Imperialist-Revisionist Slander Cannot Tarnish the Name and Work of Enver Hoxha and the Albanian Party and People

— Editorial of the newspaper “The Marxist-Leninist,” organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) —

The death of Comrade Enver Hoxha, the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary thinker and man of action, leader of the Albanian Party and people, which is deeply mourned not only by the Albanian nation but by the revolutionary, progressive and freedom-loving peoples everywhere, has brought forth an unprecedentedly savage response from imperialism and revisionism, of the same calibre as the imperialist pressure which was exerted at the time of the death of J.V. Stalin in 1953. Alternately making overtures and issuing threats, the imperialists and revisionists are speculating on the prospects of gobbling up Albania, enslaving the Albanian people again under the imperialist yoke. This savage activity of the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, and of reaction everywhere, can never tarnish the name and immortal work of Comrade Enver Hoxha. Neither can it realize its aim of breaking the Party-people unity, nor in splitting the unity of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement based on Marxism-Leninism.

Today, as in the past, the attitude towards socialist Albania remains a touchstone for all revolutionaries. The deeds of the Albanian people, led by Comrade Enver Hoxha, are heroic. They defeated the nazi-fascist aggression and occupation in the national liberation war, brought about the triumph of the people’s revolution, established the dictatorship of the proletariat, and constructed socialism. These last 40 years, the Albanian people have marched forward on the path illuminated by Marxism-Leninism, and Albania remains a thorn in the side of imperialism, a testimony to the fact that a people can live free and independent, can advance without the tutelage of imperialism. This enrages imperialism and social-imperialism, which covet Albania not only for its strategic position in the Balkans, but also for ideological reasons, because the very existence of Albania, which has advanced according to the teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha, is a blow to their hegemonic aims and strategy.

In its propaganda, the imperialist press cannot avoid mentioning the independent course on which Albania has marched, in defiance of the pressures of one revisionist clique after another. It cannot avoid mentioning either the great advances which the Albanian people, guided by their Party with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head these past 40 years and more, have made in the economic, social and cultural fields, eliminating illiteracy, emancipating women, transforming Albania from the most backward country of Europe at the time of World War II to a modern, multi-branched industrial-agricultural country, which knows no inflation, unemployment, foreign debt nor any of the other ills of capitalist society. Yet these accomplishments are weighed against the “costs,” which are described in the terms manufactured by the anti-Albanian rumour mill in Belgrade, by the Pope of Rome and others inspired by Washington and Moscow. According to the calculations of the imperialists, these accomplishments have been won at the expense of “human rights,” on the basis of “ruthless” “one-man rule.” The speculations are fuelled about “feuds” within the ranks of the Party and people. The anti-communist abuse which has been forthcoming from the organs of the reactionary press is vain speculation that with the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha, Albania will fall into the clutches of one or the other superpower, will “open to the West,” or “fall prey to Moscow,” and so on.

How can the economy be modernized, the women emancipated, the people educated, cultured and uplifted while the country remains enslaved? What kind of logic is this? The propaganda mills of imperialism make it very clear that the “freedom” they have in mind is freedom for exploiters to enslave the people, freedom for finance capital to shackle the country, and the “human rights” it has in mind are the rights for reaction to attack and undermine the brilliant achievements of the Albanian people over these past 40 years. The bourgeoisie speaks with a similar logic when it describes the countries under its dictate such as India, which it describes as “free,” as the “world’s largest democracy,” while it is forced to admit that the “price” of such “freedom” is poverty, illiteracy and misery for the masses of the people. The bourgeoisie equates freedom with its rule, with exploitation, impoverishment and the ruin of the working class and broad masses of the people, while the liberation of the people and their uplifting through their own efforts, as in Albania, with the power in their own hands, led by their own Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, is called “tyranny”! How else could the “remarkable” achievements of a people who liberated themselves from the nazi-fascist yoke and built an independent, modern socialist country be equated with the “sacrifice of basic human rights,” while the desperately impoverished countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the bourgeois countries of Europe and North America are characterized as “free countries” with “human rights” which do not, however, include the right to work and a living, the right to chart their own destiny. Such logic, far from harming Albania, merely exposes the prejudice of the bourgeoisie as well as its bottomless fear of the revolution and socialism. The prestige of Albania, which has built a prosperous and free life according to the Marxist-Leninist teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha, is such that even the most savage imperialists cannot patently deny the remarkable accomplishments of the national liberation war and the 40 years of socialist construction.

The logic presented in the bourgeois media has this common thread: that the accomplishments of the Albanian nation were realized at too high a price. Thus, Macleans magazine says that “the country that Hoxha and his partisans liberated from Italy and Nazi Germany in 1944 today boasts free education and medical care and no foreign debt. But the price of independence has been the sacrifice of many basic human rights.” Which rights? The ones guaranteed by the Italian and Nazi fascists? Macleans refers to the banning of religion, the treatment of “political opponents, dissidents and members of ethnic minorities,” to “rigid censorship” and so on. These are the repetition of the hackneyed slanders manufactured in the rumour-mills of Belgrade and the Vatican at the behest of Washington. By political opponents and dissidents, none other than the traitorous agents of imperialism and social-imperialism are referred to, those who were exposed and punished as traitors who would sell out the country. And as for the “banning of religion,” what is the right which is upheld here? The Albanian people have only the “human right” to the shackles of religion, but no “human right” to a scientific, materialist outlook? The shackles of religion were not broken by the gun, but by cutting the ground from under religion, eliminating its social basis by eliminating the foreign domination of the country and exploitation of man by man. The Greek minority enjoys full rights to its language and cultural traditions, as innumerable visitors testify, and the rumours of alleged mistreatment of the minorities are manufactured by Greek reaction with the aim of dismembering Albania.

In a similar manner, the Globe and Mail says: Enver Hoxha “introduced industrialisation, broke the influence of the mosque and emancipated women.” But, “in the process secretary Hoxha maintained an oppressively Stalinist hold on the levers of power and presided over a secretive, fearful regime.” What is the logic here? That the emancipation of women from centuries old oppression can be carried out by a “fearful regime” which suppresses human rights? That the power and influence of the mosque can be broken, while the people are oppressed? That full employment, elimination of taxes, elimination of any foreign debt and obligations to foreign imperialism goes side by side with the suppression of human rights? Only in the minds of exploiters and their hirelings can such a logic be found. For example, in Albania everyone enjoys the right to work and a living, a basic human right which does not exist in any capitalist or revisionist country. There is the right to free medical care, to free education, yet there are no “human rights”? The country has industrialized and been transformed from the most backward country of Europe into a modern, industrial-agricultural country, the living standards of the people have consistently risen and prices have fallen, yet there is an “oppressive regime”? If the material and other well-being of the people is continuously improved, then who is it who is “oppressed” by such a regime? Whose “basic human rights” are violated? Only the rights of the exploiters to expropriate and live off the toil of others, of the foreign imperialists to parasitize off the wealth created through the toil of the Albanian working people. The democracy which exists today in Albania is unequalled anywhere, and this because it is the working people themselves who hold political power, and who guarantee these rights through the exercise of the dictatorship of the proletariat over internal and external enemies, the agents of exploiters and oppressors.

This is the logic of the enemies of all basic human rights, the defenders of the bourgeoisie and imperialism, who are the most savage enemies of the struggles of the people for national and social emancipation, for progress, enlightenment and advance on the high road of civilization. They are not the defenders of human rights, but the rights of capital, which are the only inviolable and inalienable rights they recognize.

Both the superpowers covet Albania. Both are carrying out a brutal campaign for bringing Albania within their own sphere of influence. Gorbachev spoke plaintively about the desire of the Soviet social-imperialists for the “normalization of relations between the two countries.” They expressed their brutality through a “message of sympathy,” while hinting that with the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha, Albania might move within the orbit of the Soviet Union. Such a message was not only an attack on Comrade Enver Hoxha, but on the Party-people unity and on the entire Albanian people, suggesting that it was not a principled stand towards imperialism and social-imperialism by the Albanian people, but one man which stood in the way of its aims. The media reports that Albania rejected the Soviet message as unacceptable, stating that “We consider the Soviet Union a superpower that endangers the freedom of our people. We’ll have nothing to do with them.”

NATO and U.S. imperialism also stepped up their brutal pressure and manoeuvring. NATO forces in Greece stepped up their military activity in the region, while the U.S. and its hirelings speculated on whether Albania would “turn to the Soviets” or “open to the west.” At the same time, Balkan “experts,” those who operate the rumour mills of Belgrade and the dregs of reaction who fled Albania after liberation and took refuge in the U.S. and other countries are fuelling speculation and attempting to exert further pressure on Albania to open its doors to imperialism. The hackneyed tales about the circumstances surrounding the suicide of the traitor Mehmet Shehu, and the exposure and punishment of various traitors and agents over the past 40 years are being recycled as the imperialists lament their ignominious defeats of the past and their efforts to penetrate Albania today.

Albania is not only a strategic country, coveted by both superpowers, but a thorn in the side of imperialism and social-imperialism in ideo-political terms as well. Albania is living proof that the people can accomplish remarkable feats when they chart a course free of their dictate and influence of imperialism. Albania is a beacon to all the peoples who are striving to live free and independent, who are seeking to break the imperialist yoke and to win national and social emancipation. Albania is a bastion of Marxism-Leninism, a thorn in the side of Soviet modern revisionism and revisionism of all hues. Modern revisionism is part of the strategy of imperialism for perpetuating the enslavement of the peoples, and the existence of Albania and the principled line which it has followed according to the teachings of Comrade Enver Hoxha is a heavy blow to this strategy.

(The Marxist-Leninist, Vol. 15, No. 38, April 21, 1985)