– Qemal Cicollari, Chairman of the Communist Party of Albania –
For the past two days, there has been considerable political and media controversy surrounding the approval of the U.S. military loan agreement under which the United States of America is extending a 302 million U.S. dollar loan to Albania.
Yesterday, the Parliament of Albania, using an expedited procedure, approved with the 74 votes of Edi Rama’s bourgeois neo-Ballist Socialist Party the 302 million US dollar loan agreement with the United States of America for the purchase of American military equipment.
The debate took place during a closed parliamentary session after the socialist majority “argued” that the document contained classified (secret) information.
Thus, Edi Rama’s bourgeois neo-Ballist socialist government has been, and continues to be, a vassal of American imperialism.
The neo-fascist bourgeois opposition led by Sali Berisha also fully supports the agreement, but boycotted the parliamentary session, arguing that its introduction through an expedited procedure was unconstitutional because it violated constitutionally prescribed legal procedures.
Thus, Sali Berisha’s neo-fascist bourgeois opposition has also been, and continues to be, a vassal of American imperialism.
The governing bourgeois neo-Ballist socialist majority under Edi Rama “justified” its violation of constitutional legal procedure on the pretext that the document contained classified, that is, “secret,” information.
Accordingly, the 302 million US dollar loan agreement with the United States of America (USA) was approved by the Albanian bourgeois parliament in violation of the Constitution of Albania.
The approval of the 302 million US dollar American military loan agreement through the expedited procedure of the Albanian bourgeois parliament was carried out in secret, away from the scrutiny and attention of the Albanian people.
The Albanian bourgeois state should make this agreement fully transparent to the Albanian people in accordance with the Constitution of Albania, by disclosing the political, military, economic, financial and other terms and obligations arising from the agreement.
This military agreement serves the interests of American imperialism, which has regarded, and continues to regard, Albania as one of its colonies.
This military agreement also serves the interests of the major American military-industrial monopolies, which derive enormous profits by selling their weapons to Albania.
This military agreement will further increase the poverty and hardship of the working class (the proletariat), the working masses and the Albanian people, because repayment of the 302 million US dollar American loan (debt) will be financed through taxes borne by the proletariat and the working masses, that is, by the Albanian people.
Repayment of the 302 million US dollar debt by the Albanian bourgeois state will have the following consequences:
— it will increase the poverty and hardship of the working class, the working masses and the people;
— it will increase the level of exploitation of the working class (the proletariat), the working masses and the people by the ruling Albanian bourgeoisie and its bourgeois state;
— expenditure on education, health care, pensions and social assistance will be reduced;
— taxes and other levies will be increased.
This military agreement will further intensify the arms race in the Balkan region, the so-called “powder keg,” thereby increasing the likelihood of regional wars and conflicts extending beyond the region.
History shows that one of the principal causes of the transformation of the Balkans into a “powder keg,” and of the bloody wars between the Balkan countries, has been the intervention of the great imperialist powers of the time in the region.
History also shows that the partition of Albania among the chauvinist Balkan states in 1913 was decided by the Conference of Ambassadors in London, convened by the great imperialist powers of the period.
The peoples of the Balkans will pay with their blood and sacrifices for the interventions of the great imperialist powers in the region.
Therefore, the peoples of the Balkans should demand the withdrawal of the great imperialist powers from the Balkans.
History teaches us that the great imperialist powers arm the bourgeois states dependent upon them not in the interests of the freedom and independence of those peoples, since the greatest enemies of the freedom and independence of nations are precisely the great imperialist powers themselves.
History also teaches us that the great imperialist powers arm bourgeois states dependent upon them in order to use the peoples of those countries as “cannon fodder” in pursuit of imperialist interests.
History further shows that agreements concluded by the great imperialist powers with other states have been accompanied by onerous political, economic, financial and military conditions and obligations imposed upon those states, enabling the imperialist powers to exploit and plunder their national wealth, establish military bases within their territories and pursue similar objectives, as is also the case with Albania.
History also demonstrates that secret agreements with the great imperialist powers have led to the erosion and loss of the freedom, independence and sovereignty of peoples and states.
Therefore, the peoples must struggle against the imperialist powers.
The Communist Party of Albania opposes the unconstitutional approval by the Albanian bourgeois state of the 302 million U.S. dollar American loan, which it considers to serve the interests of American imperialism.
The Communist Party of Albania condemns every agreement that is contrary to the interests of the Albanian people and of Albania.
The Communist Party of Albania condemns the anti-popular and anti-national policies of Edi Rama’s Albanian bourgeois government and of Sali Berisha’s Albanian bourgeois opposition.
The Communist Party of Albania opposes the arms race pursued by the great imperialist powers, including the United States, Russia, the European Union and China, which threaten mankind with local wars and with the danger of a Third World War in pursuit of their global hegemony and domination.
History shows that the First World War, the Second World War and numerous local wars were products of the old capitalist and imperialist system, which has inflicted more than 100 million deaths upon mankind and caused incalculable material destruction.
The Communist Party of Albania calls upon the Albanian people to remain vigilant and to struggle against the anti-popular and anti-national policies of the Albanian bourgeois state and of international imperialism.
(Translated by the November 8th Publishing House from the Albanian original)