– Interview with Qemal Cicollari –
President of the Communist Party of Albania
In 1992, socialism came to an end in Albania. For a long time, this small country in the Balkans region, on the Adriatic Sea, was a beacon of socialism for the world, for hundreds of Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations, and for peoples who fought against oppression and were always eagerly amazed by the transformations brought about by the November 1944 revolution led by the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head. We interviewed the current General Secretary of the Communist Party, Qemal Cicollari, to give us an overview of the past and present of this country that, throughout its history, has always found itself surrounded and occupied by its enemies but never abandoned the revolutionary banner of national independence and socialism.
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The following interview of Qemal Cicollari, President of the Communist Party of Albania, was conducted by Thales Caramante on behalf of the newspaper A Verdade in Brazil, who also authored the notes. NEPH hopes that, in publishing this interview, the situation in Albania will become al the more clear to international friends, well-wishers, and most of all comrades. Albania is a small country, and since capitalist restoration in 1990-92, its people has been subject to a miserable fate — so miserable that, as Qemal Cicollari notes, a third of its people have left, desiring to take their chances elsewhere. Today’s polls show another third of the present population wants to leave, especially high among the youth.
NEPH
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Question: Could you make a presentation about yourself, comrade? I would also like to take this opportunity to say that there is a lot of misunderstanding about the fall of socialism in Albania in Brazil. What are the essential factors to understand the end of socialism in the country?
Answer: Before elaborating on the answers to all the questions, I would like to briefly introduce myself to the Brazilian comrades and readers of the A Verdade newspaper. My name is Qemal Cicollari, and I am the President of the Communist Party of Albania (CPA). Our Party is faithfully guided by the revolutionary and scientific doctrine of Marxism-Leninism and the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. The CPA was founded on September 1, 1991, by comrades known as the Volunteers of Enver, led by Comrade Hysni Milloshi.[1]
Regarding your first question, comrade, it is natural that numerous misunderstandings arise in your country regarding the fall of socialism in Albania. I believe that this fact is not only due to a lack of reliable information among Brazilian comrades and the general population but is also linked to the furious anti-communist crusade of the imperialist bourgeoisie and opportunist revisionists against Marxism-Leninism, socialism, its achievements and Comrade Enver Hoxha. In this interview, I would like to express the principled Marxist-Leninist position of the CPA regarding this issue, which is of fundamental importance not only for the communist movement in Albania but also for the entire international communist movement.
Socialism in Albania was overthrown after the death of Enver Hoxha through a process of degeneration that began with the revisionist betrayal of the liberal-revisionist leadership of the former Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), led by the revisionist and traitor Ramiz Alia.[2] This fact was pronounced by the CPA in an open declaration to the whole world since its creation on September 1, 1991.
Socialism in Albania was overthrown by a bourgeois and revisionist counter-revolution. To better understand the causes of the fall of socialism in Albania, I believe it is necessary to briefly present the history of the overthrow of socialism worldwide. The bitter and sad historical experience of the collapse of socialism around the world shows us very clearly that imperialist bourgeoisie used two ways to try to overcome socialism.
The first method was characterized by open armed aggression against socialist countries, such as the intervention of the fourteen imperialist countries against Lenin immediately after the Great October Socialist Revolution. We also have the experience of the Great Patriotic War, the nazi Hitlerite aggression and its satellites against the Soviet Union under the great Comrade Stalin. At other times, we also had the armed invasion of U.S. and British imperialism against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Vietnam, and so on.
The second method was the “peaceful” path of bourgeois and revisionist counter-revolution from within the party itself. This method targeted the heart of socialist countries, mainly orchestrated by the former Soviet Union with Nikita Khrushchev at the forefront. Historical experience has shown us very clearly that the second method, acting from within and “peacefully” through the path of counter-revolution, was able to overthrow socialism.
So, let us briefly focus on the main causes that led to the overthrow of socialism in Albania. These causes have an objective and subjective, internal and external character. According to the Communist Party in Albania (CPA), the causes are:
— The significant increase in pressure from imperialism and revisionism against socialist Albania after the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha. This condition led the leadership of the former Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), with the revisionist Ramiz Alia at the forefront, to capitulate to this imperialist and revisionist pressure, which led to the emergence and spread of anti-communism in Albania.
— The increase in imperialist pressure ignited remnants of the old feudal-bourgeois classes that were defeated by socialism. It also stirred the more wavering and degenerate elements who preferred to ally themselves with international bourgeois imperialism. This imperialist pressure created fissures in the country for foreign interference, allowing small bourgeois and petty-bourgeois cells to infiltrate the individual consciousness of the people and undermine the revolutionary class struggle. The renunciation of expanding the revolutionary class struggle by the PLA, with the revisionist Ramiz Alia at the forefront, allowed imperialism to roll back the advance of socialist consciousness among the people of Albania.
— The disintegration of the revolutionary consciousness that existed led the former PLA, with revisionist Ramiz Alia at the forefront, to degenerate and renounce the revolutionary and scientific doctrine of Marxism-Leninism. The former PLA did the same with the teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha. Ramiz Alia took advantage of the difficult circumstances in which Albania found itself after the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha. Under the pretext of “facilitating” and “easing” the lives of the people, Ramiz Alia and his group of liberals pursued a series of liberal and revisionist policies, presenting their measures as “political developments of Marxism in the face of new conditions,” as policies “loyal to Enver’s path.”
Ramiz Alia promoted the spirit of liberalism within the party, the state, and throughout social life under the pretext of necessary reforms for the “expansion of the democratization of the country’s life,” following the model of Perestroika and Glasnost[3] by Mikhail Gorbachev, according to the specific conditions of Albania. As a result of these “democratic” liberal reforms, the revisionist degeneration of the party, the socialist state, socialist relations of production, and the entire political, economic, ideological and social life of Albania began, just as it had happened in the former Soviet Union after the death of the great Stalin when the infamous revisionist Nikita Khrushchev and his revisionist gang, later followed by Brezhnev, came to power and took over the former Bolshevik Party and the Soviet state.
Ramiz Alia, in order to achieve his revisionist and counter-revolutionary goal of ending socialism and restoring capitalism in Albania, took decisive steps to degenerate the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) at its foundations. To reach this objective, he encouraged and supported, through various means, the diffusion of the spirit of bourgeois liberalism in the domestic life and political activity of the PLA under the pretext of “democratizing” the internal life of the party and finding “new paths” to advance in the “socialist” construction according to the path of “Comrade Enver.” These actions led to the violation of Marxist ideological principles and Leninist norms. As a result of this liberal spirit within the party, the conditions were created for the birth of opportunistic and revisionist tendencies[4] within its ranks and, consequently, the complete revisionist degeneration of the PLA. He encouraged a petty-bourgeois, liberal and bureaucratic spirit within the committees and leading bodies of the PLA. He sought to introduce and manoeuvre liberal and opportunist elements into leading positions within the party and the state, gradually purging those cadre members who opposed his policy, his liberal and opportunist views and attitudes. Thus, gradually, the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the former PLA degenerated from their foundations into opportunist and revisionist tendencies. Step by step, the entire party, in less than half a decade, degenerated along the revisionist line. This is the main reason why the former PLA did not resist and openly opposed the open betrayal of Ramiz Alia and his revisionist counter-revolutionary gang. In this catastrophic way, the overthrow of socialism and the restoration of “democracy,” that is, capitalism, became a reality in Albania in the 1990s.
That is why the former PLA under Ramiz Alia did not lift a finger to protect the violently toppled Monument of Enver Hoxha from the anti-communist and counter-revolutionary forces. That is why the former PLA under Ramiz Alia did not oppose the transformation of the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) into the Socialist Party (PS) with a social-democratic program dominated by the bourgeoisie. That is why no communist organization within the ranks of Ramiz Alia’s PLA came forward to build the newly re-established Communist Party of Albania (CPA) after the open betrayal.
The revisionist degeneration of the former PLA, the socialist state and the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania, initiated after the death of comrade Enver Hoxha in 1985, was crowned by Ramiz Alia in the late 1990s with the official proclamation of “political pluralism” and the “market economy,” in other words, the most reactionary form of Western capitalism. Thus, the period after the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha, from 1985 to 1991, was the period of the bourgeois-revisionist “peaceful” counter-revolution; it was the period of capitalism masked as socialism. Therefore, the overthrow of socialism in Albania did not happen by chance or spontaneously like lightning. Socialism in Albania was not overthrown through open imperialist armed aggression. The overthrow of socialism in Albania was a counter-revolutionary “peaceful” political project from within its leading organs, led by the former PLA with Ramiz Alia at the forefront.
The overthrow of socialism in Albania, the former Soviet Union, China and other socialist countries was a tragedy for the international communist and workers’ movement, but it was not an inevitability. From the perspective of the historical development of society, there was a social regression, encountering a temporary barrier in social development, leading to a reversal from a higher socio-economic order, socialism, to a lower socio-economic order, capitalism.
These setbacks in the development of society also occurred in pre-socialist socio-economic orders. The history of human social development shows us that, despite occasional barbarians destroying entire civilizations, despite regressions, society has progressed from a higher stage of development reached in feudalism. The restoration of the feudal aristocracy of Bourbon in France was unable to halt historical development, and ultimately, the new capitalist order triumphed over the old feudal order. Thus, the historical regression that affected the former socialist countries is temporary, as the new communist order will ultimately overcome the old capitalist order. This is an objective law of social development. Socio-economic development cannot be interrupted. We, as communists guided by Marxist-Leninist science, historical and dialectical materialism, cannot fail to accept and understand, we cannot turn a blind eye to the temporary and partial historical turns of social development that occur in concrete reality. We will never fall into pessimism; we must comprehend the dialectical essence of the developmental process, between progress and regression. In this regard, the great Lenin said, “To imagine world history as a progress that continuously advances without obstacles and without setbacks, without hope, often without turning points, is not dialectical, not scientific and theoretically incorrect.”
Comrade Enver Hoxha also affirmed, “The struggle against imperialism for the triumph of the proletarian cause shows that the world revolutionary process does not develop and cannot develop along a singular path, always on the offensive. History is full of zigzags, ups and downs, offensives and defenses, successes and temporary defeats. This is an objective law of social development.”
The Albanian communists, guided by Marxist-Leninist science, have not succumbed and will never succumb to pessimism regardless of the historical turns that occurred after the overthrow of socialism and the restoration of capitalism in our country. We are guided, in this regard, by the slogan of the father of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, who said, “If we are defeated, we have no choice but to start all over again.”
The Communist Party of Albania (CPA), guided by Marxist-Leninist science, has fought and will continue to fight to overthrow the old oppressive and exploitative capitalist order with a new proletarian revolution and restore a new socialist and communist order in Albania, free from the oppression and exploitation of man by man, as in the time of the great comrade Enver Hoxha.
Question: At the 9th Congress of the Party, Comrade Adil Çarçani points out in his report a series of economic problems that the country faced in fulfilling the 8th Five-Year Plan, which marked the policy of self-sufficiency. Do you think these economic deficiencies were fundamental to the fall of socialism in Albania?
Answer: Undoubtedly, the country faced significant and varied economic difficulties of both objective and subjective nature, both internally and externally. Socialist Albania was a small country with a population of about three million and had very limited economic potential under the immense pressure of imperialist-revisionist blockade, which was striving day and night to overthrow socialism in Albania. However, even under these conditions, socialist Albania, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the helm, always fought and emerged victorious! This was a great revolutionary experience of how socialism can be defended and built based on one’s own strength.
Despite the challenging circumstances that emerged after the death of Enver Hoxha and his absence, the country still had every opportunity to defend and further build socialism. The great Comrade Enver Hoxha created and inherited a solid socialist economic foundation, under his leadership, which made the development of our country possible in all fields. However, the construction and protection of the socialist system in Albania required fidelity to the basic principles of Marxist-Leninist science, with its creative application based on the masses and according to the concrete conditions of the time. However, as we know, the former Party of Labor of Albania (PLA), with the revisionist Ramiz Alia at the helm, betrayed Marxist-Leninist science and Enver Hoxha.
Therefore, the economic difficulties were not essential to the fall of socialism in Albania. These difficulties served as a pretext for Albanian revisionist traitors to deny and corrupt socialist relations of production and overthrow socialism in our country. Thus, despite the weaknesses or certain shortcomings that arose, socialism in Albania could have been defended and built upon in accordance with the fundamental principles of Marxist-Leninist science and the teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha.
Question: Is it true that after the fall of socialism and the coup d’état by Sali Berisha (Democratic Party), the country erupted into a civil war in 1997 in an attempt to bring back the socialist system? Why wasn’t the Party able to participate in the popular armed uprising and make socialism a reality again in Albania? Do you believe that the Party was divided during the period of the Civil War in 1997? What would be the correct path to follow?
Answer: In 1997, particularly in southern Albania, an armed popular uprising occurred. Our assessment is that it is not true that this popular uprising aimed to bring back socialism in our country. The cause of this popular uprising was, in fact, a manifestation against the widespread theft of public funds through neo-liberal pyramid schemes created by the reactionary and neo-fascist bourgeois government of Sali Berisha. The popular insurrection, especially through its main leaders, was co-opted by the bourgeois Socialist Party (PS), led at the time by Fatos Nano. The revolt demanded the return of the stolen money from the pyramid schemes, the end of the reactionary and neo-fascist bourgeois regime of Sali Berisha, and its replacement by the Socialist Party (PS) of Fatos Nano, as he promised the return of the stolen money. This popular uprising, specifically its political leaders, did not demand the return of socialism in Albania or the restoration of popular power. Thus, the armed popular uprising of 1997 in Albania had a bourgeois-democratic character.
The Communist Party of Albania (CPA), at the time of the popular uprising in March 1997, was in a state of profound illegality. In July 1991, the bourgeois, neo-fascist and anti-communist state of Sali Berisha declared our party illegal, a situation that was only reversed in July 1998. Even in the difficult conditions of illegality, the CPA actively participated in the popular uprising, aiming to overthrow the reactionary regime of Sali Berisha. We can say with great pride that we were very active in this struggle. We fought with all our might alongside the people and took every opportunity that the moment allowed to support and encourage the deepening of the popular revolt and advance the discussion of its political program. At the time of the armed insurrection, we judged that the subjective conditions were not sufficiently mature — contrary to the objective, internal and external conditions — to carry out a new socialist revolution.
The Communist Party of Albania (CPA), guided by Marxist-Leninist science, conducted a thorough analysis of this popular uprising. We saw in this popular revolt its bourgeois-democratic character. That is why the CPA did not fall into the illusion of a proletarian revolution in March 1997 in Albania; in our opinion, this would have led us to a position of left adventurism. Thus, in summary, the CPA in 1997 did not refuse to lead a proletarian revolution in Albania, but the conditions for revolution simply did not exist, that is the truth. Therefore, we were not divided during the popular uprising of 1997, and the path that the CPA had to follow was followed by all its members.
Question: After the civil war, did the party split into various factions? What prevents the reunification of these organizations into a single revolutionary Marxist-Leninist communist party? Do you think the political consequences of the fall of socialism have not yet been internally overcome? What path should be followed for reunification and what barriers need to be overcome? There is an evident rivalry between prominent figures in four communist parties in Albania. How can these rivalries be overcome? Do you believe that such rivalries are trivial for the common struggle?
Answer: We do not believe that the CPA split into factions. In fact, this is a dirty narrative created by opportunistic and factionalist elements who were unmasked and expelled from the party. They are Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni and Marko Dajti.
To understand the essence of this negative phenomenon, which not only affects the communist movement in Albania but also the international communist movement today, it is necessary to explain and analyse this phenomenon based on Marxist-Leninist science. Before moving forward, I would like to provide a brief overview of the communist movement in Albania from 1991 onwards.
The Communist Party of Albania (CPA) was founded on September 1, 1991, under the leadership of Comrade Hysni Milloshi.
In the autumn of 1998, another “communist” party was founded, the New Party of Labour of Albania (NPLA), led by the revisionist Muharrem Xhafa,[5] a former ghost militant of the PLA who came directly from Ramiz Alia’s offices. We emphasize that Muharrem Xhafa was expelled from our Party due to opportunism.
On April 3, 2003, another supposedly “communist” party was legalized by the electoral court. It was called the Communist Party of Albania “November 8th” (CPA — 8 Nëntori) and was led by Preng Cuni, a recognized opportunist who was expelled from the CPA.[6]
In July 2007, another supposedly “communist” party was legalized by the electoral court, called the Party of Labour of Albania (Reconstructed) — PLA(R). Today, this party goes by the name “Left Front” and is led by an opportunist who was expelled from the CPA.[7]
This is the current image of the communist movement in Albania. From this negative phenomenon, a question arises: What are the consequences of having many supposedly “communist” parties in one country? To understand the essence, form and content of this deplorable phenomenon in the communist movement, it is necessary to analyse it in the light of Marxist-Leninist science.
Marxist-Leninist science teaches us that the proletariat, in order to successfully fulfil its historical mission, to overthrow the old oppressive and exploitative capitalist order, and to build the new socialist and communist order, creates its own Marxist-Leninist party, the theoretical and political mirror of the revolution and the construction of socialism. The revolutionary experience of the world proletariat perfectly proves the universality of this fundamental principle of Marxist-Leninist science.
The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917 and the construction of socialism in the former Soviet Union were made possible thanks to the monolithic leadership in Marxism-Leninism of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) (CPSU(B)) with Lenin and Stalin at the helm, and not, absolutely not, by many “communist and Bolshevik” parties.
Thus, Marxist-Leninist science teaches us, based on the revolutionary experience of the proletariat, the validity of this great principle. The existence and activity of a single Marxist-Leninist communist party in a country is an objective premise, a key condition, a basic general principle, an objective law of development for the victory of the revolution and the construction of socialism. Loyalty to this fundamental principle of Marxist-Leninist science was the cornerstone, the dividing line between true Marxist-Leninists on one side, and opportunists and revisionists on the other.
Therefore, the phenomenon of the existence and activity of many “communist” parties in one country is a blatant and complete revisionist betrayal of Marxist-Leninist science; it is a variant of the revisionist conception of “communist” political pluralism. Likewise, Marxist-Leninist science teaches us that political pluralism is a characteristic system of bourgeois and revisionist countries, which recognizes the legalization of many communist parties, groups and political forces with different interests and conceptions. It is a revisionist view that demands such a social political system, capitalism. Thus, capitalism opposes the indivisible and monolithic leadership of the Marxist-Leninist communist party, which is revolutionary and scientific. In the light of Marxist-Leninist science, it is very clear that this revisionist variant of “communist” political pluralism is a manifestation of bourgeois ideology within the workers’ movement, as it is a necessary system for a bourgeoisie that divides itself into different parties with different conceptions, all of them defenders of the capitalist system, whether they are bourgeois, petty-bourgeois, Trotskyist, “communist,” etc. This is what they call “bourgeois democracy.” For these filthy revisionists, anything can be “communist” and “Marxist,” except communism and Marxism. They try to pass the idea that the existence and activity of many “proletarian” parties is as natural as the existence and activity of many bourgeois parties in one country.
The bourgeoisie is not a homogeneous class; it consists of different strata and groups: the big bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, etc. Consequently, the various bourgeois parties also politically represent each stratum and group of the bourgeoisie. Therefore, bourgeois political pluralism, in other words, the existence and activity of many bourgeois parties, is a necessary phenomenon for the capitalist system. All bourgeois parties, whether “right-wing” or “left-wing,” despite their various names and colours, all express the same defence of the vital interests of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class. They serve the bourgeoisie as its “carriage horses,” those who pull the cart to bourgeois power. The existence and activity of many bourgeois parties has served and will continue to serve the bourgeoisie in creating illusions among the popular masses that the “alternation of power,” which occurs from election to election in capitalist countries, will radically change their tragic socio-economic situation. However, the history of capitalism clearly shows that, no matter which bourgeois party governs, nothing will change at the root of society; the bourgeoisie will continue to hold power, the means of production will remain private property of the capitalists and the bourgeoisie will continue to ruthlessly exploit the working class and the working masses.
We do not mean to say that the proletarian class is “pure” in any way. From time to time, our class is “disturbed” by “recruits” who have just joined its ranks, by elements of the petty bourgeoisie who have gone bankrupt due to the capitalist trend of strengthening monopolies, the same goes for other classes that gradually descend to the level of the proletariat. These new “recruits” bring with them, into the ranks of the proletariat (as the great Lenin said), the influence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois psychology and ideology. Thus, revisionist parties politically represent exactly these new “recruits,” these elements of the petty bourgeoisie within the ranks of the proletariat and the semi-proletarian layers. This is what Marxist-Leninist science teaches us.
Therefore, the content and form of “communist” political pluralism is a concept derived from bourgeois and revisionist practices. It is a manifestation of bourgeois influence over the proletariat and a new variant of the already existing and outdated bourgeois-revisionist pluralism.
In the light of Marxist-Leninist science, it is very evident that those who create other supposedly “communist” parties in a country when the Marxist-Leninist party already exists in practice are doing nothing but revising Marxist-Leninist science. They are nothing more than ideological and political agents of the bourgeoisie within the communist movement, and they are nothing but filthy revisionists. On this matter, the great Lenin states: “The revisionism of Marxism today is one of the main manifestations, if not the most predominant one, of bourgeois influence over the proletariat and the rottenness of the bourgeoisie within the proletariat.”[8]
Clearly as daylight, this teaching of the great Lenin shows that the phenomenon of “communist” political pluralism, that is, the existence and activity of many “communist” parties in a country, is nothing more than a revision of Marxist-Leninist science, a blatant revisionism. Therefore, it is very evident that Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni, Marko Dajti and their respective parties are of the revisionist tendency.
These filthy revisionists and their revisionist parties, as the great Lenin teaches, exert bourgeois influence over the Albanian proletariat, aiming to corrupt the workers. The main characteristic that distinguishes this new variant of “communist” political pluralism from Titoist, Eurocommunist, etc. political pluralism is that these “socialists” are not in power within the country. The other main characteristic of this new revisionist variant of political pluralism is that such parties do not openly present themselves as revisionists to the public through their platform and anti-Marxist political program. Instead, they implement, in their counter-revolutionary practice, the task of undermining, dividing and sabotaging the communist and workers’ movement within the country, trying their best to present themselves to the public as “communists” and “Marxist-Leninists.”
To distinguish and understand the proletarian character of a communist party, the great Lenin emphasized that “whether a party is really a proletarian party or not depends not only on being proletarian but also on who leads it and what the content of its political actions and tactics is. Only the latter determines whether we are really dealing with a political party of the proletariat.”[9]
Enlightened by this great teaching of Lenin, we have seen in the past and still see in the present, for almost 25 years, that the so-called “communist” parties of Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni, Marko Dajti and company have never been guided by Marxist-Leninist science but by bourgeois conceptions and practices. The 25-year history of these so-called “communist” parties has proven, in the past and present, something very evident: that the content and form, the political tactics, have systematically degenerated and destroyed the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) guided by Marxism-Leninism, as well as undermined and divided the workers’ movement in our country through sabotage, all to protect and perpetuate the current capitalist system. Thus, the content of the tactical actions of these revisionist parties, for almost 25 years, has played into the hands of the bourgeoisie and has been politically aligned with the strategies of bourgeois parties. It is no wonder that the great Lenin referred to these parties as “the bourgeois party of the working class.”
Applying Leninist conceptions, the non-proletarian character of these so-called “communist” parties is very clear. The leaders of these parties have also adopted non-Leninist revisionist methods of organization. Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni, Marko Dajti and their parties pose in the press as “great Enverists,” but their actions in practice are far from what they claim, as they trample on the work and teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha. Regarding the question of creating and organizing a Marxist-Leninist party, Comrade Enver Hoxha wrote that “The Marxist-Leninist Party is not born and created in vain. This Party is born and created as a result of certain objective and subjective factors. The Marxist-Leninist Party, as a true representative of the working class, embodies its highest aspirations, its revolutionary content, its revolutionary goals and its Marxist-Leninist theory, which is the theory of the working class. Without Marxist-Leninist theory, there is no Marxist-Leninist Party.”
These so-called “communist” parties of Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni, Marko Dajti and company are not parties of the working class. This, to us, is due to the fact that the working class creates only its own proletarian Marxist-Leninist party and not various other “proletarian” vanguard parties. These parties are outside Marxist-Leninist theory, which is the very theory of the working class. Therefore, these parties are also outside the working class, outside its revolutionary goals. Thus, the parties of Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni and Marko Dajti, by wanting to “revise” or “correct” the teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha, become anti-Enverist parties with openly anti-Enverist leaders.
According to the logic of these hypocritical revisionists, we ask how many “communist” parties should exist in Albania, four, forty, four hundred, four million… how many?
According to the logic of these revisionists, dear comrade Thales Caramante, it is certain that in Brazil, a country approximately fifty times larger than Albania, there should be more than two hundred million “communist” parties. Of course, this concept belongs to revisionist “logic” and is so absurd and ridiculous that it further exposes the ideological decay of these shameless revisionist vulgarizers in the eyes of the people.
Guided by the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist scientific doctrine, when analysing this revisionist variant, it is very clear that the essence of this variant of the “communist” political pluralism concept within the communist movement is the denial of the leading and indivisible role of the Marxist-Leninist party, as the sole theoretical and political nucleus of the proletariat in the process of revolution and the construction of socialism. Ultimately, this variant aims to protect and perpetuate the old system of capitalist oppression and exploitation by undermining, sabotaging and dividing the communist and workers’ movement. It also denies and attacks other fundamental principles such as the role of proletarian revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the construction of a socialist society. Marxist-Leninist science and the global historical experience of the proletariat fully teach us that without a vanguard and indivisible party, the revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot fulfil their historical task and be victorious, and socialism cannot be built and developed. Therefore, this revisionist variant of “communist” political pluralism, in one way or another, denies both the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, as well as socialism.
In making the above analysis, we can say that the bourgeois-revisionist phenomenon of “communist” political pluralism in a country is essentially one of the many expressions of bourgeois influence over the proletariat and its autonomous communist movement. It is a way of transferring bourgeois political pluralism to the communist label. It is a vulgar manifestation of bourgeois thought. The main characteristic of this variant is how it masks its anti-Marxist hostile activity with “Marxist-Leninist” slogans. In this regard, the great Lenin emphasized that “the dialectics of history are such that the victory of Marxism forces its opponents to disguise themselves as Marxists.”[10]
The first revisionists were unmasked by Lenin, who wrote: “The opportunists are the bourgeois enemies of the proletarian revolution who, in times of peace, do insidious work. Our way to cover up the complete denial of Marxism is by reaffirming Marxism and exposing its opportunist hypocrisy.”[11]
The Communist Party of Albania (CPA), guided by the teachings of the great Lenin, has unmasked and will continue to ruthlessly expose the “opportunist hypocrisy” of all revisionists and opportunists of any kind. The CPA will continue to relentlessly expose revisionists and opportunists like Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni and Marko Dajti.
The classics of Marxism-Leninism, namely Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Enver Hoxha, have unmasked and severely condemned any conception of principles with opportunists and revisionists in their parties. They never cooperated with them. The CPA, guided by Marxist-Leninist science, severely exposes any union and collaboration with opportunists and revisionists and their parties. The CPA recognizes only the Leninist union, from the bottom up, of communists within the Communist Party of Albania (CPA), in accordance with its Marxist-Leninist Program and Statutes.
History has shown that the union between social democrats, opportunists and leaders of “communist” parties has only led to the degeneration and destruction of the Marxist-Leninist party, if not to splits. As proof of this statement, we bring forth a fact: in 2006, the main leaders of the CPA united in a social-democratic unification with the opportunist and revisionist party of Muharrem Xhafa; in 2011, they did the same with the opportunist Preng Cuni. Both unifications were harmful and failed.
Being opportunists and revisionists, when Muharrem Xhafa and Preng Cuni set foot in the CPA, they initiated a hostile, covert and factional activity with the aim of usurping the leadership of the party and degenerating it, destroying it. The hostile activity of these opportunists and factionalists deeply damaged the CPA. Thus, the CPA and its leadership ruthlessly unmasked and expelled these opportunists, factionalists and Trotskyists from its ranks in 2012.
Today, the Communist Party of Albania (CPA), despite facing difficult conditions of a furious anti-communist crusade by the international bourgeoisie and the reactionary forces in power, is fighting without hesitation and growing both in quantity and quality in the class struggle against the bourgeoisie. We are becoming an important political force in the country, with almost total influence in the communist movement in Albania, which is constantly increasing its influence over the working class and other working masses.
The Communist Party of Albania (CPA) is striving to successfully fulfill its historical mission. On the other hand, the revisionist parties of Muharrem Xhafa, Preng Cuni and Marko Dajti, from an organizational point of view, also fail. These parties are, in summary, a small group of leaders with a president and hardly any members or activists. The people never see these parties in the streets, in demonstrations, as they are parties that gather in cafés, existing only in the records of electoral registries. These revisionist parties, with only a president and no members, have no influence in the communist movement in Albania. However, it is true that they continue to corrupt and hinder the development of the class struggle among a section of the people.
Marxist-Leninist science teaches us that without fighting against opportunism and revisionism, the bourgeoisie and imperialism cannot be properly combatted. The Marxist-Leninist CPA will continue to ruthlessly denounce these revisionist parties among the communists and the people until their complete destruction. This is a matter of great importance that I have addressed more deeply in my pamphlet entitled Political Pluralism: A Bourgeois and Revisionist Theory and Practice.
Question: It is evident that there is a lot of nostalgia among the people for the socialist past, but gradually, could this nostalgia die out along with the older generation? What are the tasks of communists in relation to the youth? Do you think it is important to create a unified and national communist youth movement for the training of new cadres? If so, what challenges are involved in building such a movement?
Answer: It is true that the people, especially the older generations who were able to experience the socialist era, feel a longing for that time. Your noble concern is that this longing may disappear with the passing of the previous generations. In this case, I have a slightly different view. The political nostalgia of the Albanian people for socialism is not the same as the grief of a person missing a loved one. It is different with the people. The people are immortal; despite the changes from one generation to another, the older generation passes on its longing, its thoughts, to future generations. In this case, I will be a bit more prosaic and say that we transmit and propagate to the youth our material and cultural experiences from our socialist politics, as a true heritage. The nostalgia of the Albanian people for socialism has its roots in history, in the great achievements of socialism nearly half a century ago, deeply preserved in their memory.
Regarding nostalgia for socialism, two opposing tendencies are at play. On one hand, there is the tendency to preserve, keep alive and develop nostalgia for socialism; on the other hand, there is the tendency to liquidate, to “kill off” nostalgia for socialism, especially among the new generation who unfortunately did not have the opportunity to experience that great historical era. These two opposing tendencies, in connection with the question of socialism, are one of the various expressions of the class struggle taking place between the proletariat and the other working masses on one side, and the bourgeoisie on the other; it is the expression of an irreconcilable struggle between proletarian Marxist-Leninist ideology on one side, and bourgeois ideology on the other.
There is no doubt that in the end, the first tendency will prevail over the second tendency due to the objective development of society, the transition from the old capitalist order to the new socialist and communist order.
However, let us return to the specific case. I think it will be difficult, if not impossible, to “kill off” the nostalgia of the Albanian people for socialism, as it has deep roots in the soul of the people, despite the fact that the Albanian bourgeoisie in power and its bourgeois state have been waging a fierce anti-communist crusade against the great era of socialism led by Comrade Enver Hoxha. For over thirty years, the bourgeoisie has aimed to uproot these “roots” from the people’s soul, to subject them to brainwashing, to purge communist ideals and the great achievements of socialism from the minds of workers, and to “kill off” the nostalgia of the masses for socialism.
The Albanian people cannot easily forget their nostalgia for socialism because during the socialist era, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, political power was in their hands, in an alliance of workers and peasants. Today, on the contrary, political power is in the hands of the bourgeoisie, where a handful of capitalists and oligarchs oppress the people!
The Albanian people cannot easily forget their nostalgia for socialism because during the socialist era, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, the means of production (factories, plants, fields, hydroelectric powerplants, etc.) were common property of the people, unlike today’s capitalism where these factories, plants and hydroelectric powerplants are privately owned by the bourgeoisie, constantly pressuring workers for even more abusive profit rates!
The Albanian people cannot easily forget their nostalgia for socialism because during the socialist era, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, feudal-bourgeois private property disappeared along with the exploitative bourgeois-feudal class and the exploitation of man by man!
The Albanian people cannot easily forget their nostalgia for socialism because during the socialist era, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, unemployment did not exist. The socialist state and the dictatorship of the proletariat guaranteed employment for all people, in other words, the state ensured a dignified life for everyone!
The Albanian people cannot easily forget their nostalgia for socialism because during the socialist era, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, education and healthcare were free for the entire population, taxes did not exist, salaries and pensions increased annually, and the socialist system constantly reduced the prices of goods and services, thus continuously improving the material and cultural well-being of the masses!
The Albanian people cannot easily forget their nostalgia for socialism because during the socialist era, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, Albania was completely free and independent, unlike today’s capitalism where Albania has become a colony of Euro-American imperialism!
Furthermore, there is another important factor in favour of the Albanian people’s nostalgia for socialism, which is precisely the comparison that people always make between the two eras, between the great achievements of our country’s brightest era and the great tragedies that the masses experience daily under capitalism today.
This does not mean, in any way, that the nostalgia of our people for socialism is guaranteed randomly and spontaneously. Without a consistent and permanent class struggle that the CPA wages to preserve and develop the people’s memory of socialism, without systematic and organized propaganda of the socialist era, especially among the youth, with the aim of expanding political consciousness in favour of socialism and communism, we cannot be victorious. Therefore, the duties of communists among the youth today are:
— Systematically and organized propagate the great achievements of the era of socialism with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head among the youth.
— Renew Marxist-Leninist education among the youth.
— Organize the youth in our communist, anti-fascist and progressive fronts under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party.
— Launch and prepare the youth for uninterrupted revolutionary actions, tempering cadres in the school of revolution, preparing the youth as professional revolutionaries.
To achieve these great objectives in working with the youth, it is clear that the Marxist-Leninist Party faces significant and complicated challenges, but never insurmountable. I believe that implementing the aforementioned tasks in relation to working with the youth enables us to successfully confront any challenge.
Question: How do you assess the internal situation in Albania today and what are the most urgent tasks for the communists?
Answer: The situation in Albania today is very grave. Poverty and misery among the Albanian people, the working class, and other working classes are rapidly increasing everywhere as a direct result of the growing exploitation of labour by the bourgeoisie in power.
Unemployment has sharply risen in the country, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, with about 30% to 40% of the population infected; social polarization is rapidly increasing; the prices of goods and service fees are skyrocketing; inflation levels are rising; workers’ wages are constantly decreasing below the inflation level, and their working conditions are becoming increasingly precarious; pensions and social assistance for unemployed families are being cut year after year. As a result, Albanian workers prefer to face emigration, especially the youth, which increases every year. About one-third of Albania’s population has left the country to survive.
In capitalist Albania, anti-communism has become the official policy of the bourgeois state. The main anti-communist attacks are led by the bourgeois state and right-wing and “left-wing” bourgeois parties, all against Marxism-Leninism, socialism, Comrade Enver Hoxha, and also against the CPA.
The violation and suppression of democratic freedoms and workers’ rights have increased by the neo-fascist bourgeois state disguised with a democratic mask. The corruption of bourgeois politicians and local governments is blatant and treated with complete impunity. Organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and other incurable social wounds typical of capitalist society occur in Albania in broad daylight.
In the face of these conditions, the dissatisfaction and class struggle of the Albanian proletariat and other working classes against the oppression and exploitation of capitalism also increase every day. Thus, the general crisis of capitalism deepens and worsens more and more, and the antagonistic contradictions of capitalist society in Albania deepen and become even more severe. In this way, Albanian communists face several urgent tasks, including:
— Continuous strengthening of the life, activity and revolutionary actions of the CPA.
— Continuous strengthening of Marxist-Leninist education among the communists, expanding the work of agitation and propaganda of the CPA, and disseminating Marxist-Leninist ideology among the masses to strengthen the Party’s ties with the people.
— Strengthening the work of the CPA among trade unions, the peasantry, the youth, with a focus on the Qemal Stafa Communist Youth Union, and strengthening revolutionary work among women, with a focus on the Margarita Tutulani Women’s Movement in Albania.
Question: Enver Hoxha and Nexhmije Hoxha are highly respected figures among Brazilian Marxists-Leninists, but they are little known among the general population. What do you think can be done to expand this knowledge? What works and books do you consider essential for everyone to read?
Answer: I believe that to expand the knowledge of Marxists-Leninists and the Brazilian people about the life and revolutionary work of the great Enver Hoxha, the main approach would be the dissemination of his works. I believe that all the works of Comrade Enver are very important for the people and, first and foremost, for every true revolutionary communist. However, I think that for the formation of true revolutionary Marxists-Leninists, everyone should engage in reading works such as Imperialism and the Revolution, Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism, The Khrushchevites, Reflections on China, Yugoslav Self-Management: A Theory and Capitalist Practice, With Stalin (Memoirs), and so on.
Question: In addition to being a great Marxist-Leninist, Enver Hoxha was also a great teacher. Which of his teachings do you consider the most important for the working class?
Answer: Enver Hoxha is a great teacher for the working class, and his lessons for our class are fundamental and of utmost importance. I think the main lesson from Comrade Enver Hoxha for the working class is that he, with his ideas and consistent Leninist practice as a prominent Marxist and great revolutionary leader of the working class, as an historic leader of socialist Albania for almost half a century, showed the possibility of destroying the old capitalist system of exploiting the working class through the construction of proletarian revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat by establishing people’s power, and the foundation of a new socialist and communist system that puts an end to the exploitation of man by man and all forms of human oppression.
Question: What message would you like to leave for the Brazilian readers of the A Verdade newspaper?
Answer: It is with great pleasure and honour that, through this interview, I have the opportunity to extend my warm greetings and infinite wishes for success to all readers of the A Verdade newspaper, Brazilians, in our common struggle for the triumph of the great cause of communism in Brazil, Albania and throughout the world. Thank you very much!
Notes
[1] It is important to emphasize that one of the historical reasons for the birth of the CPA in 1991 was its criticism of the leaders of the former PLA as responsible for the fall of socialism (along with a series of other issues). Thus, no leading member of the PLA was accepted into the ranks of the CPA, as the new Party believes in the main guilt of the PLA leaders for the events that took place in 1990-1992. Hysni Milloshi publicly criticized Nexhmije Hoxha in articles for the newspaper Zëri i Së Vërtetës (The Voice of Truth). For example, on March 8, 2001, in issue number 128 of the newspaper, in an interview entitled “The Dragon Nexhmije Hoxha Will Never Swallow the Communist Party” (Kuçera Nexhmije Hoxha Nuk Mund të Hajë Partinë Komuniste), he accuses the former historic militant of the PLA of making a speech declaring that the Unified Party of Labour of Albania (U-PLA) was the true heir of the former PLA. Milloshi, during the interview, gratuitously insults Comrade Nexhmije, labeling her as an “opportunist and revisionist” during the 80s and 90s, among other serious accusations. It is important to note that, on the other hand, Hysni Milloshi himself was criticized by the Party’s Central Committee for breaking with democratic centralism and displaying a personalistic behaviour. This topic does not have unanimity in the current left circles of Albania, as some groups are more flexible regarding this debate on a case-by-case basis, while others are inflexible. We are not making a value judgement about this fact; we are just presenting the information, providing the necessary quantitative accumulation to reach erudition.
[2] Whether Ramiz Alia was or was not a revisionist is also a point on which there is no complete unanimity among left circles. This is because, as mentioned above, Ramiz considered the end of socialism to be the greatest defeat of his life (he was even imprisoned for it in 1994), and even after the end of socialism, he partially defended the life and work of Comrade Enver Hoxha. The historical fact is that he was indeed a capitulationist and that, due to his liberalism regarding the struggle to consolidate the victories of the revolution, Ramiz should have acted correctly as a Marxist-Leninist, that is, by teaching the counter-revolutionaries the weight of the iron hand of the dictatorship of the proletariat against any threat from the enemy, be it in the political or ideological field. The opposing view, that Ramiz Alia was not a revisionist but gradually degenerated, has some arguments in relation to that. The former doctor of Comrade Enver Hoxha, Isuf Kalo, argued, for example: “Enver was always convinced that Ramiz, even when he made mistakes, did so without malice, that he was not a conspirator. This is because, in a way, Enver had raised him as his ‘younger brother’ within the Central Committee. Also, Ramiz’s temperament, behaviour and character were always delicate. He did not have the conspiratorial marrow of a traitor [like Mehmet Shehu]. He lacked the essential qualities for betrayal: courage, energy and determination. No traitor can achieve their strategic objectives without these qualities. Enver believed in his unwavering loyalty, he even believed that the ‘infallible’ can sometimes make mistakes. Life showed, on the other hand, that deception can become a strong and impenetrable capsule to hide unknown feelings and characteristics. Ramiz Alia knew better than anyone that sincere loyalty and forced loyalty were not the same thing. His inertia and cordiality were an advantage for his political survival. They were the factors that ensured his unusual longevity among Albanian leaders, which at that time was a minefield of distrust and vigilance. Extremely cautious with words, not hesitating in meaning and equally hesitant in action. His favourite method of acting was containment, ‘inaction,’ waiting. Leaving the initiative and the responsibility of the first step to others.” For the comrades of the CPA, this seems to be an element overcome by a direct observation of the facts. That is, regardless of whether in his consciousness, directly or indirectly, Ramiz Alia was or was not a revisionist with or without malice, the concrete fact, his action of political capitulation, of liberalism, and the changes made in Albania led him to be labelled, among the CPA, as a revisionist, an agent of imperialism and an enemy. This is an aspect of the Party’s political reading that also reverberates for other former members of the Political Bureau of the PLA.
[3] It is worth noting here that if we read the Report of the 9th Congress of the PLA in 1986, the Party’s first congress without Comrade Enver Hoxha, Ramiz Alia was deeply critical of Perestroika and Glasnost, describing them as conceptions caused by the revisionist degeneration of the Soviet Union. This is a correct position in the Party’s report. However, it is interesting to see how even as a “critic” who understood the Marxist-Leninist political line regarding revisionist degeneration, Ramiz Alia himself, despite pointing out these contradictions numerous times, was unable to escape the excluding contradictions that started to affect him in politics and consciousness, and the end of socialism in Albania is the greatest evidence of this fact.
[4] The main figures behind these changes in the party, apart from Ramiz Alia himself, were Fatos Nano and Xhelil Gjoni (one of the most despicable elements in contemporary Albanian politics). The poet Dritero Agolli also became known as the “cultural father” of the current Socialist Party (PS) — which is a facade social-democratic party but deeply fascist, inheritor of the tradition of the Balli Kombëtar.
[5] Nowadays, the NPLA does not have Muharrem Xhafa in its leadership due to health reasons and his advanced age. Since 2018, this role has been taken on by Bardhyl Hazizaj. However, the publications of Muharrem Xhafa still have ideological influence on the party.
[6] It is also worth noting an interesting factor in Albania: since 2016, all these parties mentioned by Comrade Qemal Cicollari, including the CPA itself, have held conferences and discussions to reunify all these parties into one. However, disagreements (some of them electoral) among the leaders end up dividing the parties again and causing friction and divisions within the modern communist movement in Albania. It is not uncommon to leaf through newspapers and find insults and criticisms among them from all parties involved, each accusing the other of breaking the “unity.” In addition to party newspapers, this discussion reverberates on the social media platforms of all the mentioned publicists and leaders. This is an interesting experience given the history of the communist movement in Albania. In the 1930s, when there was not yet a communist party, but rather local communist groups, on November 8, 1941, they were unified by Comrade Enver Hoxha to start the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War. Enver, in a way, was the link that was able to unify all the local organizations, convincing each group with an unprecedented argumentative and dialectical impeccability in the history of Albania. Two other important communists in this work of unification were Qemal Stafa and Vasil Shanto; both died heroically in the glorious anti-fascist struggle and, unfortunately, did not live to see the victory they had so honourably built. In a way, it can be seen that today the communists in Albania need a link, just as they did in 1941, that is capable of uniting them in a concrete and definitive way. In fact, here the words of Comrade Karl Marx ring loudly: “History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
[7] Here, Comrade Qemal Cicollari is referring to Marko Dajti.
[8] V.I. Lenin, Against Revisionism, p. 182, Alb. ed.
[9] V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 31, p. 285, Alb. ed.
[10] V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 18, p. 653, Alb. ed.
[11] V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 21, p. 106, Alb. ed.