Ramiz Alia is first secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania. He heads the revisionist faction, which has gained a stranglehold on the PLA and is engineering the slide of Albania into capitalism.
Alia today talks like a capitalist politician. But not so long ago he talked like a Marxist. It is instructive to compare his statements today with those of yesterday to show how Alia has gone back on his word on every fundamental principle.
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December 1990: “Stalin’s life has no direct connection with Albania. We particularly valued him as leader of the Patriotic War of the Soviet Union and as one of the heads of the anti-fascist coalition, and for defending Albania in 1948 and afterwards when our country was being threatened by Yugoslavia.... These moments of our relationship with the Soviet Union and with Stalin now belong to the distant past. Meanwhile, we still have many names, monuments and symbols dedicated to these moments which have lost their earlier value. The trouble was that these things risked being turned into political and ideological symbols, which interest no-one and are of no use to anyone. Therefore, it is for the general good that the old decisions connected with the commemoration of Stalin... now be done away with.”
December 1979: “The name and work of Stalin are immortal and will live through the ages.... The attitude towards Stalin and his work is a clear line of demarcation between Marxist-Leninists and modern revisionists. This is not just an issue of bygone history, but constitutes a current problem of major importance.... To the communists and people of Albania, Stalin is inseparable from the triumphant doctrine of the proletariat which has lit the way to the achievement of all our victories.... The Albanian communists and our whole people honour Stalin with great respect and gratitude, because all these victories are based on his teachings and aid and the experience of his struggle and work.”
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December 1990: The Party has already voiced in public its opinion that the creation of independent political organisations... will benefit the country’s further democratisation. This wise stand of the Party represents another important link of our democratic process.”
September 1989: “We will never relinquish or permit the weakening of the leading role of our Marxist-Leninist party for the sake of the so-called pluralism that the bourgeoisie dishes out to us.... This question we consider sacred.”
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November 1990: “Pluralism of opinions existed with us even in the past.... We should transform the existing social organisations into complete pluralist bodies.... The fact that the country’s political and social organisations... are proclaimed equal election subjects, thus ensuring a more pluralistic representation of the masses in power, speaks of the deepening of the people’s democracy.”
January 1990: “Western countries are encouraging the political changes in Eastern Europe. Under the calls for free elections and political different parties and groups, they want pluralism, for the creation of man) to bring about the total destruction of everything that reminds one of socialism.... In the East European countries, socialism was rejected under the slogan of liberation from the monopoly of communist parties. And pluralism... became the formula of salvation, allegedly for democracy to flourish.... We have declared ourselves for the hegemony of the Party of Labour, because we are conscious that this is a basic condition for socialist construction.”
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July 1990: “We enter a new class struggle with internal and external reactionary forces.... We should not be surprised at the coming to life of the vagabonds, the demagogues, the parasites and the cafe politicians.”
January 1990: “Our socialist society... experiences no social conflicts.... We have a solid situation at home.”
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November 1990: “By special law we have allowed foreign investments and co-operation with foreign firms and capital. This makes it necessary to amend article 28 of the existing Constitution.”
November 1986: “We never link trade with the acceptance of [foreign] credits, the granting of concessions, or permitting activities of foreign companies and economic or financial institutions in our country. This has been clearly sanctioned in the Albanian Constitution.”
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December 1990: “The new economic mechanism replacing the system of centralised administrative commands will lead to a market economy where there will be competition between the large state sector and the co-operativist and private sectors.
November 1986: “Our economy is managed on the basis of the principle of democratic centralism, which combines the centralised management of the state from above with the initiative of the base and the masses from below. The safeguarding and consistent application of... democratic centralism is an issue of principle.”
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July 1990: “Confined and controlled private business doesn’t run counter to our moral and ideological norms. There is no danger that a certain class of owners or exploiters will be created.”
September 1989: “We will not allow the opening of the way for the return of private property and capitalist exploitation.”
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April 1990: “If the peasantry considers that the keeping of a cow or some sheep and goats in their personal plot is more effective, the agricultural co-operatives should decide this themselves.... In this case, livestock from the small herds could be sold to them.”
September 1989: “We will never permit the weakening of socialist common property.”
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December 1990: “We consider that the future of Europe will benefit from the aid which the West gives to Eastern Europe to overcome its difficulties resulting from economic restructuring.... We like to hope that this aid will not be lacking for Albania.”
December 1989: “The Eastern countries hope to secure the aid of international capital to get out of the crisis in which they’ve landed. But has capitalism changed and become generous? Not at all.... Capitalism gives nothing without interest. This is growing more and more obvious in the events of Eastern Europe. It is dictating what they should do, how they should reform their economies so as to pave the way for private property and foreign capital.”
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September 1990: “We cannot fail to evaluate as promising the changes that have taken place in the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.... If detente between the two superpowers were to become global... this would be to the benefit of everybody.... The steps that have already been taken towards the easing of tension and solving many regional conflicts... have created an atmosphere, which gives rise to hope for the whole of mankind.
June 1989: “Our view is that the temporary easing of tension, which is dictated by the specific interests of the superpowers, should not lead to euphoria or lowering of vigilance. The superpowers, the United States and Soviet Union, remain what they have always been. They have given up neither their strategic aims of ensuring hegemony for themselves... nor their spheres of influence.... Socialist Albania has... condemned and will continue to condemn the expansionist and hegemonic policy of the imperialist superpowers, which are mainly to blame for the tensions between states today.”
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April 1990: “Re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States and Soviet Union has emerged on the agenda.”
November 1986: “There will never be any conciliation between socialist Albania and the two superpowers.”
Comparing these contradictory statements by Ramiz Alia automatically leads to this question: Would you trust a man who said one thing one day and a totally different thing the next? Such rapid shifts in opinion are a sure sign of a politician guided not by communist principles but by opportunist expediency. This type of politician is eminently suited to betraying the cause of socialism and pushing Albania onto the capitalist road.