A giant statue of Enver Hoxha, Albania’s leader for four decades until his death in 1985, was unveiled in the main square of Tirana in October 1988. The keynote speech was delivered by Albanian president Ramiz Alia. Noting that Hoxha had always defended “the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin”, Alia pledged that “the Albanian people and their Party of Labour will march non-stop on the road of Enver Hoxha”.
However, Alia’s actions totally contradict his “solemn” pledge delivered at the unveiling of Hoxha’s statue. The counter-revolutionary faction headed by Alia, after cementing their grip on the Party of Labour, have engineered the slide of Albania into capitalism.
Elements of their pro-capitalist programme include introducing a “free market” capitalist economy, opening Albania up to unlimited foreign investment and forging an alliance with the imperialist powers of Europe.
Last December, Alia & Co ordered the famous statue of Stalin in Tirana to be knocked down. This was the signal for an open campaign of de-Stalinisation similar to that launched in the Soviet Union after Khrushchev’s counter-revolutionary “secret speech” to the 1956 Soviet Party Congress. So much for Alia’s promise to “march non-stop on the road of Enver Hoxha” who always defended the name and work of Stalin. Events have proven Alia to be nothing but a liar.
Even though Hoxha must be characterised as an incomplete Marxist, since his elevation of the “non-class” concept of “people’s power” prevented the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania, his statue in Tirana was widely regarded as a communist symbol.
The counter-revolutionary forces unleashed by Alia & Co therefore turned their fury on Hoxha’s statue. On February 20, thousands of university students toppled the statue, then rolled its head through the streets to the university where they urinated on it.
This was the aftermath to a student strike demanding that the Enver Hoxha University of Tirana be re-named to delete all reference to the former Albanian leader.
A few hours after the destruction of Hoxha’s statue, the Albanian Government issued a statement agreeing to remove Hoxha’s name from the university. This was met with jubilation by the students.
Again, so much for Alia’s pledge to “march non-stop on the road of Enver Hoxha”. Alia’s refusal to defend Hoxha’s name on the university goes hand-in-band with the way Alia now refers to Hoxha merely as an “historical personality” instead of as a person who did his (however incomplete) best to defend the principles of communism.
Alia had destroyed the essence of Hoxha’s life long before the students destroyed his statue.
One of Alia’s most noticeable characteristics over the last couple of years has been his constant praise of the intelligentsia as the most “progressive” force in Albania. Alia promoted the idea amongst the students that they should be the masters of the country and recruited them as a necessary base of social support for his counter-revolutionary programme.
The inevitable result was the student campaign against the symbols of communism which culminated in the toppling of Hoxha’s statue.
Therefore, the person most to blame for the destruction of Hoxha’s statue is the very man who gave the keynote speech at its unveiling – Ramiz Alia. There is just no limit to the political hypocrisy of opportunists like Alia.