By DASHNOR KALOÇI
Part Two
Memorie.al / When not even a week had passed since 2 July 1990, when thousands of Albanian citizens climbed over the railings and walls of foreign embassies in Tirana and entered their premises with the aim of leaving Albania, the high leadership of the PPSh (Party of Labour of Albania), headed by General Secretary Ramiz Alia, held the 11th Plenum of the Central Committee, which held its proceedings on 6 and 7 July. Although the agenda was predetermined with three main points, in which the one on the development of education in Albania predominated, almost throughout the proceedings of that plenum (especially at point 4, “Various”), the event of those days, otherwise known as “2 July of the embassies,” was discussed and debated. At that plenum, in which all members and candidates of the Central Committee of the PPSh, the first secretaries of the party committees of the districts, ministers, main cadres of the sector of education, culture, science, economy, leaders of the organization of the Union of Labour Youth of Albania, from the apparatus of the Central Committee of the PPSh, Radio-Television, ATSH, etc., were absent: Nimet Cani, Ali Vukatana, Reiz Malile, Shpëtim Çaushi, Zylyftar Ramizi, Qemal Lame, Zef Loka, Pirro Kondi, and Hekuran Isai, who for several days had been “in the field,” “managing” the embassy event.
After the opening of the meeting by Ramiz Alia, the floor was given to the Minister of Education, Skënder Gjinushi, who also held the relevant report (“On the perfection of the educational system and the further qualitative strengthening of the school”). The main topic of that plenum was the “embassy event,” discussing and analyzing in detail how and why it happened (“the role of foreign agencies”), up to the tasks that emerged for managing that situation in those hot July days, when over five thousand Albanian citizens from all the districts of the country were inside the premises of some of the main embassies in Tirana, waiting to leave Albania.
Besides this, throughout that meeting, but mainly at point no. 4 of the agenda (which was discussed in the final session), several of the main events that had occurred in various districts of the country during that year were also taken into analysis, such as: the protests in Shkodra in January for the removal of Stalin’s bust; the events in the city of Kavaja where the people of that city clashed with police forces; the massive escapes across the state borders with Yugoslavia and Greece; the massive gatherings at holy religious sites, such as the Church of Shën-Ndout in Laç of Kurbin; the legal permission of religious beliefs and the opening of places of worship; or other problems that were raised for solution, such as: the talks of the international factor for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the USA, the Soviet Union (the talks held with the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister in Sofia by Sofokli Lazri); the Kosovo problem; international pressure for the opening of Albania to the world and its accession to several international conventions; the privileges of the high leadership of the PPSh and their families who lived mainly in the “Block”; the words circulating among the people about Enver Hoxha’s family and Ramiz’s relations with Nexhmije; the change of legislation and the penal code; the release of political prisoners; the stamping with passports of citizens who sought to go out as visitors to their relatives abroad; the new economic mechanism; the housing and employment of many additions in all districts of the country; the giving of land and livestock to the cooperative peasantry; up to the supply of the urban population with basic food products and various industrial goods.
As we will see also from archival documents belonging to the 11th Plenum of the Central Committee of the PPSh, which we emphasize are published for the first time, besides the leadership and some of the high officials of that time, several other high figures who continued their political careers even after the 1990s also discussed or were mentioned at that meeting, such as: Skënder Gjinushi, Fatos Nano, Sali Berisha, Rexhep Mejdani, Gramoz Pashko, Spiro Dede, Dritëro Agolli, Ismail Kadare, Moikom Zeqo, Mehmet Elezi, Lisen Bashkurti, Koço Kokëdhima, Ylli Popa, Aleks Luarasi, etc.
Likewise, in the voluminous file of this plenum, of great interest are also those documents belonging to the secretaries of the Party Committees of the districts or the “Information Group” who went to all the districts of the country and documented all the main problems that emerged in the meetings of the base organizations of the party, where “On the Letter of the Central Committee” was discussed, documents that constitute the largest and also the most important part of the file in question. It can even be said to be among the most important of the entire period of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha and his successor Ramiz Alia, since that period of time with the events that unfolded marked the prologue of the fall of that regime.
Likewise, of great interest are also the documents belonging to the final session of that meeting with point no. 4 of the agenda “Various,” which constitutes also the hottest point of the entire plenum, where it was discussed, even with harsh debates, the release from duties and retirement of three members of the Political Bureau (Rita Marko, Manush Myftiu, and Prokop Murra), or the release from ministerial duties or other high functions that several other “leaders” had held for years, such as Simon Stefani, Pali Miska, Muho Asllani, Lenka Çuko, Vito Kapo, Pirro Kondi, Jovan Bardhi, etc., and the appointment of “new comrades” in the leadership of the high forums of the Party and State, such as: Xhelil Gjoni, Abdyl Backa, Niko Gjyzari, Kiço Mustaqi, etc. Regarding these etc., the documents in question extracted from the Central State Archive (Fund of the former Central Committee of the PPSh) inform us, which are published for the first time and with the relevant facsimiles by Memorie.al
Continues from the previous issue
REPORT – INFORMATION OF TWO EMPLOYEES OF THE APPARATUS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PPSh, MUHARREM XHAFA AND FATOS NANO, SENT TO RAMIZ ALIA AND FOTO ÇAMI, REGARDING THE PROBLEMS THAT EMERGED IN THE PLENUM OF THE FIER DISTRICT
No. 57
I N F O R M A T I O N
On 25.9.1990 in Fier, an enlarged plenum of the Party in the district was held, to discuss the Letter of the Central Committee of the Party, and the tasks that emerge for the implementation of its ideas.
The report was held by comrade Lenka Çuko.
Comrade Pali Miska also participated and spoke at the Plenum.
In the report and in the discussions that were held, it was emphasized that the Letter of the Central Committee of the Party served for a shaking up of the Party organizations, of the communists and of the cadres, as well as for raising the opinion of the masses in support of the decisions that the Party has taken recently, for the democratization of the life of the country.
Such an effort was also made in this meeting of the plenum itself, where there were questions for the discussants, debates, and demands for accountability. This spirit was observed in particular in the discussions without paper and when the comrades of the plenum were asked to express opinions from the floor on various problems.
Generally, in the plenum the emphasis was placed on the problems of strengthening the leading role of the Party, of increasing its militant spirit, of raising the vanguard example of the communists and of the cadres, of avoiding the lack of courage to criticize, to confront, and to act in the interest of solving the tasks and implementing the decisions. An analysis and criticism was made especially for the manifestations of passivity, lukewarmness, indifferentism, for liberal attitudes in the ranks of the communists and of the cadres.
During the discussion of the Letter, disciplinary measures were given to 20 communists. In the report there was criticism by name and well-addressed for the base organizations of the Party of the work centers and agricultural cooperatives, as for example, for the Party organization of Azotik where, as is known, some workers wanted to organize a demonstration to secure better working conditions and the lowering of the retirement age; of Ngrançia, where even the communists agreed to divide the cooperative on a village basis; of Bishani, Roskovec, etc., for great damages to the common property.
But this was not done, criticism by name for the cadres that lead in them, whether of the base or of the district. With the interventions that were made in the meeting of the Plenum, this shortcoming was filled to a certain extent.
A special place was taken by the problems of ideopolitical educational work, of patriotic education, of unity, etc., the weaknesses that have been observed in it, such as the weak argumentative force, euphoria, formalism, the inability to politically and ideologically confront the rumors of the class enemy, to clarify the questions and problems that have arisen in this stage of the further democratization of the life of the country and of the Party itself, in particular for the understanding of the new economic mechanism, of the class struggle, of democracy and of the perfection of legislation, of the understanding of the situations and relations of our country with other countries.
To confront these problems, the emphasis was placed on the need to raise the ideopolitical level of the Party organizations and on the activation of the intelligentsia and of the many cadres that the Fier district has, for which until now quite weakly has been worked.
In the Fier district in recent months, a revival of the old psychology and mentality for private property and damages in many forms of state and cooperative property have been observed, so much so that several times the interventions to prevent them have encountered even open resistance from wrongdoers.
Also, this year has been accompanied by a noticeable increase in cases of breach of discipline, of crimes against property, but also against the person, especially against the official person, where the oppositions and actions against him under the “spirit of democracy” have been clearly expressed, etc. All these have had their influence also in the issues of the unity of the people.
Bringing as the main cause the weather difficulties (the over-prolonged drought), as well as the lack of raw materials, an economic situation with not small non-realizations was presented in the plenum as of the 9-month period. The most sensitive deficits have been created in potatoes (45%), beans (51%), sunflower (56%), in corn production (no more than 70%), in oil (about 30 thousand tons), and in chemical fertilizers (3 thousand tons deficit).
These are foreseen to be worsening in the months that follow. More acute problems are for employment and housing in the cities, especially in Fier and in Patos (where there are respectively 1,372 and 1,255 unoccupied forces) which, apparently, although they are constantly raised as priority tasks, the solutions are too slow and the conviction for the perspective and the possibilities of overcoming them is lacking.
In the Plenum, discussions were also held for shortcomings in the work of the state organs and of the mass organizations, but the reflection of the discussants as well as of the report that was presented to the plenum for them was shallow, without critical analysis, with few conclusions and concrete tasks for the future.
We created the impression that the chairman of the Executive Committee of the district, comrade Anastas Pone, finds it difficult to cope with this task, he lacks the horizon of a chairman of a District Executive Committee, he does not have the necessary force to impose himself on subordinates with logic and arguments, to demand the implementation to the end of the decisions that are taken by the state organs.
The leaders of the organizations of the Front, of the Professional Unions, of the Youth and of the Woman in the district must think and prepare better, together with their forums, to realize comrade Ramiz’s orders for a new physiognomy, independent and original work of the mass organizations, also within the framework of the status they will receive with the new electoral law. We emphasize this because in their work quite a lot of traditionalism is still observed.
The problems of the free time of the workers and especially of the youth were treated with special emphasis in the discussion of the first secretary of the Youth Committee, comrade Koço Kokëdhima. He has the opinion that this problem is undervalued even by the Party Committee of the district itself. For some time now, between the Party Committee and the Youth Committee there have been disagreements regarding the transfer of the building of the city atelier to the disposal of the youth, for the organization of their free time.
This has been promised to the youth publicly both by the chairman of the Executive Committee and by the comrades of the Party, but the latter have now changed their minds, thus creating an unpleasant situation. We expressed our opinion to comrade Lenka Çuko, telling her that since it has been promised to the youth, and since the vast majority of the workers have left and settled in other jobs, there is no reason to change the opinion and the promise given.
As far as we have ascertained, comrade Koço Kokëdhima enjoys respect in the ranks of the youth, but the leading comrades of the Party have remarks about him, that “he is arrogant, hasty, and with a sectarian psyche.” We know Koço and he needs to be kept close and helped to be relieved of any such manifestation, but we think he is a courageous and cultured boy, who does not confirm and does not say “amen” to the other, because he holds a higher post in duty.
Therefore, we have the opinion that he could be a suitable candidacy for secretary of the Party Committee of the district for propaganda, in place of comrade Adem Tukaj. The Fier district is a powerful district, not only agricultural, but also industrial. Therefore it would be good to have a secretary of the KP with knowledge and culture in engineering sciences.
Today, besides the first secretary, there are three secretaries, one for propaganda, one for organization, and one for the economy, but these last two, although devoted and tireless comrades, are one an agronomist and the other an agrarian economist, thus both with an agricultural profile.
For comrade Adem Tukaj, the cadres, communists, and employees speak well, that he is mass-oriented, but it emerges as necessary to release him from the duty of secretary of the Party Committee of the district, because now, as he himself says, after 6 years in this district he has become accustomed to the situation. / Memorie.al
Tirana, on 28.9.1990 Muharrem Xhafa
Fatos Nano
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