By DASHNOR KALOÇI
Memorie.al / The glacial island of Greenland, the largest in the world, situated between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, with a surface area of 2,166,086 km² and a population of approximately 70,000 – which for several days has become a “bone of contention” and the headline of most global media due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement about placing it under U.S. administration – was almost entirely unknown, or more accurately, off the “radars” of post-90s Albanian foreign policy. However, the same cannot be said for pre-90s Albania, when it was led by the communist dictator Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia. This is revealed by several archival documents found in the Central State Archive (Fund of the former Central Committee of the PLA), where Enver Hoxha’s political diaries are also kept.
If we refer to his political diaries, we see that even the island of Greenland appears in his memoirs, specifically in October 1973, when he (Enver), along with Nexhmije, received in a meeting the Chairman of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of Britain, Reg Birch (Reginald Birch), and his wife, whom Ramiz Alia had received earlier. But a few years later, precisely after the rupture of official Tirana’s relations with the People’s Republic of China, Reg Birch would no longer be a “friend” of Enver Hoxha, but an “agent of British imperialism!” For more regarding these meetings and the conversations held between them, where Greenland is also discussed, we are introduced by the notes kept by Enver Hoxha in his political diaries, as well as the minutes of Enver Hoxha’s meetings with the secretaries of the Central Committee of the PLA, which are being published for the first time along with the respective facsimiles and photos by Memorie.al.
ENVER HOXHA’S POLITICAL DIARY IN OCTOBER 1973, WHERE HE SPEAKS OF HIS MEETING WITH THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY MARXIST-LENINIST OF BRITAIN, REG BIRCH, AND THE CONVERSATION ABOUT GREENLAND
WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 26, 1973
REG BIRCH ARRIVED
Reg Birch, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of England, arrived in Tirana for a visit and for talks. Tomorrow, he will hold his first talks with Ramiz.
FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 28, 1973
N O T E
Comrade Ramiz Alia reported to me on the conversation he held with the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of England, Comrade Reg Birch. They were in agreement on all the problems discussed. Next Tuesday, I will receive him as well.
TUESDAY
OCTOBER 2, 1973
MEETING WITH REG BIRCH
Today I received the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of England, Comrade Birch, who has come to our country for a visit and for talks with us. The conversation was warm and friendly. He is accompanied by his wife, also a militant. Nexhmije also participated.
Comrade Birch told me that his son, a surgeon and mountaineer, was the first to climb an undiscovered mountain peak in Greenland, where he planted the Albanian flag and deposited, wrapped in cellophane, the History of the Party of Labour of Albania. They named the Greenlandic peak “Eagle’s Peak” (Maja e Shqiponjës). I thanked him and invited his son to visit our country and the Northern Alps.
THE SECRET ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT WITH THE MINUTES OF ENVER HOXHA’S MEETING WITH THE TWO SECRETARIES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PLA, HEKURAN ISAI AND PROKOP MURRA, REGARDING REG BIRCH
After the rupture of relations between Albania and the People’s Republic of China, which became public on July 29, 1978…? Many heads of Marxist-Leninist communist parties… who until then had close ties with both Tirana and Beijing, spoke out publicly siding with the Communist Party of China and coming out openly against Enver Hoxha and the PLA. One of these was Reg Birch… who by means of an article published in the English newspaper “The Worker”, opposed the ideological line and political course being followed by the PLA… unmasking them from the position of a sister communist party.
This is best seen in several archival documents… where in a daily meeting with the secretaries of the PLA, Enver Hoxha informs them about Birch’s article (which took Mao Zedong under protection), providing a detailed analysis of the accusations… and simultaneously countering him as an “agent of world imperialism.” What stands out in this meeting with secretaries Hekuran Isai and Prokop Murra is Enver Hoxha’s lack of sincerity with his two associates, whom he does not tell that he had received and met Reg Birch in a special audience on October 2, 1973, but instead tells them that only “Comrade Ramiz” had met him!
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Last night I read an article in “Renmin Ribao”… This entire article is prepared against us… it aligns perfectly with Reg Birch’s article.
COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: I have not read the article.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Reg Birch published an article on August 10… When I read what Birch had said, I put my hands to my head. It is clearly evident that he is an agent of British imperialism. Birch comes out against the criticism made against Mao Zedong…
“Why do you write this material,” asks Birch, “is it up to you to do this?” he says. And further down he continues: “I know them because I have met Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai and they made good impressions on me.” … According to him, all these, from Stalin and the Comintern to Mao Zedong—if you mention their names – are phantoms. The remarks made by Reg Birch show that he is a disguised man, a revisionist… I wrote a long letter to Ramiz from Pogradec… analyzing all that Reg Birch had said.
…And finally comes the “bouquet”: … Birch’s conclusion is this: The Russian and Chinese comrades have opened new paths for us, through which we will all walk.
COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: Oh…, this one is very wicked!
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Indeed, he is very wicked. It clearly appears… that Birch is a variant of Hill of Australia, or that both are agents of the “Intelligence Service,” because the bourgeoisie needs such people; it is in its interest for them to protect Mao Zedong.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA (Continuing): …The current Chinese leaders try to explain things with the processes of the development of contradictions, with Mao Zedong’s famous vulgar contradictions! …Now, my point here is that Birch takes a stand against the current Chinese leaders who have deviated from Marxism. He says they are traitors, but on the other hand, he comes out in favor of Mao Zedong and company…
COMRADE HEKURAN ISAI: He is making an analogy with this.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Yes, he makes an analogy… Birch’s attack has its source in the issues that we told him and have written in the book “Imperialism and the Revolution”, that the current trade unions in bourgeois countries are under the direction of capital, the bourgeoisie, and the aristocracy. “I do not agree,” Birch told us, “on this matter you are against the organization of the working class, you are Bukharinists,” etc.
…We are against these forms of struggle [Red Brigades]; the issue is to fight based on a platform and a plan. One must not act as Birch acts… when Birch is told what Engels said in his time… that the English working class itself is becoming bourgeois… he tells us he does not agree. But we are not against the working class, but against the aristocracy of the working class…/Memorie.al
Very well, comrades, good day.
Minute-keeper:
Haxhi Kroi
