Dashnor Kaloçi
Second part
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (the 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 renovated and decorated the old ones, and everywhere they are building new ones, building schools, houses of culture, clubs, nurseries and kindergartens, 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. Who now 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 they do 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, increase 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), starting from today’s number.
Continued from the previous issue
Enver Hoxha’s speech before the voters of the electoral zone no. 179 in Tirana, on May 30, 1962
Dear comrades, our people are going to the June 3 elections with great success in all walks of life, mobilized as never before to implement the historic decisions of the 4th Party Congress and the tasks of the plan of third five-year-old full of confidence and optimism for his future. The period of the fourth legislation of the People’s Assembly, which is coming to an end, can be called a truly historical period, during which important processes of transformation and socialist construction of our country have been developed and carried out. The main result we have achieved is the successful construction of the economic base of socialism, the establishment everywhere, both in the village and in the city, of new socialist relations in production. Now in our country the only system of socialist economy has been created.
A great victory has been the collectivization of agriculture before the deadline set by the 3rd Party Congress. During this first stage of our socialist construction, much has been done for the development of the productive forces of the country, for the construction of the material-technical basis of socialism. The main result in this regard is the establishment of a brand-new industry, which now provides half of the total production of the country and provides a significant part of the development needs of the economy and the population. In less than 15 days it produces as much as it did during the whole year in 1938. If in the first five-year plan 150 important works were erected mainly industrially, in the second five-year plan 250 were erected. The last two years, and especially last year, our country was faced with great difficulties and obstacles in the realization of plans for the development of the economy and national culture.
You all know well these difficulties and obstacles, you know how serious and great they were, you know how unjust and anti-socialist they were. But you know very well that all of them were overcome and are being overcome successfully, that our economy did not stagnate, as those who created these difficulties dreamed and hoped for us, but on the contrary, the 1961 plan was better realized than every year. next, we continued to move forward on the path of socialist construction, not extending our hand to anyone, much less to the imperialists. Our party and people have never bowed down, they have never asked and will never ask for alms from the imperialists, nor will they bow down to difficulties and obstacles, they have been seasoned with them and have always emerged victorious. This will happen in the future as well.
Inspired by the determined, just and principled attitude of our Party, the working class, the cooperative peasantry and the popular intelligentsia, all our brave and talented people responded heroically to the Party’s call, mobilized as never before, showed determination and ardent patriotism and tore under the banner of the Party. In the wave of this mobilization and enthusiasm arose many wonderful initiatives of our engineers, technicians and workers to produce locally machinery and equipment, spare tools and many other important import materials, even entire industrial wards and factories, such as carpentry tile factory in Elbasan, department for the production of carbide in Maliq and sulfur gas in Durrës, design and construction of a cement factory on site, study and design of the first plant for the production of caustic soda and calcium hypochlorite, construction of the first diesel engine “Eagle”, local production of milking machines, design of copper enrichment plant in Kukës, etc.
The Party and the Government supported with all their might this great patriotic movement. For this purpose, a wide popular consultation was organized, where about 10,500 different proposals were made, of which 7,000 were approved in advance by the central departments and reach a value of about 500 million ALL. More than 150 proposals have been made for the establishment of new factories, wards and workshops alone, while more than half of all proposals are for the production instead of many machines, equipment and spare parts. Over 1,000 proposals have been made for the production of new consumer goods. This is truly something that delights us, that delights all the people, and fills us with confidence that our people, with their golden hands and enlightened minds, can truly do wonders. What do all these proposals testify to, many of which have already started to be implemented? They testify not only to the mobilization and enthusiasm of our workers, not only to their ardent socialist patriotism, to their determination to advance the cause of our socialist construction, but also to something else, also very important: they prove that we have today a strong economy, a strong industrial base, which is able to successfully solve many large and complex tasks for the further development of our popular economy.
Our country today has a developed industry and equipped with a modern technique. And what characterizes our industry today, as well as many other sectors of the economy, is the transition from the realization of the plan mainly in quantity, in its realization to the qualitative and technical-economic indicators. Along with the extensive development of the industry, with the construction of new industrial works, work has now begun and is moving forward for an intensive and in-depth exploitation of the industry, its production capacities, to discover and use all the reserves of which grow with the growth and development of industry and the economy in general. This movement, which has taken on a truly massive character, also proves that in our country thousands of highly qualified workers and technicians have been trained, capable of solving difficult production problems and directing large works. Suffice it to mention here the design and direction of the main works by our engineers of the hydropower plants of Shkopet and Bistrica, the discovery of the source and design of the copper plant in Gjegjan of Kukes, important studies and direction of works in the oil industry and many others.
The main sectors of our economy now employ 1,840 senior staff and 5,270 middle staff. This is a great strength that has given and is giving very good to our economy, gives confidence in the rapid development ahead in the coming years. Life has fully proved and is proving every day the justice of our Party line for the development of the economy, for the socialist industrialization of the country, as well as for the ways and methods that it has followed for the development of industry. The Party and the Government will continue to pay special attention to the development of the industry. Industry is the main link for building the material-technical basis of socialism which is our basic task for the complete construction of the socialist society. The huge investments in our industry and mines have been made well studied from every point of view, just as a good host does. Nothing is built in vain and without great economic benefit, it is not built where it should not be, away from the raw material and without providing it mainly in place. The accumulation of industry has been avoided to the maximum only in a few points, so there is almost no district of our country left without factories and industries in its territory.
All the districts have been enlivened and are being revived every day and more, the country’s resources are being used from all sides, the working class is multiplying everywhere, engineers, technicians, specialists, every factory, every factory are being multiplied in every district with fair and uninterrupted criteria. combine, every mine in our country is connected with regular transport, it is being modernized and becoming more profitable every day. Our industry works profitably every day and more, the productivity at work every day is increasing more and more, the mistakes of growth are disappearing every day, the direction, organization, saving are being strengthened. The constant care of the Party and the Government makes our industry not recognize crises, even temporary ones, not to recognize pronounced anomalies in production and harmful parallels. This is owed primarily to our skilled, smart, talented and patriotic workers, specialists and engineers. In 1965, compared to 1960, industrial production would increase by 52 percent more. The specific weight of industrial production in the total production of our country reaches 54 percent. Half of industrial production will be occupied by the construction of means of production.
A great development in the third five years will take especially the mining and processing industry, in order to make better use of the mineral resources of our country. New branches of industry will be established. 400 new works will be built, such as the copper metallurgy plant in Kukës and the nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer plants, the cotton textile factory in Berat, 2 cement factories, 3 paper factories, work will begin on the establishment of ferrous metallurgy, as well as many other great works. All these we live, we build, we enjoy. You all always have in mind the plan for the third five years decided by the 4th Party Congress. An entire magnificent program that will definitely be realized successfully. We will increase oil resources, the development of iron-nickel will take a big boost, the area of Kukes, where now that we finally decided to build the new city, is rich in copper, iron, nickel, chromium and perhaps in other precious minerals. This will be in the near future an important mineral base of our country, which was discovered and will be built and used by the sons of our people who were raised and taught by the Party.
Chrome and coal mines are being added and modernized. A large number of geologists, graduated from our university, have been sewn to the mountains and ridges, to discover other treasures for the people, treasures that are not missing. As with the first discoveries of bauxite, aluminum in the cliffs of the Northern Highlands, where the rifles of the heroic highlanders crackled for centuries, where the shots of the Lion of Dragobia roared, who fought for the freedom of Kosovo Albanians and Albania, now the hammer of geologist. And so, in many other countries our geologists discover, our chemists manipulate, combine products, add assortments. A great future awaits our economy in this regard as well, for the development of which thousands of young people are being trained in vocational schools and universities. As you have seen for yourself, the food industry has also been given a lot of importance and this care will be added even more. Our people not only at the time of the season are supplied with any kind of vegetables, fruits as well as meat, milk, eggs, etc. (these products that they have never lacked, neither in summer nor in winter), but, with the multiplication of our various food factories, the people will have even more in abundance of everything, they will have them fresh, clean, nutritious, delicious in any season of the year.
The wonderful climate of our country and the good work of the cooperatives allow us and help us to abundantly supply our market with early vegetables and fruits, as well as to export to other countries. Along with the development of industry, great successes have been achieved in another very important sector of our economy, in the development of agriculture. The Party and the Government have done a great job of getting agriculture out of backwardness and putting it on the path of progress. A historic turning point in the development of agriculture and throughout the life of our village was collectivization. Total agricultural production in the second five years was 25.5 percent higher than in the first five years. During the second five years over 71 thousand hectares of new lands were opened, millions of fruit tree roots and thousands of hectares of vineyards were planted. Today thousands of tractors and other agricultural machines work in our fields. Great works have been done, especially in the field of reclamation, starting from Vurgu i Delvina, Roskoveci and Terbufi to Thumane and Zadrima. The collectivization of agriculture and the successes achieved in increasing agricultural and livestock production, clearly testify to the justice of the path set by the Party for the development of agriculture. Now favorable conditions have been created for our village for a further development of agricultural production.
Collectivization, major reclamation works, mechanization of agriculture, numerous state aid in loans, selected seeds, chemical fertilizers and qualified personnel, have created conditions to move, in the near future, from an extensive agriculture to an intensive agriculture, where the increase of crop yields will be done at a faster pace than the increase of planted areas. This will be a great revolutionary step in the development of agriculture, for which a great and comprehensive work must be done by the Party and our state. The point is to liquidate the disproportion that exists today between the development of industry and agriculture, and for our economy to thrive on good footing in both industry and agriculture, without lagging behind either. For this purpose, it is foreseen that in the third five-year plan, agriculture will develop at a faster pace. The agricultural production of the third five-year period will be 48 percent higher than that of all the years of the second five-year period taken together. In 1965, the total volume of agricultural production will be 72 percent higher than in 1960.
The main task even in the third five years for agriculture will be to increase the production of cereals to provide bread in the country. In addition, other agricultural and livestock products will increase. A great development will take fruit growing. In order to carry out the great and difficult tasks facing the agricultural workers, it is required that they themselves, as well as the Party organizations and state bodies, strive to use and administer correctly, as rationally as possible, the land fund, which is the main tool of agricultural production, to focus their attention on the production of bread cereals, tobacco and other industrial crops, as well as fruit growing, and in particular olive, to strictly implement the agro-technical code, as crucial condition for increasing crop yields, and show special care for livestock development, by setting up, expanding and strengthening livestock farms in agricultural cooperatives, improving zooveterinary measures and strengthening the food base for livestock.
The right-wing Leninist policy of the Party in agriculture has reaped great successes. Along with the collectivization, a large number of reclamation and irrigation works were completed and a number of other large works of national character are being completed. Numerous irrigations work of regional and cooperative character have been carried out and continue and will continue to be carried out in the future. So soon the day will come when everything in this regard in our country will have ended. From now on our fields, the hills of the country, flourish for beauty, prosperity flourishes. It was made to flourish by the straight line of the Party, the arm and the mind of the cooperativists, it was adorned with mechanized work, it will be given the final touch by the chemical fertilizer factories to be built. The aim of the Party is to turn our agriculture into a modern agriculture, to give, and will surely give every year more and more abundantly food to the people from bread, meat and fats, to tomatoes and fruits and diversified, to provide and will certainly provide not only the raw materials to our industry, but also to export and provide the country with income from their sale abroad.
The people of agriculture, without exception, must embrace agriculture, with flesh and blood, with great love to learn, learn modern agro-techniques and apply this in the very favorable conditions created by the Party and the Government in this sector. Agricultural schools have been opened in all four corners of the country, agricultural institutes, various courses; agronomists, veterinarians, zootechnicians, technicians of all kinds have gone in bulk and every year will be added to our fields. All this great team, working in this “big industry without a roof”, to work here and produce with the rhythms, with the inspiration, with the maturity of the working class. Agriculture with its cereals and industrial plants, livestock, vegetables and fruit growing to be developed in a harmonious community, to orient their development and production according to the conditions of each district and according to the needs of regional and national benefit, so that the people have from every side of the country for everything it needs and in sufficient quantities. /Memorie.al
Continues in the next issue
