, socialism is the conscious deed of the masses who are armed with Marxism-Leninism.]
Dear Comrades,
On the important occasions of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, the 8th Congress of the PLA, and the 37th anniversary of the complete liberation of Albania we send you our ardent proletarian internationalist greetings.
Today, while the capitalist and revisionist countries are gripped by deepening crisis and degeneration, Albania stands as a glorious People's Socialist Republic, the only genuine socialist country in the world. In the short 37 years since liberation the Albanian working class and people have performed miracles in transforming their once backward feudo-capitalist society. And presently they are confidently scaling new heights in building an advanced socialist society, relying firmly on their own efforts without any enslaving credits or "aid" whatsoever. Socialist Albania provides a shining example for the workers and oppressed throughout the world. It shows that the end of capitalist exploitation and the triumph of socialism as defined by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is not only a glorious ideal but that it is also a present reality in the PSRA....
We consider victories won by the Albanian people to be our own victories and consider the defense of socialism in Albania to be our solemn proletarian internationalist duty. In this regard we firmly condemn the renewed campaign of hostility on the part of the Yugoslav revisionist rulers against the PSRA. We also vehemently condemn the atrocities of the Yugoslav authorities against the Albanian population of Kosova and of the other Albanian-inhabited regions of Yugoslavia. Just as in the past the imperialists and revisionists have broken their heads in vain against Albania, so will they today if they dare to strike against her. Encircled by the capitalist-revisionist world, socialist Albania enjoys the unflinching solidarity of our Party along with the Marxist-Leninists, revolutionary workers and progressive people all over the world.
We wish you every success along the course charted by your 8th Congress for the complete construction of socialist society and the strengthening of the defense of the socialist Homeland. The heroic Albanian people, the PLA and Comrade Enver Hoxha will always carry with them the heartfelt best wishes of the American Marxist-Leninists.
With communist greetings, Central Committee Marxist-Leninist Party, USA
The entire capitalist world is being shaken by a powerful economic crisis. The capitalist economies are rotting. They are gripped by stagnation and decline. With every passing day the capitalist system becomes an ever more unbearable hell for the working people. There is no end in sight to the soaring inflation. Tens of millions of workers are being thrown into the street without a job. At one pole, untold misery and suffering is being amassed for the vast majority. And at the other pole, record billions in profits are being amassed by an insignificant minority of capitalist parasites. This is the process underway in all of the capitalist and revisionist countries.
But, in stark contrast to this old and crisis- ridden capitalist world, there stands a new world, a socialist world. In the People's Socialist Republic of Albania the working class and people are successfully building a just, prosperous, and dynamic socialist society.
Socialist Albania Forges Ahead
Only socialist Albania forges ahead unshaken by the world capitalist economic crisis. Crisis, gloom and despair are gripping all the capitalist states, including the revisionist states (the Soviet Union, Poland, China, Cuba, Yugoslavia, etc.). But in the PSRA genuine socialism is advancing with steady strides.
In Albania there is no unemployment whatsoever. For example, in glaring contrast to the situation in the U.S., in Albania every school graduate without exception is guaranteed suitable employment. The old curses of unemployment and forced economic emigration have been eliminated as Albania has constructive work for all its citizens in building socialism.
In Albania there is no inflation. Despite the pressure of the inflation raging throughout the capitalist world, in Albania prices are stable. From one year to the next the Albanian worker enjoys a steady and constant increase in his standard of living. The PSRA is also the only country in the world which has abolished all taxes on its citizens.
In Albania health care is free of charge and available to all. The care taken for the well-being of the working people, including the development of a modern system of people's health care, is one reason why the PSRA has the fastest growing population in Europe. A scientific and progressive education is also free of charge. One-third of the Albanian population is enrolled in this constantly expanding educational system.
In Albania, year in and year out the planned socialist economy marks dynamic growth in spite of the stagnation and decline which has marked the economies of the capitalist and revisionist countries over the last decade. In 1980, for example, the PSRA's industrial output was 34.4% higher than the output in 1975. This thriving development has been realized in the face of huge obstacles thrown Up by the imperialist and revisionist encirclement of the PSRA.
The Albanian Working Class and People Are Building Socialism Entirely on Their Own Efforts
Not the least of these obstacles has been the criminal treachery of the Chinese revisionists. In 1978 the Chinese leadership stabbed the Albanian people in the back and unilaterally severed all economic ties with Albania. This meant that overnight 50% of Albania's foreign trade was disrupted. The enemies of socialist Albania openly predicted the collapse of the Albanian economy without the credits and "aid" from abroad. But the heroic Albanian people refused to satisfy these dire predictions and they successfully accomplished the economic plans despite the sabotage of the Chinese revisionists.
The self-reliant achievements of the Albanian working class and people are immense. Through their own efforts they have transformed their previously backward feudal- capitalist country, once the very poorest country in Europe, into an advanced socialist society, with a modern industry, self-sufficient agriculture, a scientific and progressive culture, and genuine democracy for the working people.
Filled with optimism, the Albanian people are today scaling new heights. Among these are the tasks of the 7th Five-Year Plan (1981- 85) which calls for realizing a total social product equal to the 4th and 5th Five-Year Plans taken together (1966-75). Moreover, for the first time, the five-year plan will be fulfilled without any aid or credits from abroad whatsoever. This will mark a historic victory and an important guarantee of the PSRA's socialist future.
Socialist Albania Is a Convincing Example
In the U.S., the working people face a ruthless capitalist offensive. The workers are being ruined by the economic crisis and Reagan is trying to crush them with the slave driver's whip. Nevertheless the working people are stirring in struggle. The resistance which the workers can bring to bear against the capitalist offensive is of great importance. However, the class conscious workers must never lose sight of the fact that no matter what gains this resistance achieves, as long as capitalism exists, all of its iron laws will remain in force. The poor will grow poorer and the rich richer, It is only the proletarian revolution and socialism which can put an end to the economic crisis, unemployment, grinding poverty and all the other ills that plague the capitalist world. Socialist Albania is a most convincing example of this truth.
[Photo: In Albania May First Is a big holiday. It is a time when the workers demonstrate to celebrate their victories in socialist construction and to express their steel-like unity around the Party of Labor of Albania -- the Marxist-Leninist vanguard of the Albanian working class. It is a day of militant internationalist solidarity with the workers and oppressed of all countries who are fighting for freedom and socialism.]
Every day the capitalists try to discredit socialism and tell the workers that it is not a worthy goal to fight for. They have especially been using the ongoing crisis in Poland towards this end. The Polish people face many great problems, such as the widespread shortages of food and other goods, massive inflation, the threat of a Soviet invasion, etc. The U.S. imperialists are shouting -- "See, this is what socialism brings!"
This is nothing but a lie. The crisis in Poland proves the bankruptcy, not of socialism, but of the capitalist system which has long been restored in that country.
With the defeat of the Nazis at the end of World War II, Poland embarked on the socialist road. But in the mid-1950's, revisionist traitors in Poland with the help of the Khrushchovite revisionists in the Soviet Union set Poland back on the capitalist course. Today not a shred of socialism remains in Poland, the Soviet Union or any of the East European countries under the Soviet Union's sway. Among all the former socialist countries, only Albania remains socialist.
The economic collapse in Poland is the outgrowth of its capitalist system. The working masses are exploited there just like in other capitalist countries. The fruits of their labor go to enrich a ruling class of bureaucrats, who control the state sector of the economy, and of businessmen and rich farmers who control large sections of trade and agriculture. This upper crust lives like lords while the masses starve.
The Polish regime has also subordinated the country to foreign imperialism. Soviet social-imperialism dominates the country economically and militarily. Western imperialism, too, has huge economic interests there. Poland is $27 billion in debt to the Western banks and governments. Throughout the 1970's Poland imported large amounts of capital equipment, including whole factories, from the West, much of which is dependent on imports from the West of spare parts, materials, etc. In the face of worsening economic conditions, there is no money for these imports and production has fallen heavily. Meanwhile the bankers are demanding their pound of flesh. The Polish people are groaning under this tremendous burden.
The Polish workers have risen in powerful protests against this capitalist-revisionist tyranny many times -- in 1970, 1976, and 1980. These just and courageous actions have fully exposed that Poland is not a socialist society where the workers rule, but a society ruled by bloodsucking exploiters.
However, the workers' struggle faces great difficulties. It has alarmed the Soviet Union which remains poised to militarily invade and restore its full domination. On the other hand, the leadership which has come to the head of the movement, composed of Lech Walesa and the other leaders of the Solidarity trade union, are actively sabotaging the workers' struggle.
These traitors are not for fighting against the capitalist order. The self-proclaimed goal of the Solidarity leaders is to get the union a place in government, alongside the bourgeoisie, in order to jointly administer the capitalist economy and the sellout of Poland to foreign imperialism, especially to the West German and U.S. imperialists. Thus not a word is said against the fleecing of Poland by the foreign bankers. Indeed, the Solidarity leaders flaunt their love for Western imperialism. Thus, just after Reagan's election, Walesa declared that this was "a very good sign for the world and Poland, because he is a strong and consistent leader who will make things better for the world." What shameless admiration for Reagan who is hated throughout the world for being a notorious enemy of the workers, a racist and a rabid warmonger!
The American capitalists in turn shower these Reagan-lovers with praise and money, and they promote these reactionaries as the alleged vanguard of "renewal" and even "revolution" in Poland. This is also done by the AFL-CIO labor big-shots and their opportunist hangers-on. Meanwhile the apologists of Soviet revisionism such as the "Communist" Party, USA of Mr. Gus Hall shamelessly justify the threats of Soviet invasion.
The road of emancipation of the Polish workers lies not in tinkering with the revisionist regime, and certainly not in being crushed by Soviet tanks. Instead it lies in class struggle leading to socialist revolution. The Polish workers must work to overthrow the capitalist regime and end all foreign domination. For this the working class must reconstruct a genuine Marxist-Leninist party. Only such a party can defend the workers' cause from the treachery of the Solidarity leaders or any other traitors and lead them towards the proletarian revolution.
In this its 40th year, the Party of Labor of Albania held its 8th Congress. Comrade Enver Hoxha delivered the main Report setting forth the line and analysis of the Party. From the platform of the Congress, the PLA once again proclaimed its resolute stand against the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, and against all imperialism and reaction. It vehemently denounced the Soviet, Chinese, Yugoslav, and other revisionist traitors to the working class and enemies of the revolution. It outlined the further steps for the strengthening of working class rule, for the successful construction of socialism, and for guaranteeing a prosperous and happy life for the Albanian people.
At this Congress, the PLA reiterated its unyielding loyalty to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. The Congress denounced the various currents of international revisionism. It again exposed the capitalist nature of the revisionist economies, the rabid imperialism of the Soviet and Chinese revisionists, and their counter-revolutionary character. The Congress denounced in detail the racist, chauvinist, and anti-people acts of the Yugoslav revisionists against the Albanians of Kosova and other parts of Yugoslavia. It exposed as well the Yugoslav campaign against socialist Albania, showing that Albania has never interfered in Yugoslav affairs, but on the contrary, has acted as a true friend to the Yugoslav peoples.
The Congress was also a congress of triumphant socialist contraction. While the economic disaster in Poland stands as a striking symbol of the fiasco facing all the revisionist countries, Albania strides forward nonstop. This is another proof of the wide gulf separating revisionist capitalism and genuine socialism, built according to the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. The Congress stressed not just economic growth, but strengthening the socialist relations of production, the socialist character of the economy, and carrying forward the class struggle. As Comrade Mehmet Shehu stated in his Report on the 7th Five-Year Plan, "...the Party has adhered to the Marxist- Leninist thesis that if the socialist relations of production degenerate there is not and cannot be socialism, however developed the productive forces may be." (p. 148) Comrade Mehmet went on to stress the importance of "the further deepening and uninterrupted development" of the class struggle, stating that "To underrate this class struggle, which is waged in all fields of socialist construction, means to open the way to the birth of revisionism and the restoration of capitalism. This our Party...never will permit." (p. 172)
The Congress took care to preserve as the apple of its eye the state power of the working people, the dictatorship of the proletariat. It paid close attention to further improving the whole political system of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It dealt with the relationship of the party to the mass organizations and state organs, of the cadres to the masses, and of the executive and administrative bodies to the elected and representative bodies.
As always, the Congress stressed that basing all the activity of the Party and the masses on Marxist-Leninist science, not empiricism and practicism, is a fundamental condition for further success. The Congress paid great attention to the ideological struggle among the masses. It set forward the tasks for the further development of the new socialist man, the man imbued with socialist consciousness. On a world scale too, Comrade Enver Hoxha emphasized the energizing role of Marxism-Leninism, stating in his Report on the Activity of the Central Committee that "The science of Marx and Lenin builds up this confidence of the proletariat and the masses and makes it invincible." (Ch. V, pp. 262-63)
In all its work, the Congress was permeated with the concern to strengthen the Party, ensure its leading role, and enhance the effectiveness of party activity. Comrade Enver Hoxha stressed in his Report that "the experience of our Party over 40 years proves that only a party, which is based firmly on Marxist-Leninist science, can become the true leader of the working class.... The single and indivisible leadership of the Party is the source of all the victories in the socialist construction and the surest guarantee for the brilliant future we are building." (Ch. II, Sec. 1)
The 8th Congress was a congress of militant socialism. It reaffirmed the stable Marxist-Leninist principles of the PLA, recorded the victories of the past five years, and proclaimed to the world the unshakeable unity and solidity of the Albanian people.
[Photo: Comrade Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PLA, addresses the 8th Congress.]
Forty years ago the Party of Labor of Albania was founded. This was an historic turning point for the Albanian people.
For centuries on end, the Albanian people fought arms in hand for their freedom. Finally a new era began when, on November 8, 1941, the PLA (then called the Communist Party of Albania) was founded. Under the leadership of the PLA, the Albanian people have moved mountains in winning their national and social liberation. They defeated the Italian and German fascist hordes, and they have built socialism in the face of the imperialist-revisionist encirclement. They have stood up, emancipated and free, serving as an example for the exploited and oppressed of the world.
The 40-year history of the PLA teaches valuable lessons to all those who seek their liberation from oppressive capitalist-revisionist regimes. It is a vivid, living textbook of Marxism-Leninism. Hence this jubilee 40th anniversary has a special meaning to us here in the U.S:, fighting against Reaganite reaction and the bloodsucking regime of the monopoly capitalist moneybags. It provides valuable lessons on how to orient the mass movement against the capitalist offensive. It is especially timely today as liquidationism has become the most fashionable form of opportunism among the revisionist circles. The liquidators, whether pro-Chinese, pro-Soviet or trotskyite, pose as communists while in fact taking renegade stands and mocking at the revolution and the basic revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism. They have become almost indistinguishable from the social-democrats, with whom they are merging in their common work in the "left wing" of the Democratic Party. Today the advance of the working class movement requires a stem struggle against social-democracy and liquidationism.
A study of the history of the PLA rips to shreds the "Marxist" pretensions of the liquidators.
(1) The most basic lesson taught by 40 years of the life and struggle of the PLA is the absolute necessity for the establishment and constant strengthening of the true communist party. The historic victories of the Albanian revolution have only been possible because at the head of the masses stood a vanguard party of the working class, a genuine Marxist-Leninist party, a party of revolutionary struggle. At each step of the revolution, the Albanian communists have paid constant attention to building the Party, to imbuing the masses with the party principle, and to strengthening the unity of the Party and the masses.
But today the renegades from the revolution mock at the party principle. They have thrown overboard their past lip service to the need for a party and are coming out to denounce the very concept of the Leninist proletarian revolutionary party of a new type. Their opposition to the party is why they are called liquidators.
(2) The history of the PLA is a history of the fierce fight against modem revisionism. When still quite a young party, the PLA rebuffed the anti-Marxist deviations and the chauvinism of the Titoite Yugoslav leaders and preserved socialism in Albania. Later the PLA was the first party to recognize the dangerous revisionism of the Khrushchovite revisionist traitors in the Soviet Union. And most recently the PLA played an enormous role in the struggle against Chinese revisionism, the "three worlds" theory, and Mao Zedong Thought with the 7th Congress of the PLA; with the Scientific Sessions of October 1979; with such works as The Theory and Practice of the Revolution, the Letter of July 29, 1978, Imperialism and the Revolution, and Reflections on China; and so forth.
But the liquidators, on the contrary, are especially cursing at the struggle against revisionism and opportunism. They charge it with being "sectarian," "dogmatic," and every crime in the book. A shocking but typical example is that various groups of pro-Chinese liquidators, who used to like.to pose as part of the anti-revisionist movement, have gone over to calling the Soviet revisionists "socialists."
The liquidators are opposed not just to the struggle against modem revisionism, but to any struggle against opportunism. Instead they are down on their knees before the labor bureaucrats and the liberal-labor politicians of the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party is nothing but the twin brother of the Reaganite Republicans; it is a party of concealed Reaganites who follow the bipartisan capitalist program of hunger, fascism and war. The labor bureaucrats are the labor lieutenants of the bourgeoisie, notorious racists, chauvinists and reactionaries. Yet the social-democrats paint the Democratic Party in "socialist" colors, while the liquidators paint the policy of unity with the Democratic Party, social-democrats and labor bureaucrats in "Marxist" colors.
(3) The history of the PLA shows that a Marxist-Leninist party is necessarily a party of action, of revolutionary struggle. Although the PLA was small at the time of its founding, it immediately threw itself heart and soul into the anti-fascist national liberation struggle of the Albanian people. A true Leninist party is always built in the flames of the class struggle. It forges its unbreakable links with the masses in the course of the struggle against the class enemy.
The PLA has continued its tradition of revolutionary struggle down to this day. Even after Albania entered the stage of the complete construction of socialist society, even after the domestic classes of exploiters had been eliminated as classes, the PLA never lost its revolutionary vigilance. It builds socialism in a revolutionary fashion: through mobilization of the masses, through constant struggle against liberalism and bureaucracy, and through keeping fresh the spirit and- style of struggle and sacrifice. It is this revolutionary character of the PLA that has given it the strength and spirit to resist the hostile imperialist-revisionist encirclement.
The liquidators, however, belittle the revolutionary methods of struggle and seek to extinguish the flames of the class struggle. They preach that the masses must have a "realistic" approach and must confine themselves to the realm of bourgeois "practical" politics. From their armchairs, from their positions in the labor bureaucracy, with their eyes glued on the Democratic Party hacks and labor bureaucrats, they pontificate that revolution is a phantom and the mass revolutionary struggle is "ultra-left." Their constant denunciation of the "ultra-left" is their theme song for renegacy.
The history of the PLA teaches the life- giving power of Marxism-Leninism. Revolution cannot be made by hit-or-miss methods. It was Marxism-Leninism that charted the path forward for the Albanian people. The liquidators, however, are renouncing the principles of Marxism-Leninism, whether with regard to the party principle, the revolutionary struggle, the role of the labor bureaucracy or any other cardinal question of the revolution. They go so far as to mock the very idea of basing one's activities on an integral, coherent world outlook as "doctrinairism" and "correct line-ism."
On these four questions, and on many others the history of the PLA provides a powerful repudiation of the liquidators. Study of this history inspires confidence in the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist theory and instills the burning desire to carry out the revolution in one's own country. It teaches the need to build and cherish the proletarian party, to defend it, to imbue the proletariat with the party principle. It shows how a true Leninist party is built -- a party of revolutionary action, inseparably linked to the masses, guided by the Marxist-Leninist science, and irreconcilably opposed to opportunism.
[Photo: 'The Founding of the Party,' oil painting by the Albanian artist Shaban Hysa]