Excerpts from: Enver Hoxha – Report to the 7th Congress of the PLA

Introduction

Dear Comrades!

It has been exactly five years since the Party met for its sixth Congress and adopted the guidelines for the economic and social development of the country for this period. The major tasks it undertook then have been successfully fulfilled. Today our Party comes together for its seventh Congress, prepared and determined to take on new, more difficult tasks in order to always victoriously advance the cause of socialism and communism in Albania.

The people and the Party come to this Congress full of vitality and dynamism, proud of the progress achieved and with an unshakable confidence in the future. Life has confirmed once again that the Marxist-Leninist course of the Party is entirely right, that the way on which it leads our people is the safe way of building socialism, the way to further strengthen the freedom and independence of the fatherland.

Our internal situation is good and unshakable in all fields and all sectors of the front. The Marxist-Leninist party line, the great achievements, the continuation of class struggle in the right way have strengthened the moral-political unity of the people and their unbreakable ties with the Party and created a lively revolutionary atmosphere.

Under the leadership of the Party the working class, the peasants and the people’s intelligentsia have successfully met the basic tasks set by the 6th Congress for the development of economy and culture in general. In the previous five-year plan the productive forces have developed in each sector, the material and technical basis of socialism has been strengthened and the socialist relations of production have been further improved.

Practice has shown that the program of the Party to build a complex heavy and light industry and to expand it with new lines of modern production was fully realised. Today we notice with satisfaction that the rapid industrialisation, the goal set by the party to transform Albania from an agricultural-industrial country into an industrial-agricultural country is coming closer. By the golden hands, the persistent will and talent of the workers the large metallurgical combine of Elbasan came into existence and began to cast the first steel in the history of Albania. The oil refinery in Ballsh will soon begin to operate and the oil of our rich soil will be transformed into products which are very much needed for the economy of the country. The hydropower plant at the river Drin close to Fierza will soon be completed like many other plants. With the new plants and factories, which have already commenced operations or will soon do so, also another major objective of the party will be successfully implemented in practice: to use, process and exploit our domestic resources as efficiently as possible.

We are all witness to the thorough change which our agriculture is currently undergoing. Answering the call of the Party the peasants of the collectives and workers of state farms this year for the first time met the demand of the country for bread wheat with flaming patriotism, tireless work and unwavering confidence in their powers. Due to the special care of the Party the mechanisation of agriculture and a rapid increase in the production of all vegetable and animal products were guaranteed. Following the directive of the 6th Congress agricultural cooperatives of a higher type were formed, the organisation and management of the agricultural economies were perfected. The measures taken by the Party have led to a further reduction of the differences between town and country. In our plains and on our mountains a huge remodelling work is under way in order to make them more fruitful and our country richer, more beautiful and stronger.

Important victories have also been achieved in deepening of the socialist revolution in the field of ideology and culture, in the whole work of the Party for the revolutionary education of the masses. The party line of developing the educational system based on the connection of lessons with life is consistently carried out and shows increasingly better results. This way we train a young generation, steeled in the proletarian ideology, knowledge and culture and prepared for work and defence. Our socialist culture, which evolves according to the teachings of the Party as a culture with high revolutionary content and with a clear national and popular face was lifted to a higher level. A lively expression of this reality is the culture and art of the masses that has seen a great boom particularly in the last years and passionately sings the praise of the happy socialist life, the Marxist-Leninist justice, the wisdom of the Party and the heroism of our people.

The defence of the fatherland grew and became even stronger under the special care and the direct leadership of the Party. Our people of workers and soldiers worked with all their power to ensure that Albania will always be an impregnable socialist stronghold; our people train themselves in the military and is always ready to defend the revolution and its achievements against any hostile threat.

The 6th Congress instructed the Party, the working class and all working people to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat further because it is the fundamental prerequisite and warrantor for the realisation of all great tasks the Party and the people face. Now we can say that the measures taken and implemented by the Party further strengthened our state, expanded our proletarian democracy and improved and increasing the degree of direct participation of workers in governing the country.

The growing capabilities of the working class and its growing consciousness of the leading role it has in the socialist society, the establishment of workers’ and peasants’ control, the struggle of the Party to eliminate the bureaucratic, technocratic and liberal attitudes and preferences – all of these factors have further enriched he experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat in its struggle for the preservation and consolidation of our socialist system. They have made a major contribution to averting the danger of a bourgeois-revisionist degeneration and a regression to capitalism. This is a great victory for our Party, the working class and the entire people.

The distinctive feature of our domestic situation is the indestructible unity of the people, their closeness to the party line. Brilliant expression of this unity which is based on the close alliance of the working class and the collective peasants is the determination and commitment of our working masses to fulfil the tasks of the socialist construction and to defend the freedom and independence of the fatherland, are the creative energies of the working class, the collective peasants and the people’s intelligentsia which burst out in all areas. An obvious proof of this unit is the high spirit of fraternal solidarity and sincere mutual assistance that exists between our working people, between the working class and the peasantry, between all sections of the people. The slogan of the Party: “All for One and One for All” has become a new norm of socialist morality.

The revolutionary atmosphere and the revolutionary spirit prevailing in our country stand in stark contrast to what is going on around us. The power and confidence of socialist Albania, our political and economic stability in this period of severe crises which have seized the capitalist and revisionist world are evidence of the superiority of socialism, the wisdom of the Marxist-Leninist party line and the principle to rely on our own forces. The fact that small socialist Albania is in a position to overcome all difficulties and to advance irresistibly in the middle of this great sea of political, economic and financial storms – this fact fills all our hearts with pride. But the position in which we live and work in requires at the same time that we make use of our resources and energies, our knowledge and our creative spirit to fulfil all tasks in great detail, so that our socialist ship unwaveringly sails towards safe shores.

The internal situation of our country has been consolidated by a sharp class struggle our party and our people firmly waged daily and on all fronts against the pressure of the hostile imperialist-revisionist encirclement, against the rising tide of their ideological aggression against our country and against the dangerous enemy activity within the country and the ranks of the Party itself. The attacks and conspiracies of the external and internal enemies against the Party and our socialist system, against the freedom and independence of the fatherland faded to dust and ashes in the face of the iron unity of the Party and the people.

In the last years the Party revealed and defeated the traitorous and conspiratorial anti-party activities of Fadil Paçrami and Todi Lubonja, of Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dume and Hito Çako, of Abdyl Këllezi, Koço Theodosi and Kiço Ngjela, as the Albanian communists and our whole people know. In collaboration with the external enemies they wanted open the door to revisionism, to destroy the dictatorship of the proletariat and to liquidate the independence of the fatherland.

The activities and conspiracies of these dangerous enemies suffered a complete defeat. The hostile and conspiratorial elements were unmasked thanks to the revolutionary vigilance and the revolutionary struggle of the Party and its leadership, thanks to the Marxist-Leninist unity of the ranks of the Party, thanks to the invincible strength of our dictatorship of the proletariat. The party and the dictatorship of the proletariat stroke them down with their iron fist and threw them into the dustbin of history, where all the traitors of the revolution belong.

Cleaned of thistles and poisonous weed the Party emerged for this struggle even stronger and more united and the dictatorship of the proletariat and the positions of socialism were consolidated even more. The whole people powerfully supported the Party and its Marxist-Leninist line, they consolidated their ranks and the party and the people’s power even more. The party took all measures to completely eradicate the harmful effects of the enemy’s subversive activity together with the shortcomings and weaknesses which our enemies had taken advantage of. An even greater revolutionary spirit seized our whole country. The working class, the collective peasants, the people’s intelligentsia, the youth and women with renewed vigour and enthusiasm began to work to fulfil the tasks of socialist construction and ensure the defence of the fatherland, to go towards the 7th Congress with new, even greater successes. This is a living proof that the internal and external enemies will never find cracks in our Party and our people, that no sabotage activity, whoever commits it, will evade the high vigilance of the communists and the working masses, that the dictatorship of the proletariat is strong in Albania and ready to defeat and destroy any enemy.

It is our duty to further consolidated the good domestic situation that prevails in our country and which results from the work of the Party and its leadership, from the selfless efforts of the entire people in order to enable further progresses and prosperity for our country, to ensure that socialism always victorious marches on and that the people’s life becomes more beautiful and better day by day.

The 7th Congress meets in the days of the important anniversary of the 35th Foundation Day of our glorious Party of Labour. This great day, this day when the hopes of our people for their salvation and their confidence in victory arose, this day means a joyful celebration for everybody, a day that reminds us of the heroic way we covered and inspires and mobilises us for new battles and victories. The foundation of the Party of the Albanian Communists meant a decisive turning point in the centuries-old history of our people. It meant building the foundations of steel on which the new socialist Albania is constructed.

The thirty-five years of revolutionary activities of the Party are thirty-five years of heroic efforts and battles at the head of the Albanian working class and the Albanian people for liberating the fatherland and leading the revolution to victory, Albania out of its the poverty and ruin, and for building this just and happy life we enjoy today, so rich in content. It was a time of victorious battles against numerous internal and external enemies, against the US imperialists and modern revisionists led by the Soviet Union, a time of struggle to defend our right to live always in freedom and an independent life, to defend the true path towards socialism and communism. The strong international position, the high reputation of socialist Albania in the world, the support and solidarity of the revolutionary peoples and their numerous friends are the result of the correct party line on foreign policy, the consistent and principled struggle which our Party and our people led continuously against imperialism and revisionism. We can say with firm conviction that the Albanian communists honourably fulfilled their duty towards their own working class and their own people, just as they have always attended their internationalist duty towards international communism and the peoples.

Our Party has been able to achieve all of these great victories, because it always has remained faithful to the interests of its own working class and of its own people, because it has remained faithful to the immortal teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and because it never separated word and deed. It has kept very close ties with the masses in every moment and in every stage, it has been in the front ranks of the fight. With its correct line it has gathered all our people around and it and led them with a firm hand.

The achievements of these years, which are called ‘Years of the Party’ by the people, these great battles won make us optimistic about the future. We are aware that we have already overcome many difficulties and many goals have been achieved. But even greater tasks lie ahead of us, tasks which will be discussed and decided on our 7th Congress. Battles are ahead that we must decisively wage and win.

I The New Constitution – A Great Historical Victory of the Party and the People

Comrades!

The delegates of the 7th Congress have the honour and the responsible task to voice the views of the entire party on the new basic law of socialist Albania, to comment on the new constitution of our state.

The 6th Congress set the task to draft the new constitution and outlined that it has to be the continuation of the current constitution and the continuity of the revolution in Albania, that it has to express and ensure the constant struggle for freedom and independence of our home country and the construction of socialism. Furthermore it also has to take into account our present reality, the stage of the development of the revolution. The new constitution has to consolidate the profound revolutionary transformations that have taken place, the achievements that have been realised and it should mirror the general line of the Party for the full development of socialism and the further development of our state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The old constitution was the constitution of the construction of the foundations of socialism, while the new constitution will be the constitution of the full construction of socialist society.

The current constitution has contributed much to the realisation of all previous great achievements. It has now, however, fulfilled its mission. It contains a number of legal and political norms that have become too narrow and no longer reflect the continuation and deepening of the revolution on a broad front. This is related to the historical stage and the historical circumstances under which the first constitution was approved.

At that time the party and the country were faced with large and complicated questions which had to be resolved boldly but also very wisely, with problems that required an urgent solution without skipping stages:

It was necessary to consolidate and perfect the people’s power which emerged from the National Liberation War.

It was necessary to defeat and crush the furious resistance of the overthrown exploiting classes and their efforts to bring back the past.

It was necessary to liquidate the old economic conditions and replace them by new ones.

It was necessary to bring the wave of spontaneity of small commodity production under control, to restrict and eliminate it and to win the strata of the petty bourgeoisie of town and country, especially the working peasantry, for the path of socialism.

It was necessary to catch up from the inherited centuries-old backwardness and to ensure a free and independent development of the country on the path of socialism.

It was necessary to strengthen the defence of our country in order to resist any possible aggression from outside.

And apart from all this it was also necessary to bring about a profound revolution in the mental world of people on the basis of the proletarian world outlook and moral.

The first Constitution of the People’s Republic of Albania, which the party gave to the people and the country served to solve all these problems and major historical tasks. It became the basis and the program for all those enormous revolutionary transformations, for the industrialisation of the country, the socialist transformation of the village, the implementation of the ideology, culture and education, the emancipation and progress of the whole society which took place in these three decades of our lives in freedom.
All these victories, all these transformations and achievements and prospects for our country made the amendments to the Constitution necessary, as decided on the 6th Congress.

The Central Committee of the Party performed an all-round work in those years to make the necessary studies and prepare the new draft constitution. The 8th Plenary of the Central Committee dealt specifically with this issue. At this Plenary the draft was discussed which was made public in January this year by the National Assembly and submitted to the people for discussion.

In this great political and ideological action the broad working masses freely expressed their views on the new basic law of our state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. At the meetings for these discussions about 1,500,000 people participated, virtually the entire adult population of the country and about 300,000 of them rose to speak.

The unanimous approval of the draft constitution was essentially an endorsement of the Marxist-Leninist general line of the party, the revolutionary path it follows. Hundreds of meetings that were held in workplaces and agricultural cooperatives, schools and military bases, in cultural institutions and administrative institutions as well as thousands and thousands of letters and telegrams to the Central Committee, in which the new constitution was approved, testify to the steel unit of our whole people around the Party and its line are evidence of their revolutionary optimism, the confidence in the socialist future.

This great popular debate, which was characterised by a free and fruitful exchange of views and a lively and constructive debate, was a clear expression of socialist democracy in action and real popular sovereignty. The popular debate showed in practice that in socialist Albania the people is the master and nothing can happen against its will.

“For poor people”, a simple peasant said during the discussion of the draft constitution, “the word ‘law’ once had a terrible sound. It meant the threat of hunger, threat of imprisonment, threat of death. Today the people make the laws themselves and for their own good.”

The broad masses of working people made many valuable comments and suggestions and made an excellent contribution to amend and improve the submitted draft and to make sure that the basic demand of a new basic law for our socialist state are met.

The draft constitution, which will soon be submitted to the People’s Assembly for adoption is a legal document of great theoretical and practical, political and ideological value on which our social, economic and cultural development will be based on in the stage of the full construction of socialist society.

The new constitution is permeated through and through by the ideology and basic principles of Marxism-Leninism, it embodies the teachings and the revolutionary experience of our Party of Labour and bears the stamp of the creative thinking of the masses of our people. It proclaims the basic principles of scientific socialism and makes them its own, these essential principles for a genuine socialist society where the dictatorship of the proletariat has been established and the working class with its party at the top actually performs the leading role.

Our new Constitution reaffirms the correct Marxist-Leninist principles which were the basis of the first Constitution of the People’s Republic of Albania. But the new constitution also means a qualitative development of the existing Constitution according to the current stage of the revolution in our country.

By consolidating the achievements and way of development of the country on the path towards socialism the new Constitution also serves as a struggle and working program for the future. Its goal is to pave the widest possible way for the development of the productive forces and production relations of the real socialist society, for the emancipation and revolutionary education of our new human, to protect and strengthen the socialist system and the dictatorship the proletariat even further, to create the best possible conditions for the country’s advance towards communism.

By summarising the line and experience of our party in regard to the continuation of the socialist revolution this important document also enshrines the legal, political, ideological and economic regulations to block revisionism and the restoration of capitalism. In this respect our new constitution is a creative and valuable contribution of the Party of Labour of Albania to the theory and practice of scientific socialism.

The new constitution makes no secret of its class character. It proclaims and enshrines the nature of our state of the dictatorship of the proletariat in power, it proclaims and enshrines the indivisible and leading role of the party in the state and in the whole society.

“This socialism”, says Marx, “is… the class dictatorship of the proletariat as the necessary transit point to the abolition of class distinctions generally, to the abolition of all the relations of production on which they rest, to the abolition of all the social relations that correspond to these relations of production, to the revolutionizing of all the ideas that result from these social relations.” [Karl Marx, The Class Struggles in France, Part III]

The revolutionary experience of our country has confirmed the correctness of these brilliant teachings of Marx to the hilt. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the strong and decisive weapon to carry the socialist revolution to its complete and final victory. Through it the vital task of the revolution is realised: developing the socialist economy and culture on all sides and organising and leading the construction of socialism and the classless communist society.

The dictatorship of the proletariat plays a no less important role in the struggle to eradicate all traces of the old society from socialist society to eradicate everything alien, everything which draws them back, from the consciousness of the working people and to finish their communist education, to unite all working people around their vanguard – the working class and its party – on the path towards socialism and communism.

The experience of revolution and socialist construction in Albania shows that the working class needs the dictatorship of the proletariat in order to keep the resistance of the class enemies, both of the old and the new ones, down and to suppress their attempts to restore the old order. It is needed to counter the external threat, which comes both from the aggressive goals of imperialism and social imperialism, which seeks to suffocate and destroy the socialist system with fire and sword, with blockades and hunger as well to counter the ideological aggression of the capitalist and revisionist world which directs waves of degeneration and counter-revolution against us on a daily base.

The negative experience in the Soviet Union and some other countries also shows how important it is to preserve, maintain and continuously strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat in the whole period of transition from socialism to communism. Moving away from the principles of the dictatorship of the proletariat led to the rise of revisionism, the most dangerous weapon of counter-revolution, in these countries and led to the destruction of the socialist system, to the restoration of capitalist slavery, to social fascism.

The enemies of socialism, the inner as well as the outer, still direct their main blows to the dictatorship of the proletariat. Today it has become fashionable for all revisionist renegades and lackeys of the bourgeoisie to angrily attack the dictatorship of the proletariat and to pursue a unrestrained demagogy about the restoration of the supposedly lost democracy. Their aim is to attack the essence of Marxism-Leninism and the revolution and to destroy the main instrument of the proletariat for the construction of a new socialist life. Therefore the attitude towards the dictatorship of the proletariat is still the dividing line that separates the true Marxist-Leninists and proletarian revolutionaries from the opportunists and renegades of the working class of all shades.

In our country the dictatorship of the proletariat has always remained strong and indestructible because the party staunchly applied the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, properly conducted the class struggle and never eased its sharp revolutionary vigilance. It has strengthened and improved the proletarian state and the country’s defence every day and has relentlessly fought all foreign phenomena that lead to the peaceful degeneration of the socialist social and state order.

Because the draft of our new constitution reflects and summarises the rich revolutionary experience of our country as well as the international experience and rejects the anti-Marxist theorising of the revisionists on the alleged outdatedness of the dictatorship of the proletariat or about “the state of the whole people” it affirms clearly and decidedly:

“The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania is a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which expresses and defends the interests of all the working people.”

The draft constitution is a clear mirror of true socialist democracy and true socialist humanism. It is an affirmation of the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, that the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be separated from the broadest, deepest and most complete democracy for the working people. Ensuring a comprehensive socialist democracy is a basic condition in order to obtain the dictatorship of the proletariat and to consolidate it, just as the dictatorship of the proletariat is the indispensable and decisive condition for the existence of a genuine democracy for the working people.

Our socialist democracy has granted the working people the great right to express their views on the solution of social and state problems and to exercise its control over each and everything, effectively, comprehensively, organised and to participate in the governance of the country in various forms. This participation and its continued deepening is regarded by the party as the main direction for the development of socialist democracy, as a major driving force for the socialist construction and one of the most important factors to protect our state and our society from the danger of bourgeois-revisionist degeneration. This line of the party is fully enshrined in the new constitution.

The spirit of socialist democracy, which characterises our whole social life, permeates the entire structure of our socialist state, from the People’s Councils at the base up to the National Assembly. The draft constitution clearly states that the power is one and indivisible and exercised completely and directly by the bodies and representatives elected by the people. All other authorities develop their activities under the direction and control of the representative institutions, they are responsible and accountable to them. The draft notes that not only the elected but also the appointed state officials are required to give account before the masses and to place themselves under their direct control. The struggle against the danger of the representative body separating themselves from the people, the struggle against bureaucracy and against the tendency to place the executive bodies and the administration above the representative bodies of power thereby also receives a constitutional basis.

Our whole socialist state and social mechanism is built on the principle of democratic centralism and proceeds according to this principle, whose essence is that the working class, through its party and the proletarian state, leads the whole life of the country in a centralised way and that the centralised leadership is closely connected to the creative initiative of the local bodies and the working masses. The fact that the draft constitution perfectly embodies this great Marxist-Leninist principle puts it in contrast to all anti-Marxist ideas and practices of the revisionists, both to the liberal-anarchist ones who deny proletarian centralism and to centralist-bureaucratic ones who exclude the working masses from participation in the governance of the country.

In socialist Albania the right of the working people to work, to enjoy education and free medical care and means for living expenses in old age, the freedom of speech, press and organisation are protected by the law and guaranteed in practice. They are guaranteed complete equality before the law. Thus any restriction or any privilege in the rights and obligations on the basis of gender, race, nationality, education, social position or material situation, etc. are excluded. One of the greatest achievements in the historical work of the Party and the people’s power is the emancipation of the Albanian woman and her full equality with men in work and in wages, in all areas of our lives. All these tremendous political and social victories won by our Party and our people take an important place in the new Constitution.

Our reality, our socialist democracy refutes all slanders of the bourgeois and revisionist ideologues who accuse socialism of a lack of democracy. True, in our country freedom and democracy are only for the broad masses of working people. For the enemies of the working class and the people, for those who want to undermine the proletarian power and the socialist system, there is no democracy and freedom – and cannot be – as it would please the bourgeoisie and the revisionist traitors. This kind of democracy is not allowed by our party and our dictatorship of the proletariat in full accordance with the teachings of Marxism-Leninism – it was not allowed and it never will be allowed. Our socialist democracy is real democracy for the people, for the working masses and only for them.

During the popular debate on the draft constitution our people enthusiastically welcomed the fact that our constitution is based on the basic principle:

“The Party of Labour of Albania, the vanguard of the working class, is the sole leading political force of the state and the society.”

Our party adheres with the greatest loyalty and with unwavering consistency to the great principle that ensuring the leading role of the Marxist-Leninist party is the crucial requirement for the realisation of the revolution, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the construction of socialism. It was always aware that the leadership of the party is the concentrated and highest expression of the leading role of the working class and the subjective factor number one for the implementation of its revolutionary program.

The fact that this principle is part of the basis of the Constitution is further evidence that our party is determined as always to put into practice and defend the immortal teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on all areas. The leading role of the party in our society and our country is not only a fundamental requirement of Marxism-Leninism but also a historical reality.

With the party at its head our people carried out the National Liberation War and won freedom and independence, overthrew the old order and established the people’s power.

With the party at its head great revolutionary transformations were carried out. Under the leadership of the party our people defended their country against the furious attacks of the external and internal enemies, secured and consolidated our political and economic independence.

With the party at its head this Albania was created which we rejoice in today and which we constantly have to make stronger and more prosperous.

But Marxism-Leninism teaches us and our historical experience convinced us that the leading role of the party is not just necessary for a certain period of time. It is essential during the whole period of the full construction of socialist society until communism. The more the revolution proceeds and deepens the more must the leading role of the party be strengthened and perfected in every area of life and every activity of the government and society. If it is allowed that this role is weakened and destroyed the revolution and socialism are faced with major dangers and heavy defeats.

The revisionist theories which claims that during the transitional period the leading role of the party ceases to exist or becomes a purely educational role aims at leaving the working class and people without guidance so that the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism will be overthrown and the counter-revolution wins.

By placing the principle of the leading role of the Party at the basis of the Constitution we defend Marxism-Leninism against the furious attacks, we defend the cause of real socialism in Albania and further it.

In addition it is a historical reality that Marxism-Leninism has become the ruling ideology in our country. Our whole life, politics, economy, society, education and culture are guided by the principles of the ideology of the working class and imbued with the norms of proletarian morality. Due to the tremendous work of the Party, due to the ideological and cultural revolution, the revolutionary theory of the proletariat has been adopted by the broad masses of the population and is setting the direction in the development of the whole mental life of society. Marxism-Leninism, which illuminates the path to socialism and communism, has become a great driving force.

The Marxist-Leninist ideology, the party line, enables the people to better understand the present and reinforces their confidence in the future. In these 35 years life gave our people the unshakable conviction that it is only possible on the basis of the revolutionary ideology to establish, preserve and consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, to build socialism successfully and safely proceed towards the classless society.

This experience and these achievements have led all workers to be concerned with the defence and consistent application of Marxism-Leninism which is regarded by everybody as a vital issue for the destiny of socialism. Therefore the Constitution states that in our socialist state, “the dominant ideology is Marxism-Leninism” and that “the entire socialist social order is developed on the basis of its principles”, a great historical victory of socialism in Albania.

One of the great principles of Marxism-Leninism and one of the main conclusions of the revolutionary experience of our party is that it is absolutely indispensable to continue the class struggle also in the period of the full construction of socialist society until communism.

The modern revisionists with the Soviet ones at their head claim that all class struggle ends with the elimination of the exploiting classes. This is a hoax which serves to disarm the working class and lull it into sleep and this way pave the path for the restoration of capitalism. This has been most clearly shown in the Soviet Union and in other former socialist countries where the new capitalist bourgeoisie seized power.

The experience of our country refuted these false and capitulationist theories of the disappearance of class struggle under socialism. The whole history of the construction of socialism in Albania is a story of uncompromising struggle between revolution and counter-revolution, between the two paths of development, against the internal and external enemies both within the people and the Party. This struggle has been waged continuously and always vehemently. Only its forms and methods have changed according to the circumstances and stages of development. Even after elimination of the exploiting classes as classes the inner and outer enemies have not for a single moment laid down their arms or halted their fight against socialism. Therefore our party and our people have waged the class struggle with strict consistency and in a correct Marxist-Leninist way in all areas as a crucial condition for the final victory of the socialist way over the capitalist.

According to the teachings of Marxism-Leninism and this rich revolutionary experience the draft constitution openly states that our socialist state adheres in all its activities to the great Marxist-Leninist principle of class struggle, which is the powerful driving force to advance the socialist revolution.

When drafting the new constitution the Central Committee made sure that in it the line of the Party on the major issues of national sovereignty and the protection of the freedom and independence of the country was fully realised and was clearly formulated. Under the conditions that our country is encircled by imperialists and revisionists, that an all-round political, ideological, economic and military pressure is directed at it, that chauvinistic theories and practices which aim to restrict the sovereignty of nations and to rob them of independence are enforced by force all around the world, these problems are not only of the greatest theoretical and legal but also of practical and political importance.

Starting from the sacred aim to preserve the freedom, independence, defence of the motherland and the achievements of the revolution and to continuously strengthen them, the draft Constitution enshrines that nobody else than the representative bodies of power may exercise the sovereignty of the people and each of their attributes in the name of our republic, that the territory of our country is inalienable and that its borders are inviolable. This way the Constitution prohibits the stationing of foreign military bases and troops in any form on the territory of socialist Albania. Similarly no one is granted the right to sign or accept the capitulation or occupation of the country.

These revolutionary and vital principles clearly express the sovereign right and the determination of the Albanian people to defend their lives, their victories, to defend their free and independent socialist fatherland to the last. At the same time these constitutional principles, especially the principle that no foreign bases and troops will be accepted, are a solemn commitment never to allow that the territory of socialist Albania is used as a base for aggression against other countries.

The regulation in the draft Constitution that bans the award of concessions, the foundation of common economic and financial companies and other institutions whether they be foreign or together with bourgeois, revisionist capitalist monopolies and states as well as accepting credit from them is also of great importance in order to preserve the independence of the country and the socialist system. This is a very basic question. No country, large or small, can build socialism by accepting bourgeois and revisionist loans and aid and integrate its economy into the transmission of the capitalist world economic system. Such a combination of the economy of a socialist country with the economy of the bourgeois or revisionist countries opens the doors for the workings of the economic laws of capitalism and the degeneration of the socialist system. This is the path of betrayal and the restoration of capitalism which the revisionist cliques followed and still follow.

The defence of freedom and national sovereignty will always be regarded as the main task by our people. Therefore the party and the people’s power took a number of very important political, ideological, military and other measures that are also laid down in the draft constitution and which aim at organising a safe and impregnable defence which is able to guarantee the socialist achievements and to fight off any enemy aggression, wherever it may come from. The Constitution enshrines the great Marxist-Leninist principle that the defence of the motherland and the achievements of socialism has to be protected by the armed people who are organised in the armed forces.

It is perfectly possible to safeguard the national sovereignty and the political and economic independence and to guarantee the defence of the country because the people is in power in Albania, because the full sovereignty belongs to the working people and is exercised only by them, because the dictatorship of the proletariat under the leadership of the Party of Labour governs our country.

These basic principles which are enshrined in the draft constitution reflect the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party line while at the same time corresponding to the burning desire of the Albanian people who have been fighting for centuries for their freedom, independence and sovereign rights and who have shed rivers of blood. This is the reason why the whole people unanimously expressed their support for these great principles of the Constitution and declared their willingness to defend the national sovereignty, every foot of the socialist home country united like a man at any cost and under all circumstances.

The experiences of our country show that the maintenance of the economic and political independence and the defence of national sovereignty are closely linked with the consistent application of principle to rely on our own forces. In connection with this great question the draft constitution says that the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania adheres to the principle of relying on our own forces at the whole construction of socialism.

Just as a country does not receive its freedom and independence for free, the revolution and socialism cannot be imported. They are the result of resolute revolutionary struggle of the broad masses of working people of each country with the working class in the lead and led by the Marxist-Leninist party. The principle of relying on our own forces does not exclude the internationalist aid of the proletariat, the revolutionary and socialist countries. However, the external factor, the internationalist aid and solidarity, despite its importance, is only an additional and complementary element but not the decisive factor.

As in the National Liberation War our party has also firmly applied the Marxist-Leninist principle to rely on our own forces for the construction and defence of socialism. This is precisely why our country could successfully withstand the Nazi-fascist occupiers and all blackmail and blockades of the imperialists and revisionists and build a strong and independent economy, create a strong and reliable defence and a culture and art with a healthy socialist content. Undeterred following the Marxist-Leninist course, relying on its own forces, Albania will gain further and even greater victories in the full construction of socialist society.

The draft constitution enshrines a number of other important principles and standards which are the basis of the construction and course of the entire economic and social, political and intellectual life, for example the principles and norms that regulate the conditions of ownership and distribution, the planned development of the economy, socialist legality, the relations between cadres and masses, between state and society, furthermore the principles and standards that define the rights and duties of the citizens and so on. Especially important is also that the Constitution enshrines the basic principles which guide the foreign policy of our government.

The new constitution is the mirror of a genuine socialist society that is built according to the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, teachings which have been substantiated and confirmed in the revolutionary practice of our country.

Thus the new Constitution expresses in the most complete and clearest manner the class content and today’s socialist reality of Albania by giving our republic the name of Socialist People’s Republic of Albania.

The adoption of the new basic law of our socialist state by the People’s Assembly will give the whole work and struggle of our people to build and defend socialism a strong boost. The new constitution will make the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania even stronger and more invincible and open new horizons towards progress and prosperity of our home country.

[…]

IV The Struggle of the Party at the Ideological Front

The years lying behind us were years of great work and a great struggle for the continuous revolutionarisation of the entire life of the country. This enormous transformation process has led to the strengthening of party and state power, strengthening of the economic base, to the development of education and cultural as well as the defensive potential of the fatherland. It has led to raising the consciousness of the working people, has armed them with deep Marxist-Leninist convictions and a great fighting spirit and created a high level of commitment at work, advance the initiative and self-activity of the masses, increased the political and ideological vigilance and consolidated the confidence in our own forces. In this all-round struggle, the unity of the people around the party has been strengthened and the dictatorship of the proletariat has been defended and consolidated.

1. Waging the Class Struggle Correctly and Decisively

The construction of socialism is a process of violent class struggle between the two paths, the socialist and the capitalist path, a struggle conducted on all fronts, in politics and economics, ideology and military affairs.

It is also an objective phenomenon during socialism, the main driving force that furthers the revolution and the construction of socialism, which protects the party, the state and the country from bourgeois-revisionist degeneration and the restoration of capitalism, cleans the consciousness of the workers and strengthens their proletarian spirit.

The great successes and victories which our people won under the leadership of the Party in their struggle for the continuation of the revolution and construction socialism are connected with the fact that the Party resolutely adhered to the line of class struggle and consistently applied it against both the external and internal enemies within the people and within its own ranks.

A rich revolutionary experience of great theoretical and practical significance was acquired in this struggle and the Party has drawn very valuable lessons and conclusions for the defence and the construction of socialism, for the consolidation of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The class struggle conducted during the whole life of the Party and lately has shown that the main threat and the main enemy of our Party as well as of the whole international communist and workers’ revolutionary movement has been and remains to be rightist opportunism, revisionism. This danger constantly threatens each country that is building socialism under the conditions of capitalist encirclement. But this danger has increased even more, especially after the socialist system was eliminated in the Soviet Union and after several communist parties in the world became bourgeois. In a country where socialism is successfully built it is difficult for enemies to act openly under the banner of anti-communism. Thus their preferred weapon for the overthrow of socialism is pseudo-Marxism, the revisionist counter-revolution.

The international experience and the experience of our country show that the hopes of the bourgeoisie and the reaction for a regression to capitalism are not only based on the remains of the old exploiting classes and no more only on foreign agents and saboteurs. Bourgeoisie and reaction set their hopes in particular on other enemies of socialism which arise within the socialist society, people that are contaminated by the remains of the old ideologies and have strong individualistic, careerist tendencies, are confused by the influences of today’s bourgeois-revisionist ideologies, give in to the pressure of the external and internal enemies and eventually turn away from the revolution and degenerate into counter-revolutionaries.

In a socialist society there is the risk that individuals degenerate, that new bourgeois elements emerge and become counter-revolutionaries. Marxism-Leninism teaches us that this is not only due to the fact that the new socialist society contains traditions, customs, behaviours and attitudes of the old bourgeois society from which it emerged but also due to some socio-economic conditions which exist during the transitional phase of this society. The productive forces and relations of production, the mode of distribution based on them, is still far from being completely communist. The contradictions in some areas, as between urban and rural, between physical and intellectual labour, between skilled and unskilled labour cannot be eliminated at once and are also affecting society in this regard. Furthermore the great and all-round pressure exerted by the capitalist and revisionist world from the outside has to be mentioned. Socialism is able to limit the emergence of negative phenomena alien to its nature but it cannot completely exclude them.

The exposure and destruction of individual hostile elements or a hostile group at some point must not lull us into sleep and we must not believe that the enemy would be eliminated with it. As long as the class struggle continues, as long as the hostile bourgeois pressure from the inside and outside exists there is always the risk that new enemies rise, that they will work against socialism. The Party and the people must always be on guard, ever vigilant and revolutionary, must wage a determined and unforgiving class struggle and destroy all ways where the enemy could walk and could harm us.

Socialist Albania provides a great example which shows that the emergence of revisionism and the regression to capitalism is not an inevitable fate as the bourgeois ideologues try to present the matter. It testifies to the vitality of socialism, the indomitable power of the ideas of Marxism – Leninism, that driving force of the cause of revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat if consistently applied. It is of fundamental importance and directly related to the fate of socialism to correctly understand this problem and to regard it dialectically.

There is a very close relationship and a very close cooperation between the inner and outer battle front of the class enemies. They are united by the anti-communist ideology and the need to rely on each other in the struggle against the Party and the socialist system. It is important not only to know this fact, which will persist as long as the imperialist-revisionist encirclement and the traces of capitalism in the country exist, but especially to know that this interaction can get stronger and very dangerous if we are not careful and if we lack in our vigilance and do not wage a determined struggle against it.

The party has done a tremendous and persistent work to ensure that the imperialist-revisionist encirclement and the struggled that has to be waged against it are correctly understood. The results of this struggle can be seen in all areas. Under the leadership of the Party our people firmly resisted all political blackmail, economic blockades, military threats and the ideological aggression of the enemy. It has never been fooled by their blandishments and their demagoguery and their diplomatic dealings.

However, it remains a large and ongoing task for the party in the future to make aware the hostile nature of the imperialist-revisionist encirclement and the consequently resulting dangers as well as the tasks that face us in order to successfully resist the all-round pressure on our country. Socialist Albania is a thorn in the eye of many enemies and they try in every way to undermine and destroy it. Regardless of the tactics they use and the circumstances that arise they always remain enemies. Therefore one may not indulge in any illusions about them.

The imperialist-revisionist encirclement is not in the least a passive and simple geographical isolation but an active and threatening encirclement, which fights us in all areas and in every way. But there are still people who understand the encirclement in a superficial and one-sided way and at one time underestimate the threat of military aggression, at other times the difficulties caused by the economic blockade and then again the threat of foreign ideological diversion. Such attitudes are very dangerous.

Our socialist fatherland has been and will continue to be threatened by the military aggression of imperialism and social-imperialism. The spearhead of the aggressive policy of the superpowers is directed primarily against socialism, the revolution and the liberation of the peoples, against the forces that expose their hegemonic and expansionist course and oppose it. The threat of foreign military aggression against socialist Albania is therefore real and must not be underestimated nor overestimated.

The imperialist and revisionist enemies use apart from the hard forms also the tactic to degenerate the socialist society peacefully. They attach particular importance to ideological aggression, exactly that counter-revolutionary path which has proven to be so fertile in the Soviet Union and in other former socialist countries.

The imperialist-revisionist encirclement also works very strongly in the field of economy. The brutal economic blockade, the discrimination in trade relations which attempts to hinder the development of production, are the weapons of the enemy to sabotage the construction of socialism and to undermine the economic and political independence of the country.

The aim of the external enemies is to disintegrate our internal front, to incite and encourage the anti-socialist and counter-revolutionary elements within the country. We therefore need to oppose the united front of the enemy by strengthening our internal front in every way, be it the field of defence and the economy, politics and ideology, and by always consistently conduct class struggle. We have to firmly struggle against any spirit of euphoria and over-estimation of our forces, against any lack of seriousness and complete dedication to the fight against the imperialist-revisionist encirclement.

Our people have to live every day with the internal and external political situations. They always have to understand their tasks in close connection with this fact, have to work in the high spirit of selflessness and sacrifice, have to be always ready and vigilant and determined to fight all attempts and blackmail of the enemy. The imperialist-revisionist encirclement has to be fought not just once or campaign-wise, but every day and continuously.

Our party has stressed that the struggle on the ideological front is one of the main directions of class struggle. It also has to be conducted on a broad front against all foreign ideologies, whether old or new, which are kept alive, are encouraged and fuelled by the internal and external bourgeois pressure. This is a great, very important and complicated battle front which requires the constant attention of the Party.

The results achieved in this field are one of the most important victories of the Party and the people. Strong and crushing blows were dealt to the petty-bourgeois attitude and mindset, the backward customs and religious prejudices and the phenomena in which the influence of foreign bourgeois-revisionist ideology became noticeable. All this work had the aim that our people always hold to the revolution, that they do not turn away from it for even a single moment, that they are fighting and working all their lives unselfishly for the cause of the Party, for socialism and communism. Our workers are characterised by a high political consciousness, heroism at work, responsibility and sacrifice. This testifies to the invincible force of Marxism-Leninism and socialism, to the correctness of the party line.

However, this healthy revolutionary reality must not lead to a decline of our struggle on the ideological front, no matter how little. Because today, too, the fact is just as Lenin put it many decades ago:

“… bourgeois or socialist ideology. There is no middle course… Hence, to belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn aside from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois ideology.” [Lenin, What Is To Be Done, II]

The fact that class struggle on the ideological front takes also place within the people and the Party, within the consciousness of every individual, effects that some do not recognise the hostile content of this alien phenomenon. Others again underestimate this struggle in the belief that the remains of the old ideology are more of a potential danger than a real threat. They forget that these remains and influences were and are not only an ulcer in people’s consciousness but also the cause for anti-socialist attitudes and actions such as theft, damage of socialist property, violation of the proletarian discipline, favouritism and cronyism, bureaucratic and liberal, patriarchal and conservative attitudes, etc. All this, even if it does not stem from enemies or happens under their direct influence, is just as harmful and is a serious obstacle to the construction of socialism. The remnants of alien ideologies and the petty-bourgeois way of thinking, the disposition of private property and the tendency to place self-interest above common interest, are the soil where bourgeois degeneration, revisionist and capitulationist views emerge and thrive. The struggle on the ideological front is therefore not a temporary campaign but an ongoing struggle for the triumph of the proletarian ideology and morality, a struggle for the triumph of socialism and communism.

Our practice of revolution and socialist construction teaches us that class struggle is never complete if it is not waged in all its main directions, in politics, economy and ideology. All these three forms of class struggle are intertwined and complement each other. In certain periods this or that form of class struggle may come to the fore. However, it has to be waged on the whole front all the time. We must not forget that the enemy wages his struggle in every direction, too. He fought us in ideology, economics and politics. This also has been clearly demonstrated by the practice of recent years.

To underestimate one of these aspect results in negative consequences and leads to various distortions, the decline of class struggle in general. In practice there is and there can be no class struggle in any sector of the front outside of the struggle to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, to ensure the leading role of the party and to defend the fatherland. The class struggle cannot be separated from the efforts to fulfil the economic plan and the tasks in every other field of social activity, cannot be separated from the struggle to consolidate the proletarian ideology.

The class enemy tries to lull the vigilance of the masses to sleep. In the course of the class struggle he also attempts to gain periods of rest and breathing space to gather strength and to launch surprise attacks. The task of all party organisations and all working people, with the working class at the head, is not to allow that such favourable situations arise for the enemy but to be always on the offensive, to keep the sword of class struggle always sharpened and to be always unforgiving towards the enemies and their ideology.

Our party has always conducted the class struggle correctly and without mistakes, according to the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. This was and remains a matter of particular importance, because any deviation from the continuation of class struggle has serious consequences for the activities of the Party and the masses. Therefore it demands that we have to hold a principled stance in any case without resorting to opportunism and sectarianism. In practice, one encounters both phenomena.

Opportunist was the passive, not combative attitude that was reflected in some party organisations and some cadres in these sectors where the various enemy groups which were convicted unfolded their subversive activities. The enemies violated the party line, directives and guidelines. They exhibited characteristics of degenerate people. These organisations and cadres, however, have not raised their voices vigorously to stop the wreckers’ activities in time. Opportunist is the “soft-hearted” approach to the class enemy, opportunist is the petty-bourgeois sentimentality which is shown in some cases towards people who degenerate and violate the socialist norms of society and state laws, opportunist is the tolerant and conciliatory attitude towards phenomena alien to our ideology.

The party line is also harmed by rigid and sectarian attitudes. Some communists and cadres exhibited such attitudes recently; when the Party exposed and condemned certain elements of a liberal-opportunistic and hostile spirit they began to regard every small, insignificant flaw with exaggerated suspicion. The sectarian tendencies of some people occasionally can also be seen when administrative methods are applied where persuasion and education are appropriate. Those found to be sectarian often pose as “consistent revolutionaries” and “principled”. In reality they are opportunists and only act this way to be “perfectly in order”.

These opportunist fluctuations are due to an incorrect understanding of the nature of the two types of contradictions that exist in our society, due to confusion between the antagonistic contradictions with the non-antagonistic ones. The party must thoroughly resolve these issues and point out that opportunism cannot be fought successfully if not also sectarianism is being fought, and vice versa. On the other hand, it is essential that the class struggle is not conducted in an encapsulated form or only from above, it has to be waged together with the masses, with their broad and active participation. This way the working people are revolutionary educated and the unity of the Party and the people will be strengthened and consolidated.

The party stressed that one of the most important directions of the class struggle is the struggle against bureaucracy and liberalism, both dangerous enemies of the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism. The party has always led a tremendous struggle against these negative phenomena and made a series of concrete measures, such as bringing the state power closer to the people and to downsize the administrative apparatus, to educate the masses to actively participate in governance, to consolidate and perfect the direct control held by the workers and peasants, to eliminate bureaucratic-hierarchical thought and to democratise the life in the army, to block the ways the foreign ideology might come from and to revolutionise school, literature and art.

But despite the progress made and the heavy blows that bureaucracy and liberalism had to take, the party considers the struggle against them as not yet finished. They still remain a serious danger and the struggle against them is always necessary. They are a weapon in the hands of the class enemies to undermine the party, the proletarian state and our socialist life.

The investigations of the Central Committee in some sectors of culture, economy, army, etc., have shown that all hostile elements on the one hand rely on bureaucracy and liberalism and on the other hand promote them by all means for their counter-revolutionary objectives. In their efforts to undermine socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat they were trying to achieve that not the line of the party and its leadership but technocracy prevailed everywhere in leading positions. They sought to weaken and eliminate the control of the Party, the state and the masses in order to have a free hand and to operate at will. They were keen to promote anarchist decentralism and to create loose and independent organisms or to inflate the state apparatus and institutions, to weaken its proletarian composition and to encourage the civil service to open the doors to these strangers, to weaken the confidence in our forces, etc.

The liberal and bureaucratic attitudes and practices, however, are not only existing in the context of the enemy’s activities. They also occur in our people, in the work of our organs and apparatuses. The struggle against bureaucracy and liberalism will be lengthy because they have deep roots, with economic, are related to social and ideological factors and are fuelled by the internal and external enemies. The degree of circulation depends on the political and cultural level of people, on the efforts of the Party to educate and steel the workers in a revolutionary way and to steel, on the understanding of their dangerousness and on the paths that are pursued to combat them.

Bureaucracy and liberalism are idealistic and reactionary, anti-people and anti-socialist way of thinking and acting. It is the objective of the propaganda of the party to debunk the ideological class nature of liberalism and bureaucracy through theoretical and practical arguments. All communists, workers and the broad masses of the working people have to rise with firm conviction against the liberal phenomena, the bureaucratic distortions and bureaucratic schematism in order to unmask and combat them in every link and every form in which they occur.

It is necessary to intensify and deepen the struggle against technocracy and intellectualism. As a reflection of bureaucracy they lead to the abandonment of the proletarian ideology and the policy of the Party, they lead to the leading role of the working class in our society being weakened the role of the masses and their creative thinking being underestimated. Technocratic and intellectualist influences have expressed themselves in recent years especially in the over-estimation of technology and specialisation, in considering problems not from the political and ideological point of view and having no trust in the momentum and optimism of the masses.

The struggle against liberalism needs to be intensified more and more, the struggle against this expression of ideological and political opportunism, of concessions to the class enemy, of conciliation towards the influences of alien ideology and defects and weaknesses. The need to intensify this struggle becomes even more compelling because liberal influences and symptoms and in recent years have made their presence felt quite strongly and have greatly damaged our work in several areas including culture, army, economy and elsewhere. Let us never and not under any circumstances underestimate these risks but always increase the ideological and political awareness, let us increase control from above and from below and let us raise the proletarian discipline and the proletarian consciousness of everybody!

The party especially has to take care of eradicating the liberal and anarchist ideas of democracy and freedom in socialist society. Because we live in a democracy some people think they have only rights but no duties, that only the state and society have obligations towards them – obligations they do not forget to demand – while they themselves are free to behave and to act as they please, to violate the discipline at work and in society, the laws of the state and society’s norms just like that. These very harmful views must be resolutely fought because they are alien to the principles of socialism.

A healthy and lively political fighting spirit prevails in the ranks of our party and our people. This is a great victory for the party but it should not lead us to complacency. We must not ignore the symptoms of apathy which manifest themselves in many working people and even in many communists and cadres. The struggle against indifference remains a current task of the Party.

The Party has always emphasised that the class struggle on the field of ideology must be fought on the whole front against liberalism as well as against bureaucracy, against the remnants of the ideology of the old exploiting classes as well as against the influences and phenomena of contemporary bourgeois and revisionist ideologies. In the struggle against degenerative liberalism of bourgeois-revisionist origin one must not underestimate the struggle against the various manifestations of conservatism; because of our historical circumstances it still has roots and consequences which are not only superficial.

The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7 Plenary of the Central Committee were great schools of class struggle in the period between the two Congresses. These plenaries exposed and destroyed the hostile groups of Fadil Paçrami and Todi Lubonja, of Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dume and Hito Çako, of Abdyl Këllezi, Koço Theodosi and Kiço Ngjela and others who pursued broad subversive activities and sabotage activities in the field of ideology and culture, in the army, industry, in planning, operating, in trade, etc.

It was a big and very dangerous conspiracy. These enemies were in close contact and cooperation with each other and in coordination with some revisionist states and they aim was to liquidate the Party, to overthrow the people’s power, to pave the road to revisionism and the restoration of capitalism in Albania.

The traitorous group of Fadil Paçrami, Todi Lubonja and consorts sought to spread the bourgeois-revisionist ideology, culture and way of life in the field of ideology and culture in order to prepare a suitable ground for the political counter-revolution. They sought to confuse the youth and intelligentsia in the first place, to antagonise them against the Party and socialism. The enemies of Marxism-Leninism acted exactly like that in the revisionist countries.

The traitorous and putschist group of Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dume and Hito Çako was a faction at the head of the army, a group of conspirators who planned to overthrow the Central Committee by an armed coup in order to liquidate the Party of Labour of Albania and the dictatorship of the proletariat; they also counted on the support of an armed intervention from the outside. To achieve these goals, they worked to weaken the organisation of the Party and its leading role in the army, to replace the Marxist-Leninist ideology of our party by the revisionist ideology, to sabotage the military line of the party and oppose it to their capitulationist and treasonous theses. They sought to undermine the defence of the country and to introduce the detested methods of bourgeois and revisionist armies into our army.

A comprehensive hostile activity in the area of the economy was pursued by the traiterous group of Abdyl Këllezi, Koço Theodosi, Kiço Ngjela and consorts. This group tried to distort the party line on developing the economy, the principles of organisation and management of the economy and to introduce revisionist forms and methods of self-administration, etc. They developed enormous sabotage activities in key sectors such as planning, oil production, foreign trade, etc. That way they tried to weaken and undermine the basis of our socialist system, to pave the road for the economic and political subjugation and enslavement of our country by foreigners.

These groups were imperialist-revisionist agencies in our Party and State. They consisted of politically and morally degenerated bourgeois elements which had surrendered to the pressure of external and internal enemies, the ideological encirclement and aggression of world imperialism and revisionism.

The danger represented by these hostile groups was very serious because they held important positions in the Party and state and took advantage of the great authority of the Party to conceal their hostile activities. They camouflaged their counter-revolutionary activities by claiming they would do all this in the name of the Party, allegedly for the well-being and welfare of the people by allegedly creatively applying the decisions and directives of the Party. They acted secretly and did not dare to oppose the party line openly because – like all other enemies – they had no support within the Party and the people. The iron strength and unity of the Party crushed them. The solid connection of the Party with the people scared them.

The enemies could act undetected for a while and cause damage because they found gaps in the work of the Party and the state. They took advantage of the mistakes and shortcomings, the phenomena of bureaucracy, liberalism and the euphoria that they fomented and spread by force. They benefited from the decreasing vigilance and control and took advantage of the fact that the principles and norms of the Party and state were not applied consistently, that there were a number of weaknesses in the educational work of the Party and that the teachings of the Party on the class struggle and the imperialist-revisionist encirclement were not really taken into account.

For that which happened, all the leading institutions including the Central Committee and the government were responsible. Particular responsibility, collectively or personally, lies with the party organisations, communists and cadres of those sectors in which the enemies showed their influence most clearly. They are responsible because they allowed the weakening of the leading role of party organisations and did not consistently uphold the decisions and directives of the Party and the laws of the state. Some of them proved to be short-sighted and politically liberal, while others lacked the revolutionary courage to speak out, to unmask the enemies and show them their place.

The hostile activity was discovered and smashed against the iron unity, the political instincts and maturity, the ideological clarity and revolutionary resolve of the revolutionary party and its leadership. Socialist Albania was saved from a large and dangerous conspiracy. From this violent class struggle, the Party emerged vastly strengthened, the unity of the ranks of the Party around the Central Committee and the unity of the people with the Party were raised to a higher level. The revolutionary vigilance of the Party and the masses grew and became stronger. Our economy was further consolidated and reached new achievements on the path towards the socialist development, our art and culture became closer to the Party and more militant. The army, all armed forces, formed a closer unity with the Party; their ideological and political strengthening, their revolutionary spirit and their willingness to fight reached a higher level in order to fight back and destroy any enemy who might dare to attack our socialist fatherland. In this struggle our working class, our collective peasants, our youth, our women, our intelligence and our cadres proved their great patriotism, their unwavering faith in the Party and its leadership, its loyalty to its correct line.

The uncovering and thwarting of the plot both of the internal and external enemies is a great victory for our Party and our people, a victory of Marxism-Leninism over revisionism.