Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 11:17:19 -0500
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-I: COCKROACH! EXTRA (Albania 2) 


COCKROACH! EXTRA (Albania 2)

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Albania:
Spontaneous
revolt against
anti-communists

	Albania is becoming Europe=92s hot spot. The imperialist media is
showing its concerns about this =93lawless=94 and =93chaotic=94 country. Albania,
which was the fastest growing European economy in 1993 and 1994 and a model
of Tory fast capitalist restoration, is facing civil war.  The state, the
army and the police have collapsed. In the south every family has a gun. The
insurrection is now spreading into the north and has arrived in the Capital
Tirana.
	The Albanian rebellion is marking a new step in the post-Cold War
world. It is the first popular revolution against an open anti-Communist
capitalist regime in one of the post-Stalinist countries.
	Since 1989 many  upheavals have shaken China, the former Soviet
Union and eastern Europe. The people rose in anger against the Stalinist
regimes and a significant proportion of the population had illusions in the
western model of parliamentary democracy  plus market. Since 1989 all the
collapsing Degenerated Workers States in the former Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe have been transformed into incipient capitalist states. 	A social
counter-revolution has occurred under a =93democratic=94 and neo-liberal cover
and was supported by considerable layers of the population which wanted to
achieve the standard of living and bourgeois-democratic rights of the
Western imperialist countries. Everywhere the bureaucracy decided to abandon
their previous regimes and to dismantle the nationalised and planned
economies and the state monopoly of foreign trade, finances and big
industries. The bourgeoisie, which was forbidden to be a ruling class for
four or more decades, has been allowed to  accumulate as much money and
property as it can. The state apparatus and ideology became servants of
imperialism and the new emergent property class.
	In every country the Stalinists supported  that project. They only
put up some resistance to the most savage capitalist measures. The former
=93Communist Parties=94 were re-created as social-democratised =93Socialist=94
parties committed to a market economy. The working class, ideologically
disarmed and very confused, was incapable of stopping the return of the
capitalists to  power. The reintroduction of the bourgeois system created
terrible consequences: massive unemployment, the destruction of industries,
the liquidation of job security and many social benefits, and the increased
social polarisation between a minority of new great riches and millions of
people living below the poverty line.
	In many places national and ethnic conflicts erupted. With the
liquidation of the central plan economies every national region wanted to
link directly to the foreign markets and their elites wanted to became the
new bourgeoisie. Workers from different ethnic groups were mobilised to kill
their brothers and sisters from other communities with the aim of creating
new mini semi-colonial states. Their anger against the effects of capitalist
restoration was badly diverted into ethnic communalism. Imperialism also
connived at popular demonstrations against Stalinists which were incapable
of applying full-IMF shock therapy programmes.
	In countries which where the vanguard of the new right wing
neo-liberals,  like Poland, Hungary or Lithuania, the discontented
population was able to peacefully elect post-Stalinist governments. None of
these wanted to re-create the bureaucratic workers states. On the contrary,
they are continuing with the market reforms albeit trying to avoid the most
radical  neo-liberal =93excesses=94.
	Albania is something different. It is a spontaneous insurrection
against a former popularly elected =93democratic=94 president. Berisha, won his
first  presidential elections in March 92 by a  landslide (63% of the
votes). He was considered the =93Balkan Havel=94. He was presented as a cult
leader which led a =93velvet revolution=94 which overthrew Hoxha statues in
Tirana in 1991-92. For the west he was the man which establish =93democracy=94
in a country which had nearly five decades of Stalinist rule and was under
the rule of the Axis powers, a monarchy and Turkey. Like Yeltsin, he was
also a former Secretary of the Stalinist ruling party who became a
born-again anti-Communist neo-liberal.
	These are not demonstrations led by the pro-imperialist opposition
and the church against the =93Socialists=94, like in Serbia. Rather  it is a war
against one of the most pro-Western post-Stalinists regimes. It is a
subversion against the anti-Communists; a spontaneous anti- Anti-Communist
revolution. It is the first European mass armed general mobilisation which
is officially being labelled as led by =93red terrorists=94, =93far left=94 and
=93communists=94.

Albanian February
	The Albanian revolt was not organised by any political force and no
one political party is leading it.  It is an spontaneous explosion similar
to the revolutions of Russia in February 1917, Bolivia in 1952 or Rumania in
1989. The toilers are not mobilised around any socialist demand.
	Their main concern is that they want their money back. Most of the
Albanians invested their savings in get-rich-quick investment pyramids set
up by the regime but approved by the IMF. The pyramid schemes =97 the various
pseudo-banks that succeeded in sucking in funds from almost every Albanian
household with the promise of exorbitant interest payments before going bust
=97 is part of the most barbaric form of finance capital exploitation of the
savings of the people. Many of the poor Albanians sold their houses or farms
and have now lost everything.
	The big problem is that it would be very difficult for any new
government to guarantee to return money back to them. The amount of money
invested in  that financial societies is more or less the yearly national
Albanian  product. The rebellion is targeting one of the most horrific
aspects of capitalist restoration. Everywhere privatisation and investment
pyramid are creating a new bourgeoisie which is connected to the Mafia and
which uses the worst methods of primitive capitalist accumulation. 
	These financial institutions were used by the regimes to appease the
population and to try to show to many poor people that they could overcome
poverty or the lost of their jobs with these fabulous ways of savings. The
collapse of such institutions created similar problems in many regimes from
the Andes to the former Soviet bloc. The Albanian case is the first one
which has produced a revolution. In neighbouring Macedonia, where one third
of its population are oppressed for being ethnically Albanians, there are
also problems with investment pyramids. This explosion could spread to all
the region.
	An article published in the New York Times (15 March) suggested that
=93the people rampaging through Albania=92s streets and displaying captured
Kalashnikovs are not =93The People=94 who toppled Ferdinand Marcos in Manila or
the velvet revolutionaries of Prague in 1989. Rather, they are driven by an
unlikely coalition of unreformed Communists and the Albanian Mafia that
threatens to plunge the country into civil war.=94 Berisha and many
imperialist papers are accusing the revolution of being a Mafia-Marxist
plot.
	In every insurrection it is inevitable that the organise crime wants
to take advantage of the situation and that the lumpen-proletariat would
make looting. However, around one million Albanians were defrauded by the
semi-banks which Berisha used to financed his campaign and to pay for the
privileges to his collaborators. It was the Albanian regime and police which
had several links with the Mafia.
	Italy=92s chief anti-Mafia prosecutor, confirmed a report that
Italian-organised crime groups had sunk money into the pyramid schemes for
money-laundering and to raise startup capital for new ventures; and that
Albania had become a significant producer of marijuana and was dabbling in
the cultivation of coca, the raw material for cocaine. Shqiponja, a company
run openly by Berisha=92s Democratic Party, was used to run guns and drugs,
and these rackets are continuing in other forms.
	The areas under rebel control are not in a state of barbaric
anarchy. Local councils are being formed and they are organising militias
and the distribution of basic goods. The people there are more free and safe
than the ones who are living in Tirana.
	There are many former Stalinist officers and cadres which are trying
to capture the leadership of the spontaneous revolt. Many of them would have
links with the Mafia, were involved in the Hoxha=92s security police and would
like to make good deals with imperialism and the new bourgeoisie.
	However, we can not judge a movement by its episodic leaders. We
need to see the mass movement itself and in which direction it is going. The
rebels are not raising US flags or demanding concessions to the market. They
are fighting against neo-liberal measures and a right-wing regime. The
rebellion, despite all its great limitations, started in the most
pro-Socialist areas, are using red flags and is under attack for being =93far
left=94.
	The Albanians are using the classical proletarian insurrection
methods: strikes, mass demonstrations, disarming the police and the army,
assaulting barracks and create local councils and militias. Marxists have to
intervene in this process trying to prevent the new dual power bodies from
becaming bureaucratised, destroyed, dissolved or re-integrating into the
system. 
	All their delegates have to be elected and recallable in rank and
file assemblies. The armed militias should only recognise their authority.
The new bourgeoisie and former security agents have to be expelled from
them.

Stalinists =91reconcile=92 with Berisha
	The Stalinists are showing once again their counter-revolutionary
role. They have decided to join Berisha=92s regime and to rearm the repressive
forces.
	On March 2, Berisha declared a state of emergency, one day later he
was re-elected nearly unanimously for a new five-year term and he launched a
military offensive against the rebels. However, he failed and was forced to
ask his opponents to rescue him. 	Berisha had banned the =93Communist=94
Party of Labour and put in jail the leader of the Socialist Party, former
prime minister Fatos Nano. When the insurrection begun he accused the
=93Comunists=94 of being the instigators and that he would not deal with them. 
The Socialist Party didn=92t allow their deputies to attend the parliament.
	Despite all of this hostility, the Socialists and all the opposition
parties created with Berisha a =93government of reconciliation=94 on Sunday 9.
Berisha already sacrificed the man who had been his prime minister since he
made his government in April 92. The new cabinet is led by Bashkim Fino, a
leader of the SP and a former major of Gjirokasta (one of the leading rebel
cities), and is composed by 5 members of the DP, 5 from the SP, 4 from the
Social Democrats and one each for other five minor opposition parties.
	Berisha has capitulated to almost all the opposition demands. He
called for general elections in June, he made a national unity government
and he declared amnesty to the rebels. His chief of security, Bashkim
Gazidede, resigned.
	However, the insurrection was not stopped. The rebellion which
started in the southwest corner of Albania, from the Adriatic ports of Vlore
and Sarande to the inland towns of Delvine, Gjirokaster, Tepelene, Permet
and Berat, took control of Berat, Elbasani, Lushnja and the Tirana airport,
in central Albania, and later Durasi, the country=92s main port, and Shkodar,
the main northern city. About 300 prisoners from the Central Jail were
released during a mayhem, including two archenemies of Berisha, the leader
of the Socialist Party, Nano and the last =93Communist=94 chief of Albania,
Ramiz Alia.

=93Berisha accepted that he has no institutional control,=94 Skender Gjinushi of
the opposition Social Democrats reported after meeting with the president.
=93He has no army, no police, Tirana is in total anarchy.=94

	Berisha tried to play off the ancient rivalries between the
southerners, which speak the Tosk dialect and are relatively more develop,
and the northerners, which speak the Gheg dialect, and have more mountaneous
tribal traditions. Berisha came from the north and he put his follow
countrymen in top executive positions in the police and the government.
However, the north is now shaken by the insurrection. In Shkodar all state
institutions were set on fire, the armoury emptied, and the headquarters of
the secret police and a local bank were destroyed.
	The new =93socialist=94 premier said that the reorganisation of police
and army would be a top priority of his emergency government and he promised
to triple the salaries to the police forces, and to campaign to hire new
staff for the now powerless ministries of interior and defence.
	The SP is desperate to re-establish order. They had also been
involved in dirty business. They begun the return to the new savage
capitalist economy. One of the main pyramid schemes was controlled by them. 
Fino said that the government would work closely with the political parties
and the local committees in the insurgent Albanian towns to stabilise the
country.
	In the first weekend of March masked police controlled Tirana. Many
Albanians, including criminals, were allowed to be conscripted in 24 hours
as new policemen. The Socialists are re-creating the bourgeois repressive
institutions with the aim of disarming the insurrections or smashing its
most intransigent wings.
	A leader of the European Security Council, Vanitsky, after meeting
with Fino and officials from local committees in insurgent-held towns in
southern Albania, said that the Albanians are asking for military
intervention and that it could be a possibility to send 4,000 troops.
Already, Italy, Greece and other European countries are moving in that
direction.
	In mid-March, Fino=92s main aim was to try to make agreements with the
rebel cities. Many southern city councils created a =93National Committee for
People=92s Salvation=94 which is not part of the new national unity government.
Already more than 150,000 weapons, including tanks and planes, are in
rebel=92s hands. The Socialists wants to re-create the bourgeois state
apparatus and to use the elections to form a new legalised regime.
	The elections are seeing as a distraction manoeuvre to appease and
divide the rebels.  However, one of the leaders of the new ruling coalition,
Nerita Ceka, recognised that it would be impossible to convene elections
while there are so many armed groups and he would like to extend the period
of the new government.  Some insurgents declared =93We are not interested in
elections or in a provisional government. Albania=92s south and very soon the
rest of the country would not depose their weapons until Berisha have to
leave=94 (El Pais, 10 March)
	For revolutionaries the main task is to maintain, democratise,
consolidate and centralise the new local power councils. We have to demand
no conciliation with Berisha or any of the bourgeois parties! Transform the
councils and militias into working class alternative power!
	It is possible that Berisha could resign. Italian Foreign Minister
Lamberto Dini told the newspaper La Repubblica that Fino had to decide
whether Berisha=92s presence was =93an obstacle to pacifying the country or not,
and whether his continuation in the role can be accepted at least to prepare
elections or not.=94 The west and the government could sacrifice him with the
aim of integrating several southern forces into the reconstruction of the
state. However, there is also the risk that Berisha=92s gunmen could create a
military focus in the north.

Revolutionary way
	Albanian workers have have a big problem. There is no revolutionary
party. The few Albanian trotskyists were heavily persecuted by the Fascist
occupation forces and by Hoxha=92s Stalinists. The only =93Marxist=94 tradition is
the one created by Hoxha who imposed a model of complete autarky and
isolation even against the rest of the so-called =93socialist=94 states.
	In August the former Hoxha party, the =93Socialists=94 dropped the term
=93marxism=94 from their programme. It is indispensable to create the first
nucleus of genuine Marxists who should advocate the strategy of an
internationalist revolution of workers councils and militias.  In these
actions many radicalised workers and young people should try to fine answers
and revolutionary alternatives. Trotskyists needs to participate in this
process.
	Two important questions are being raised with the Albanian uprising.
First, it is showing that capitalist restoration can not be a peaceful
process and that it is the first signal that spontaneous insurrections could
be the answer to many years of market experiments. What is happening today
in Albania could happen tomorrow in Russia. Second, it shows to the workers
of France, Britain and Germany and other European countries which are ruled
by right wing governments which were part of the same international as the
Albanian =93Democratic=94 Party, that there is a revolutionary way to react
against so many attacks.

LCmrci
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