Date: Sun, 09 Mar 1997 17:42:29 +0100
Subject: M-G: COCKROACH! Extra! (Albania)


COCKROACH! Extra! (Albania)

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Victory to the Albanian uprising!

	In late February a spontaneous insurrection started in the poorest
European country. Dini, the Italian foreign minister, has declared that the
revolt is being lead by =93delinquent bands incited by far left activists=94
which are trying =93to attack Tirana=94. The Sali Berisha=92s government declared
a state of emergency on March 2. However, southern Albania is under the
control of what the Tirana tyrants are calling a =93communist rebellion=94 led
by =93red terrorists=94. The Socialist Party, which is the biggest opposition
force, is calling for a national unity government of experts which could
appease  the population.  Revolutionaries all over the world should fight
for no compromise with the right wing corrupt =93democratic=94 dictatorship and
for the development of workers=92 and poor councils and militias.

Since the last week of February thousands of people have attacked barracks
and taken up arms. Members of the security and repressive forces have been
disarmed, injured and killed, and one was burned.   Rioters set fire to town
halls, banks, police stations and Berisha=92s house. Vlora, the main southern
city with a population of 80,000, is the capital of a rebellion which also
embraces Himara, Saroda, Teplene and Gjikoraster (Enver Hoxha=92s natal town).
 
Albania has a population of three million and probably no more than a
quarter million people live in the rebel areas. However, the discontent is
growing and it could extend to the capital, Tirana.Many rioters have a very
basic aspiration: =93we want our money back=94. One third of Albanians were
defrauded in the pyramid schemes. Many poor people sold their houses or
lands for money which they put into =93financial=94 institutions which could
return to them up to 100%interest per month.

Between $1 to $3 billion was collected in these pyramid societies in the
poorest European country, which has a GNP of only $2.5 billion, and where
most of the 3 million people have to live on monthly wages of around $60
(=A340). The money capitalised by these financial institutions was used in
Berisha=92s electoral campaign. Many people voted for him with the idea that
if he was not re-elected they could lose their savings. Albania was proud
to be the fastest growing economy in Europe. In 1995 it
had nearly 12% yearly growth. However, this was an artificial boom. After
the 20 October local elections the main pyramid schemes exploded.

State of emergency
Berisha=92s initial answer to the crisis was to manipulate his puppet
parliament. He was re-elected, almost unanimously, for a five year mandate.
He had  the support of 113 MPs, with only 4 abstentions and 1 vote against.
The Albanian congress is very anti-democratic. It was elected in May 96
under conditions in which, as even a European investigation commission
declared, 32 out of the 79 articles of the electoral were violated. As a
result his =93Democratic Party=94 was over-represented, with 122 out of the 140
seats. The ten  Socialist Party=92s MPs boycotted it. Important parties, such
as the Democratic Alliance and the Social Democrats, don=92t have a place in
such a parliament.   Berisha destituted the chief of government, Alekxander
Meksi. He put the chief of the army, Sheme Kosova, under house arrest, and
replaced him with
Adam Copani, from the intelligence service.  Since Sunday, March 2, Albania
has been under a curfew which is in effect between 8:00 pm and 7:00 am. The
work day ends at 3:00 pm, except for some shops and bars which can work
until 6:00 pm. There is no independent media, all of the media is under
strict control of the regime. Even the BBC and the =93Voice of America=94, the
only foreign radio stations which broadcast programs in Albanian, are
suffering interference. Koha Jone, a critical newspaper financed by the
Soros foundation, was firebombed by the dictatorship.
Berisha, like Tudjman, had received democratic credentials from the
European Union. The imperialist powers believed that Berisha could
construct an economic model for the Balkans and appease the discontented
ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania allowed its coast and mountains to be used
for NATO exercises.  Berisha=92s regime is very well backed by countries like
Germany and Britain.  Fini has declared that =93Italy is prepared to send
financial and technical help=94. Already Italian troops have carried out a
commando operation in Vlora, taking 36 foreigners with them.


Opposition
Most of the opposition is united in the =93Democratic Forum=94, a popular front
of 11 parties (from right-wing liberals to former =93communists=94). They are
proposing three solutions to the crisis: general elections in six weeks; a
government of national unity between the ruling dictatorship and the
opposition; and full =93transparent=94 investigation of the financial scandal.
One of their main forces is Neritan Ceka=92s Democratic Alliance, a group
which comes from Berisha=92s Democratic Party and which participated in the
regime that promoted this savage capitalist counter-revolution. Ceka
declared =93This armed uprising could end tomorrow if Berisha agreed with a
cross-party coalition.=94 Berissa, after a five-hour round of discussion with
ten opposition parties,  declared a 48 hours cease fire beginning on March 7.
Berisha has been forced to retreat from his initial hard-line actions. He
wanted to send 30,000 forces to conquer the southern coast but was defeated
in his initial attempts. He realised that he doesn=92t have the force to
smash the insurgents. The demoralised Albanian army, overlooked  by Berisha
in favour of the police force, seems to have little stomach for a fight
that could became a civil war. Western diplomats think that there is little
prospect for the army to reconquer control given its poor firepower and
indiscipline. Conscripts are paid $2 (1.24=A3) a month and have little
incentive to risk their lives.

The most important party in the =93Democratic Forum=94 is the former Stalinist
Party of  Labour, renamed the Socialist Party. This is the same party which
carried out the bureaucratic expropriation of the landlords and capitalists
and the creation of a degenerated workers state, which for more than four
decades led the country into a Stalinist autarkic society, and which begun
the first stage of capitalist restoration that lasted until 1992, when
Berisha took power and speeded up the process. Recently, the SP has started
to drop references to Marxism in their program. These changes created a lot
of internal problems and struggles between the pro-liberal =93modernisers=94 and
semi-Stalinists. 

The Socialists are not trying to generalise the insurrection. They are
offering their services to stop it. In exchange they are demanding a
technocrat government which would organise new elections. The Democratic
Forum leaders are saying that if Berisha =93agreed to a government which
include the opposition=94 they can =93guarantee people would lay down their
guns.=94

However, most of the rebels don=92t want  to gave up their weapons and their
armed struggle if Berisha is not overthrown. They didn=92t risk their lives
to pressure the dictator with the aim that he could open his cabinet to
former members of his own party and old members of the nomenclature.

One of the limitations of the movement is that most of the people have
great illusions in democracy. All the forces, from the dictatorship to the
former authoritarian Stalinists are using that flag. Revolutionaries should
use
democratic slogans with the aim of  unmasking the conciliatory opposition.

Crucial demands are for putting the media and the electoral and judiciary
courts under the control of the workers and peasants; for workers
supervision of the funds for the parties to stop capitalist and imperialist
support to their puppets. We have to be for the abolition of the presidency
and the parliament and for an all-powerful assembly in which all their
deputies have to be elected and recallable in rank and file assemblies.

After their defeats in the 1996 elections the SP went into crisis. In this
circumstances, however, it is most probable that the former Stalinists
could became a serious pole of attraction, especially to the industrial and
rural
workers. The SP=92s main figure, Fatos Nano, is becoming very popular. In
1994, after being sentenced to a 12 year period for corruption, his
followers claimed that he was the Albanian Mandela.

Tasks
Revolutionary communists should demand that the socialist and toilers
organisations break the coalition with the capitalist and pro-imperialist
parties. Instead of making blocks with Berisha=92s former comrades and trying
to create a national unity government, they should fight for a massive
armed uprising which would overthrow the regime and all the new rich.

The SP had quite a lot of support in the south. However, the insurrection
seems to be an act of explosive spontaneity. According to The Financial
Times (7-3-97) =93there was no indication that any political organisation has
masterminded the protests and raids=94. The Western diplomats are terrorised
by what they think is a lawless region in which young workers are commanding
stolen tanks. One of them said that  south-west Albania is a =93Mad Max
country=94.

The reaction fears the crumbling of their order and the beginning of a new
order. In situations like this is always very possible that gangs could try
to take advantage. However, is in these new conditions than the
extraordinary creative capacity of the exploited masses could arise.   

In the last two months of mass demonstrations and during the insurrection
the workers and poor created new organs to control the distribution of food
and basic goods and to defend themselves. It is indispensable to maintain,
democratise, expand and centralise them. So, they should be the basis for a
new workers council regime.

There is no solution in the market. It is responsible for the destruction
of the people=92s savings and standard of living. Around one million
Albanians defrauded by the pyramid schemes need their money back. All the
savings for
the Albanian toilers have to be repayed. Only the rich speculators should
lose their money. A new workers council government should compensate the
poor with money taken from the new exploiters and imperialists, who
accumulated so much profit under Berisha.

Privatised companies have to be re-nationalised without compensation. The
new capitalists have to be expropriated. The foreign debt needs to be
canceled. Albania needs to break with NATO, the IMF and the
EuropeanCouncil. The planned economy has to be re-installed, but not under a
bureaucratic mismanagement. It has to be administrated democratically by
rank and file committees with an international orientation towards the
expansion of world=92s socialist revolution.

The Albanian situation could create an explosion in the area. Nearly half
of the ethnic-Albanian population lives outside Albania. Most of them
constitute the majority of the inhabitants in wetsern Macedonia and in
Kosovo. Serbia denies democratic rights to 90% of Kosovo=92s people who are
Albanians. The Serb and Macedonian regime used anti-Albanian chauvinism to
unite the population around them and to avoid attacks on their austerity
meassures. 

Albania is closed to two of the EU=92s countries who have the most militant
working classes. Several general strikes and mass demonstrations happened
in Italy and Greece in the last years. In Bulgaria and Serbia the
imperialists
applauded the development of reactionary demonstrations against the former
Stalinists. In this case, they are worried because the anger is directed
against one of the most pro-western and neo-liberal regimes in the east.
=93The Times=94 expressed it: =93If Mr Berisha is engulfed by the chaos and the
opposition =85 controlled by the former Communists, triumphs, the West may
regret its nonchalance.=94

In the last years the people=92s anger against the restorationist measures
was distorted into ethnic chauvinistic wars (like in former Yugoslavia, the
Caucasus and Central Asia) or under anti-Communist pro-imperialist
leaderships (like recently in Serbia). The Albanian =93red=94 uprising doesn=92t
have an ethnic symbol and is directed straight against one of the most
pro-western and anti-Communist models. The extreme left has to be proud to
be associated with that uprising and we need to avoid the conciliatory
policies of the former nomenclature. New revolutionary internationalist
parties in the Balkans are indispensable.  These parties need to re-take the
Bolshevik traditions of Rakovski, Trotsky and Lenin and fight for a new
socialist and workers-democratic federation of the region. Only under such
a framework would it be possible to end the plight of the Albanians outside
Albania, the Muslims, the cleansed Serbs, the Roma, etc.  

* Down with Berisha and the capitalist regime!

* For the re-nationalisation without compensation to all the  privatised
companies!

* Against the financial escandals: open the books! Workers control of
industry and the economy!

* For a revolution based in workers council and militias!

LCMRCI
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