Date: Sun,  9 Mar 97 13:29:37    
Subject: M-G: Victory to the Albanian uprising!


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 “delinquent bands incited by far left activists” 
which are trying “to attack Tirana”. The Sali Berisha’s government declared 
a state of emergency on March 2. However, southern Albania is under the 
control of what the Tirana tyrants are calling a “communist rebellion” led 
by “red terrorists”. 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 “democratic” dictatorship and 
for the development of workers’ 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’s 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’s 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: “we want our money back”. One 
third of Albanians were defrauded in the pyramid schemes. Many poor people 
sold their houses or lands for money which they put into “financial” 
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 
(£40). The money capitalised by these financial institutions was used in 
Berisha’s 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’s 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 “Democratic Party” was over-represented, with 122 out of the 140 
seats. The ten  Socialist Party’s MPs boycotted it. Important parties, such 
as the Democratic Alliance and the Social Democrats, don’t 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 “Voice of America”, 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’s regime is very well backed by countries like 
Germany and Britain.  Fini has declared that “Italy is prepared to send 
financial and technical help”. 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 “Democratic Forum”, a popular front 
of 11 parties (from right-wing liberals to former “communists”). 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 “transparent” investigation of the financial scandal. 
One of their main forces is Neritan Ceka’s Democratic Alliance, a group 
which comes from Berisha’s Democratic Party and which participated in the 
regime that promoted this savage capitalist counter-revolution. Ceka 
declared “This armed uprising could end tomorrow if Berisha agreed with a 
cross-party coalition.” 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’t 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£) a month and have little 
incentive to risk their lives. 
The most important party in the “Democratic Forum” 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 “modernisers” 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 “agreed to a government which 
include the opposition” they can “guarantee people would lay down their 
guns.”
However, most of the rebels don’t want  to gave up their weapons and their 
armed struggle if Berisha is not overthrown. They didn’t 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’s 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’s 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) “there was no indication that any political organisation has 
masterminded the protests and raids”. 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 “Mad Max 
country”.
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’s 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 European 
Council. 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’s 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’s 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’s 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. 
“The Times” expressed it: “If Mr Berisha is engulfed by the chaos and the 
opposition … controlled by the former Communists, triumphs, the West may 
regret its nonchalance.”
In the last years the people’s 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 “red” uprising doesn’t 
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 
Albaia, 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!   



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