Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), where the speech of the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Albanian Labor Party, Enver Hoxha, is held on May 30, 1962 before his constituency voters no. 179 in Tirana where he was running for deputy in the People’s Assembly, where he after talking about the achievements of the People’s Republic of Albania under the leadership of the ALP, stopped and made a presentation of social order and the electoral process in capitalist countries, saying that “There are many restrictions there, as a result of which millions of voters, in one way or another, are excluded from voting. “Comprehensive pressure is exerted on the voters, the elections take place in conditions of terror, fraud, corruption, falsification and various machinations”, etc. Enver’s whole speech before the voters where he promised salary increases for workers, road construction and investments in infrastructure, increasing the welfare of the people, etc.
“Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. Tens of thousands of brand-new houses have been built by cooperatives, they have repaired and decorated the old ones, and everywhere they are building new ones, building schools, houses of culture, clubs, nurseries and gardens, they are building the cultured life in our socialist village… There is no work center where no residential houses are built, no big or small city, where schools, clubs, hospitals, nurseries, cinemas, theaters, stadiums are not built. This pace of construction is increasing every year. The aim of the Party and the Government is for the district centers to become cities of socialism where the employees have their apartments, to have places of entertainment and rest, to have schools, dormitories, cinemas and theaters, to have paved roads., systematized parks, to relax in a cultured way. “Whoever looks at Durrës, Fier, Lushnjë, Korçë, Shkodër, Vlora, Gjirokastra, Elbasan, Peshkopi, not to mention all of them, everything in them has changed so much that he does not know them, they are decorated”.
This was stated, among others, by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, Enver Hoxha, in his speech before the voters of constituency 179 in Tirana, where he was running for deputy in the People’s Assembly, where after making a speech The great achievements in various fields of the economy that the People’s Republic of Albania had made up to that time under the leadership of the ALP, stopped and made numerous promises, for salary increases for workers, road construction and investments in infrastructure, the increase of welfare of the people, etc., etc. For more about Enver Hoxha’s speech held in front of his constituents in constituency 179 in Tirana on May 30, 1962, we are introduced to this archival document that Memorie.al publishes for the first time (with some abbreviations), by starting from today’s number.
Enver Hoxha’s speech before the voters of the constituency no. 179, held May 30, 1962
Dear comrades, first of all, let me thank you from the bottom of my heart for the trust you showed and for the great honor you did me, proposing me as a candidate for deputy in the People’s Assembly. I value this as an expression of the boundless faith and love that you, the voters of constituency number 179, as well as all our people, have for the Albanian Labor Party, the organized organizer and leader of all the victories of the people our struggle for the liberation of the homeland forever from the captivity of the fascists and the feudal bourgeoisie for the establishment of popular power and the building of socialism. I assure you, dear comrades, that I will spare no effort to fully deserve your trust, and I will devote my life to the end of my work and faithful service to the people and Party that raised me.
The elections for the People’s Assembly are a very important political event in the life of the country. On June 3, our people will elect their representatives to the highest body of our state power. These elections will once again be a high expression of the unbreakable unity of our people around its glorious Party and popular power, of its unification in the Party-led Democratic Front. By voting without exception for the candidates of the Democratic Front, our people will vote for the full construction of socialism, for the freedom and independence of our homeland, for its prosperity and prosperity, for the policy of peace and friendship between peoples, for the Marxist-Leninist Party straight line. The right of the citizens of our country to freely elect their representatives in the organs of power, from the lowest to the highest, from the village councils to the People’s Assembly, testifies to the deeply democratic character of our order. social and state. Our electoral system is one of the most democratic in the world.
The right to universal suffrage, equal, direct and secret, is not a formal right, as is the case in the capitalist world, but a real right, which is rigorously applied in life without any restrictions. In our country there are no exploiting classes in power now to threaten, lie and exploit him; the people themselves are in power, so there is no one to put pressure on the people and trample on the will of the voters. Our power is really popular power. In our country, the broad masses of workers are in force, in the working class at the top. Production tools, factories, mills, power plants, mines, etc. are in the hands of the people and work and produce only for the people; all the harmonized activity of the state takes place in the interest and for the good of the people. This is where the democratic character of our social and state order lies.
Herein lies the fundamental difference of our socialist democracy from the so-called bourgeois democracy, which is a savage dictatorship of the exploiting minority against the vast majority of the people, where the state, as well as the main means of production, are in the hands of capitalists and landowners. where all state policy and activity serve the interests of these classes. In capitalist countries there are numerous restrictions, as a result of which millions of voters, in one way or another, are excluded from voting. Comprehensive pressure is exerted on the voters, the elections take place in conditions of terror, fraud, corruption, falsification and various machinations. The imperialist bourgeoisie, in order to maintain its rule, has today launched a general attack even against those freedoms and truncated rights that the workers have gained through war in the countries of the capital.
Every day more and more in these countries the bureaucratic military-police apparatus is strengthened, the tendencies for restricting the rights of the elected bodies and increasing the competencies of the executive bodies for the fascism of the life of the country are increasing more and more. Even in cases when the workers and the progressive strata of the people manage with great difficulty to secure a victory in the elections, the reactionary bourgeoisie, supported especially by the military circles, without hesitation liquidates the election results. And what kind of democracy can we talk about in these conditions, when the most brutal exploitation and oppression of the majority of people by a handful of capitalists, who have power in their hands, reigns? There is “freedom and democracy” for the capitalists, in our country there is real freedom and democracy for all the people.
This is the source of the great indescribable enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people in building socialism in our country, this is the source of the great loyalty shown by the people to the Party and its popular power, enthusiastically embracing and implementing the line of right that has been determined by the Party for the full construction of socialism in our country. The elections for the People’s Assembly in our country take place in an atmosphere of joy and celebration and unshakable faith for the future, in an atmosphere of fruitful work and with great results that satisfy big and small, in factories and in the flourishing fields, came and went. schools, which satisfy the heart and make the soldier, the border guard, the security weapon worker proud, who watch like mountain eagle’s day and night, that our homeland be inviolable, that the people be happy and work and create in peace, so that his victories cannot be touched by the enemy, whether external or internal.
Dear friends,
The new elections of June 3 will further strengthen our popular power, our socialist democracy, which is the greatest victory in history, achieved by our people under the leadership of the Party. Our Labor Party has considered and still considers our popular power as the most important weapon in the hands of the workers for the successful construction of socialism and for the protection of the freedom and independence of our socialist homeland. Marxism-Leninism teaches us and our 18-year experience has shown that when the people have power in their hands, then they are invincible and able to work miracles. That is why the Party has always attached great importance to the comprehensive strengthening of power. It has resolutely rejected and rejects the sermons of the Yugoslav revisionists on the weakening and liquidation of the socialist state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, since the present time. Such sermons are only for the benefit of the imperialists and the various reactionary elements, who have never stopped trying to undermine and overthrow the socialist order in our countries.
Of course, this is not the place to make the theory of state extinction, but the theories that modern revisionists preach and apply to this capital problem have nothing in common with what Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin teach us. . Modern revisionists falsify and lie when they say that ostensibly, with the measures they take, they expand democracy. On the contrary, “the expansion of democracy” means for them the savage oppression of the Marxists-Leninists, loyal and steadfast, the increase of police and military repressive apparatuses, the corruption of the youth and its preparation for evil deeds, the creation of a whole layer corrupt elements in support of revisionist cliques, to degenerate the power of the party, to plunge the country into economic and political chaos, to place it under the direct subordination of large groups of aristocratic privileged people, and, finally, under subordination directly and under the direct control of capitalist monopolies. The mirror of all these evils of revisionist degeneration is Titoist Yugoslavia, degeneration in ideology, degeneration in politics, degeneration in economics, degeneration in social and cultural life.
This is the course of modern revisionism, which in the agony of imperialism has risen up and hit the steel walls of Marxism-Leninism, seeks to enter every socialist country, seeks to integrate by deceit, by lies, by “peaceful means”. But modern revisionism, the mass of imperialism, its agency, under any guise that will be hidden, awaits certain death. Marxism-Leninism will triumph over every enemy, as it has always won. In its 4th Congress, the Party stressed that the development of our state will be done mainly in the direction of strengthening and further expanding our socialist democracy. In today’s conditions, when great changes have been made in the socio-economic structure of the country, when, after building the economic basis of socialism, we have entered a new stage, that of the full construction of socialism and when the educational level has been raised. -cultural and socialist conscience of the workers, requires and is possible an even wider and more active participation of the measures in the whole state and social activity for the solution of the great tasks of the complete construction of socialism.
To this end, the Party strongly urges to increase the responsibility, role and competencies of the state power bodies, the popular councils of all instances and to increase the state apparatus more and more, to be as closely connected with the base and the measures and to mercilessly fights any manifestation of bureaucracy, strengthening work discipline at all levels of the state apparatus. The strengthening of popular power and the expansion of socialist democracy are closely linked to the strict observance of socialist legitimacy. Our socialist laws express the will of the people, protect their interests, therefore they are sacred and inviolable. Strict observance of our laws by every citizen and by all organs of our popular power is a high task, for the implementation of which a wide educational work must be developed and a strict control must be exercised by the people, by the Party organizations, by mass organizations and relevant state bodies.
As a result of the great changes that have been made in the socio-economic structure of our country, the social basis of our popular power, of our socialist democracy, has been strengthened and further expanded. Now we no longer have classes of exploitation and exploitation of man by man. Our society now consists of two friendly classes in fraternal alliance with each other, of the working class and of the cooperative peasantry, as well as of the stratum of our socialist intelligence, emanating from the bosom of the people, molded with Marxist-Leninist ideology, which he has put all his knowledge and skills in the service of the people and the cause of socialism. The working class and the cooperative peasantry are today two new classes, changing as day to night with the past. They are not only the ruling classes and have in their hands the direction and means of production, but they have also made great progress in raising their socialist consciousness, of educational, cultural and technical level. On the basis of these changes and the comprehensive work of the Party was born the steely moral-political unity of our socialist society, which we must preserve as the eyes of the forehead and strengthen day by day.
In the unity of our people, in its monolithic and unbreakable union around the Labor Party, lies the source of all our successes and victories, lies the guarantee of our unstoppable progress, towards the complete victory of socialism, and later of communism… Our enemies have always tried to inject wedges to disrupt and undermine our unity, the unification of our people around its Labor Party. But they have always failed and will fail with shame. Our unity is invincible, it has gone through great historical trials, it has been seasoned to fight the difficulties and obstacles that our enemies have tried to create. This unity is invincible, because it is based on the common interests and goals of the people and our Party, on the deep conviction of our working masses, on the justice of the Party line and its leadership, on the justice of the issue for which fights and works Our Party. The steely unity of our people, its monolithic union around the Party, as well as our whole social and state socialist order, on which this unity is built, refute the slanders of the bourgeois reactionary propaganda and the modern revisionists, who hold its ion, that’s supposedly there is no democracy in Albania, that “the regime of terror”, the violation of socialist legality reigns in our country and other tales like these.
But we understand why these enemies of our country make these slanders, they falsely want to cover up the crimes and terror they exercise in their country against honest people who resolutely oppose the degeneration of the victories of the people, who sacrificed so much blood for this country. and sweat, to hide the terror they exercise in their country against the patriots who seek to tell them to stop the course downhill where the rulers take their homeland. They shout to hide the flagrant violations of their legitimacy at the expense of thousands upon thousands of innocent citizens suffering in prisons, internment camps and torture. The enemies of our country dream with open eyes and preach that we, as they do in their country, under the guise of supposedly “democracy”, open the door to crime, theft, corruption and degeneration, open the doors of our homeland sacred to foreign espionage and diversion gangs. They demand that we do not develop and temper the high virtues of our people, as without the ardent idiocy, manliness, honesty and traditional faith of Albanians, that we do not temper the love of Albanians for each other, solidarity between them, not to strengthen the love in the family, the love for work, not to raise and educate our glorious youth with the traditions and high virtues of our people, not to grow clean, not to keep it away from decadent filth of degenerate bourgeois morality, not to educate with honesty, socialist culture, courage, loyalty and internationalist spirit.
But in vain they have it, the dogs that bark cannot bite us. They are unmasked in both pictures, both international and national. The enemies think that, by barking from their radios outside, they will turn and lie to our people against the Party and the popular power. But the opposite happens, the filthier they speak on the radio, the more our people get angry against them and the more he strengthens the unity, love and loyalty to his dear Party. And this is neither accidental nor merely sentimental, but it is strongly grounded. This is the logical offspring of the always straight line of the Party. The straight line of our Marxist-Leninist Party is being violated with deeds in all four corners of Albania and its fruits are enjoyed by all the people. The just and humane policy of the Party and of our government, the deep justice and the just and educational application of our laws, have made many of those who have committed crimes against the people, whether political or social, now more sober, guilt has been taught to them, they have come to the right path, to the path of political-moral honesty, they have been reborn and now they work and produce.
They obeyed, seeing the justice of the Party, the justice of the people, its great creative force; they saw that the Party did not abhor their sons and daughters, but gave them a hand, raised them, educated them, taught them to love the people, to work for the welfare of the people. Eighteen years into the popular regime even the blind opened their eyes to the miracles that were done in such a short time. Every citizen of Albania was connected, like steel with cement, with the homeland, with the Party, with the government, with worries and the best, with worries and joys, people were molded, trained at work and in war, it was achieved this unparalleled unity that exists in us. For our beloved Albania, irrigated with blood and thriving with work and sweat, for our Party, the heart of the homeland, it is a fist of the whole people. This is what life shows, this was shown by the votes for the People’s Assembly four years ago, this will be shown by the current unanimous votes, the only voice of all the people, for our new Albania, of the people, socialist, immortal for centuries. To show the fists to the enemies, to turn to dust and ashes their every attempt against our country. They call the steel union of our people around the Party “chauvinism”, “nationalism”, lack of democracy.
But it makes us so, the smoke goes straight. What do these people mean by “democracy”? Do they not want those who, under the pretext of “democratization”, weaken popular power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and let it happen, as in Yugoslavia, as can happen anywhere if left open to the opportunistic theories spread by revisionists today? modern? Do they not want us to be gullible against the imperialist enemies and their agents, so that we do not fight against the enemies and traitors of the people, but also rehabilitate those whom the people have condemned and call them “good people”? of “patriots”? No, we do not forget for a moment that in the world there is imperialism, for which we have not had, do not have and will not have any illusion that it has changed its nature. Our country is geographically surrounded by capitalist states and Yugoslav revisionists, so we will always keep up the revolutionary vigilance to defend our national freedom and independence, the historic victories of our people, the cause of socialism on the shores of our blue Adriatic. For all these we will constantly strengthen the popular power, this sharp weapon of the people in power./Memorie.al
