From Albania Today, 1978, 2
The Party of Labour of Albania has waged the class struggle correctly in all the stages of the revolution and in all its principal political, economic and ideological directions. At given periods, one or the other form of the class struggle has emerged as most important, but in every case, as the 7th Congress of the Party stressed, this struggle has been waged on all fronts and has centred around the question of state power. It has been a continuous and fierce struggle, through which the continuous advance of the socialist revolution has been ensured. The experience of Albania is another confirmation of the Marxist-Leninist truth that in the process of the class struggle for the overthrow of the old world, in the struggle to defend and consolidate the victory, in the work for the creation of the new socialist order, the proletarian heroism is even greater than that required for the seizure of state power.
Both the establishment of the socialist order and the maintenance and continuous strengthening of it are indissolubly linked with the leading role of the Marxist-Leninist party. It is in this that the leading role which the working class plays in socialist society finds its concentrated expression.
“Only the revolutionary party of the working class, armed with the Marxist-Leninist theory”, says comrade Enver Hoxha, “can make the working class conscious of its historic mission and clearly define the objectives of its struggle and the ways to attain them. The Party organizes, educates and mobilizes the working class and all its allies and leads them in the complicated struggle to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and build socialism.” (1)
This implies that the defence, strengthening and the further revolutionization of the Party, the constant enhancement of its leading role in the entire life of the country, in every field and at all levels, constitutes one of the fundamental directions of the class struggle in the political field during the whole historical period of socialism.
1. The class struggle in the political field to safeguard, strengthen and perfect the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The overthrow of the political domination of the exploiting classes and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat is an indispensable condition for putting an end to the system of oppression and for the construction of the new socialist society. The completion of this task constitutes the main objective of the class struggle that the proletariat wages in the conditions of the exploiting order, because the essence of this struggle, as the classical writers of Marxism-Leninism emphasize, boils down precisely to the question of state power. From the time of the National-Liberation War, which, in the conditions of Albania, assumed the character of a true people’s revolution, the PLA, with comrade Enver Hoxha at its head, considered the question of state power as fundamental, closely linked the struggle for national liberation, with the struggle for the creation of the new people’s power and merged them into one. Comrade Enver Hoxha says, “The Party never allowed the internal and external enemies to take the power from the people, so that the people’s blood would have been shed in vain, but it followed a consistent line, thanks to which it became possible that there was only the new people’s power in existence and functioning in Albania, and after the liberation of the Homeland, it began to carry out the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
The enemies, too, irrespective of the field in which they have waged their struggle, have always aimed this struggle at the state power, with the objective of the liquidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the re-establishment of the dictatorship of the exploiting classes, as their activity in the past and the activity of the groups uncovered in recent years has shown.
Hence, the class struggle, which continues throughout the whole historical period of socialism, is, in the final analysis, a struggle over the question of state power, for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The dictatorship of the proletariat constitutes the fundamental question of Marxism-Leninism, and the attitude towards it marks the dividing line between Marxist-Leninists, on the one hand, and opportunists of all hues, on the other. In striving to preserve the rule of the bourgeoisie where it has not been overthrown, or to re-establish it where it has been overthrown, the enemies of the revolution and socialism have directed their blows against the dictatorship of the proletariat, just as the Soviet, the Yugoslav and other modern revisionists are doing today. To this end, they spread all sorts of “theories”, such as those about “the state of the entire people”, the “system of direct self-administration by the producers”, or “democratic socialism” without the dictatorship of the proletariat. The PLA has continually exposed the anti-Marxist views of the modern revisionists. The 7th Congress of the PLA laid strong emphasis on the great harm that the revisionist propaganda does, and the necessity for stern struggle that all Marxist-Leninists, everywhere in the world, must wage against it.
The dictatorship of the proletariat not only constitutes the essence of the class struggle during the entire historical period of socialism, but is also the main weapon for waging this struggle on all the fronts of socialist construction. In fulfilling its function, it carries the socialist revolution through to the end and performs its historic mission, which is the building of communism. The process of the continuation or interruption of the socialist revolution itself is decided by whether the dictatorship of the proletariat is maintained or overthrown during the waging of the class struggle. Both these possibilities have been confirmed by historical experience, and the Marxist-Leninist summing-up of this experience constitutes an achievement of great importance to the struggle of the international proletariat to carry this struggle forward on the road of success and guaranteed progress, avoiding defeat and barring the way to any turning-back in order to ensure the complete triumph of the cause of the revolution and socialism.
In summing up the new historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, comrade Enver Hoxha has pointed out: “It is completely possible that, once it is established, the dictatorship of the proletariat can be kept permanently unblemished, intact and unshakeable in all its links and directions, while being continuously developed and perfected”. (2) The revolutionary experience of the PLA and the PSRA, in which the dictatorship of the proletariat has stood rock-firm, and the socialist revolution has gone steadily forward towards its complete and final victory, has demonstrated this. This experience, which has found its full reflection and synthesis in the new Constitution of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania is a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of scientific socialism.
The Party of Labour of Albania and comrade Enver Hoxha have stressed that it is possible to preserve, strengthen and perfect the dictatorship of the proletariat only by keeping up the class struggle, always leading this struggle correctly, unwaveringly, and with determination. In this vital question it is important to clearly define the objective at which this class struggle for the defence of the dictatorship of the proletariat, both from the armed counter-revolution and from the “peaceful” revisionist counter-revolution, is directed.
The danger of the armed counter-revolution has long been recognized. It was used to crush the Paris Commune in 1871 and later, after the First World War, the proletarian states which were established in Germany and Hungary, were similarly crushed. But in other instances this counter-revolution has been defeated by the blows of the revolution. Such is the experience of the Soviet state power of the time of Lenin and Stalin, which put down the armed counter-revolution through a protracted struggle. The experience of our country likewise demonstrates the nipping in the bud of any attempt at armed counter-revolution.
Therefore the repelling and complete crushing of the armed counter-revolution is placed before the victorious proletariat as an indispensable and entirely possible task. What this required in this direction is the constant maintenance of keen vigilance towards the external and internal enemy and the dealing of prompt and decisive blows at its activity. This the Party of Labour of Albania and the Albanian state have always born in mind, considering the struggle against the class enemy as “a task of first rate importance for our Party, state and working people”. (3)
The activity of the class enemy is carried on in all directions, and manifests itself both inside and outside the country. Inside the country, it is manifested in the resistance of the class enemies and in their attempts at restoration, whereas outside the country it is manifested in the aggressive aims of imperialism, social-imperialism and other reactionaries to strangle and to destroy the socialist order, as well as in the ideological means which the capitalist-revisionist world uses against us.
The external and internal enemies act in close connection and coordination with each other. Wherever the activity of the internal enemy shows up, behind it stands the support and aid of the external enemy, and likewise, wherever the activity of the external enemy appears it encourages and makes use of the activity of the internal enemy, too. The history of the construction of socialism in our country testifies to this merging of the activity of the internal and external enemies in a single united front. Many acts of sabotage, terror, diversion, etc. have been undertaken on the basis of this joint action, going so far as armed revolts, such as those of the enemies in Koplik in 1945 and in Shkodra in 1946. Particularly ferocious was the hostile activity carried on also by armed bands, which were introduced from abroad or set up within the territory of our country in the first post-liberation years, and which amounted to 84 bands of more than 1,500 fugitive criminals. A fierce and bloody fight, in which 463 martyrs gave their lives, was required to annihilate these bands completely.
It was in the same basis of this link up and coordination that the attacks of the external enemy on socialist Albania were carried out; that the brutal interference and the savage provocations of the Anglo-American imperialists and their lackeys were organized; that the sinister schemes of the Yugoslav revisionists, whose aim was the annexation of our country and the elimination of our national independence, were concocted; that the joint plots were hatched up and the savage blockades of the capitalist and revisionist states, which became even more dangerous with the emergence on the scene of the Khrushchevite revisionists, were undertaken. Under the present conditions, when socialist Albania is holding high the banner of the revolution and socialism, which has been rejected by the modern revisionists, led by the Soviet revisionists, the activity of the external and internal enemy has become very intense, and the coordination of their activity even more dangerous.
But, besides the armed counter-revolution, history has also known a counter-revolution of another nature, the “peaceful”, revisionist counter-revolution, with consequences just as bitter and terrible for the proletariat as the armed counterrevolution. This occurred with the coming to power of revisionist cliques. What Kerensky, Kolchak and Denikin, the Entente or the Hitlerite hordes failed to achieve by the force of arms, the Khrushchevite revisionists achieved in a “peaceful” manner. In the Soviet Union, the dictatorship of the proletariat was overthrown, everything socialist was demolished and capitalism restored. This “peaceful” degeneration took place in the other former socialist countries, too.
As historical experience confirms, there are two main enemies which aid the peaceful degeneration of the dictatorship of the proletariat: bureaucracy and liberalism.
Bureaucracy attacks the dictatorship of the proletariat at its nerve centres. It leads to sclerosis of the party and the working class and undermines its leading role, it disrupts the links of the state power with the people and hinders the participation of the working masses in the government of the country, it paralyses socialist democracy and cultivates conceit in the cadres, with all the evils that this brings, such as “respect” for oneself and scorn for the masses.
Liberalism is just as dangerous. Through liberalism, tendencies to laxity towards the policy and ideology of the enemy, to renunciation of the norms of proletarian morality, to the spirit of conciliation with the bourgeois-revisionist way of life and with shortcomings and weaknesses, etc, penetrate into the Party of the working class, the socialist state, and the masses of working people. Liberalism often presents itself with misleading slogans about “freedom” and “democracy”, and poses as “an opponent of bureaucracy”, with the aim of sowing its poisonous seed more easily.
Bureaucracy and liberalism, as two lethal dangers to socialism, are entangled with each other, complement and foster each other. This can be seen clearly in the negative example of the revisionist countries. In Yugoslavia, the main trend of revisionism and the capitalist restoration was the liberal one, but the bureaucratic apparatus was created along with it. In the Soviet Union, the typical road was that of bureaucratic degeneration, but this was closely connected with the manifestations of liberal-bourgeois degeneration, such as those in the field of culture and art, in the way of life, etc, or the notorious campaign of “destalinization” itself, which began precisely under the slogan of liberalism.
Socialism, due to its nature, does not constitute a source either of liberalism or of bureaucracy. These manifestations are not characteristic of socialism. However, as long as the class struggle continues, as long as the hostile pressure from within and without is active, and as long as the blemishes from the past, together with the essential differences between mental and physical work, etc, are still preserved, these manifestations cannot be completely avoided in socialism. The same holds good also for the other forms of their manifestation such as technocratism and intellectualism, which pose the same potent dangers and which find their expression in the absolutization of the role of equipment, science and the technical intelligentsia, in the overrating of mental work and underestimation of the role of the masses, in the displacement of the working class from the leadership of the state and socialist society.
In its class struggle to constantly strengthen and perfect the dictatorship of the proletariat and to carry forward the revolution and socialist construction, the PLA has struck continual blows against any manifestation of liberalism and bureaucracy. The measures taken against them have been political, ideological, economic and administrative. The teaching of the Party of Labour of Albania and comrade Enver Hoxha on the causes which keep bureaucracy and liberalism alive under socialism, as well as on how to handle them politically and ideologically, seeing these phenomena as expressions of reactionary world outlooks, and the struggle against them as an important constituent part of the class struggle, are of great theoretical and practical value.
Summing up Albanian and international experience in connection with manifestations of liberalism and bureaucracy in socialist society, the PLA and comrade Enver Hoxha have emphasized that manifestations of bureaucracy and liberalism constitute a great danger for socialism, but when they are not allowed free fields of action and when they are combated continuously and resolutely then the consequences of them are fully avoidable. These consequences came about in the former socialist countries, but they have been avoided in Albania. Thanks to the continuous measures that the PLA has taken, bureaucracy and liberalism have never found the terrain to alter the proletarian character of the Albanian state.
The essence of the class struggle against bureaucracy and liberalism consists of the establishment and implementation of correct relations between democracy and centralism, between the elected organs and the organs of the administration, between the cadres and all other officials, on the one hand, and the masses of working people, on the other, between the freedoms and rights of the citizens, and their discipline and duties towards the state and the socialist society, at all times. All the measures the Party has adopted for the eradication of manifestations of bureaucracy and liberalism, are connected with this essence of the problem.
The organization and functioning of the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat, of all socialist state and social life, are always based on the principle of democratic centralism, the core of which is centralized leadership of the life of the country by the working class through its Party and state, the combination of the centralized direction with the creative initiative of the local organs and the masses of working people. The correct relationship between democracy and centralism, which, in a genuinely socialist country, are a dialectical unity, complement and assist each other, is preserved through the class struggle. In the process of this struggle, the establishment and implementation of the concrete relationship between centralism and democracy, is ensured on the basis of thorough knowledge of the problem connected with this relationship, which has its own special features, differing at various periods of development, in various fields of life in different countries.
It is also important to maintain correct relationships between the representative organs and the organs of the administration. The representative organs constitute the political foundation of our socialist state. All the executive organs are elected by them, are subordinate to them, and render account to them. This is a major question of principle which has to do with the essence of the democratic character of our state. In this case, our class struggle is aimed at eradicating any manifestation of formalism in the activity of the representative organs, and at the complete and effective subordination of the activity of all other state organs to them.
The correct relations between the cadres and all other office-workers, on the one hand, and the masses of working people, on the other, in the PSR of Albania are determined on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist principle that the class in power, together with all the working people, govern the socialist state, while the cadres are their servants. The Party of Labour of Albania and comrade Enver Hoxha have always emphasized the necessity of the class struggle to protect the cadres from bourgeois-revisionist degeneration, so that they are imbued with proletarian qualities, merge with the people, and place the interests of the people and socialism above everything.
In the class struggle for the maintenance of a proper balance between the freedoms and rights of citizens, on the one hand, and their discipline and obligations, on the other hand, the Party of Labour of Albania has instructed that the struggle must be waged on two fronts: both against the centralist-bureaucratic tendencies to restrict socialist democracy and make it formal, as well as against the liberal-anarchist trends and concepts of democracy, which lead to undermining the dictatorship of the proletariat. Therefore, the struggle is concentrated, on the one hand, against the bureaucratic manifestations or some officials and cadres. who do not take the rights of the working people into account, in particular, their right to participate in the governing of the country, who adopt arbitrary attitudes and stifle criticism from below; on the other hand, it is concentrated on irresponsible tendencies and actions of some working people, as comrade Enver Hoxha said at the 7th Congress of the Party, think that “being in a democracy, they have rights only and no duties at all, that the state and the society have obligations to them; which they never fail to demand, while they themselves are free to behave and act as they like, to violate discipline at work and social discipline, the laws of the state and social standards, without a care in the world”. (4)
The important measures which have been and will be taken in the struggle against bureaucracy and liberalism are not merely organizational, but are outstanding, in the first place for their profound ideological and political content. The ideological aspect of these measures is expressed in their treatment of manifestations of bureaucracy and liberalism as manifestations in practice of the influence of alien ideologies. Their political aspect is expressed in their defence of the interests of the working people, in the deepening of the line of the masses, and in the other measures for strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat. Finally, the organizational aspect of these measures (which, without doubt, have a deep ideo-political significance) is closely connected with bringing the state power ever closer to the people, with the curtailment of unnecessary links and officials in the administrative apparatuses, with the sending of cadres and office workers to work directly in production together with workers and cooperativists, with the systematic circulation of cadres, etc.
In the struggle for the defence and strengthening of the socialist order, the proletarian control, both that which is exercised from above, through the Party and state, and that exercised from below, the direct workers’ and peasants’ control, is of great importance. The need to exercise this control from above and below, which responds to the fundamental principle of organization and direction of the entire life of socialist society, democratic centralization, and its role, are felt in every field of our life. However, in the struggle against bureaucracy and liberalism, the direct control by the working class and the peasantry from below, under the leadership of the Party, has particular importance. From their very nature, bureaucracy and liberalism are anti-popular, therefore, the masses of working people themselves are deeply interested in the struggle against them. The direct participation of the masses of working people in the struggle against liberalism and bureaucracy is the indispensable condition for the development of this struggle with success.
Marxism-Leninism teaches us, and the experience of the socialist construction in Albania has provided confirmation, that the direct workers’ and peasants’ control is. an effective weapon in the class struggle for strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat and a school for the class to master the art of government. This is the case not only at the time when the new state apparatus has just been set up, but also when the socialist state has achieved a relatively high level of development and the working class in power, in alliance, with the cooperativist peasantry, has created a great number of young cadres loyal to socialism.
The direct workers’ and peasants’ control is indispensable to waging the class struggle successfully, also, in the field of how the officials and cadres carry out their duties, to combat any alien influence and manifestation in the work of our cadres, organs und apparatuses. Implementing the direct control by the workers and peasants puts into practice the great teaching of the Paris Commune that “in order to avoid losing its newly-won power, the working class must, on one hand, destroy the entire old oppressive machinery, which was used against it, and, on the other hand, protect itself against its own deputies and officials, it must take measures to ensure that the state and the state organs are not transformed from servants of the society into masters of the society”. (5)
Without the organizations of the masses, which are a very important constituent part of the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat, all these problems would be meaningless. When we speak of the strengthening and revolutionization of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the strengthening and revolutionization of the organizations of the masses is automatically implied. They have the major task of permanent and active participation in the political field, just as in all the other fields of the class struggle. The waging of the class struggle for the defence, strengthening and perfecting of the socialist state, for the continuous extension and deepening of socialist democracy, is inconceivable without including in the current of this struggle the activity of the mass organizations, which, under the leadership of the Party, play an irreplaceable role in the revolution and the construction of socialism. The role of the organizations of the masses is in no way diminished under the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, but, on the contrary, is steadily increased.
In the practice of socialist construction, the PLA has clearly defined the place and role of the organizations of the masses in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat and has exposed the preachings and practices of modern revisionists about the so-called “independence” of the organizations of the masses from the party of the working class, and about their transformation into appendages of the state apparatus. The Party of Labour of Albania has always fought for the continuous enhancement and enlivenment of the role of the mass organizations as important organisms which link the Party with the masses. The essence of this struggle is to link the organizations of the masses closely with the Party, and to ensure the continuous strengthening of the leading role of the Party in them. The Party has never permitted and never will permit any counterposing of the organizations of the masses to the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, allegedly for the defence of the interests of the workers. Any tendency to transform the organizations of the masses into appendages of the state apparatuses and to inhibit the control of the masses over the state organs is also alien to our Party.
2. The class struggle in the political field for the defence of national independence and the socialist Homeland.
The only course for the defence of national independence and the socialist Homeland, just as for the defence of all the other victories of our revolution is that of determined class struggle against any violation or weakening of these victories. The struggle for the defence and strengthening of national independence and the socialist Homeland is waged with particular severity in the conditions of the capitalist-revisionist encirclement of our country. The Party and comrade Enver Hoxha have continually emphasized that this encirclement is by no means passive or merely geographical, but a threatening and active encirclement, which is fighting us in all directions and fields.
To cope successfully with the pressure brought to bear upon us by the capitalist-revisionist encirclement requires that our people have a profound class understanding of the international situations, that they live with these situations and consider all the problems from this angle. They consider this pressure, in all the variety of forms and means with which it is exerted, as an expression of the continuous struggle which the capitalist-revisionist world is waging against socialist Albania, and respond to it with their determined class struggle under the leadership of the Party.
In our class struggle, to break and defeat the encirclement, we do not remain passive. On the contrary, our counter-action is active and our blows are directed both against the efforts of the imperialist-revisionist coalition at bringing socialist Albania to its knees and against the internal enemy, which collaborates with and places itself in the service of the external enemy.
The imperialists and revisionists never relinquish their intentions to strangle or to impede the revolution and socialism. “The imperialists and revisionists”, says comrade Enver Hoxha, “have trained their rifles on Albania, but we have our heavy artillery trained on them. This coalition is up and doing, but we are up and doing, too. We have matched our strength against them and we have won, again we are matching our strength against them and again we are winning. And this is what will go on happening in the future. Therefore, the victory will be ours, our people’s and our Party’s till the end”. (6)
The activity of the internal enemy, old or new, also shows that, despite the powerful blows it has been dealt, it, too, has not given up its counter-revolutionary aims in the field of national independence and defence of the socialist Homeland, or any other field.
Nevertheless, however savage the activity of the internal and external enemy, however coordinated, organized and strongly it is directed against us, its annihilation is completely possible. This requires that we wage the struggle against the internal and external enemies consistently and ever more fiercely.
The Party of Labour of Albania and the Albanian people value our national independence as a great victory and consider the maintenance of it inseparable from the dictatorship of the proletariat. During the National-Liberation War, the struggle for the liberation of the Homeland from the fascist invaders was closely linked and merged into one with that for the overthrow of the power of the exploiting class, collaborators of foreign invaders, who had sold themselves to imperialism. But even today, the preservation of the independence of the country is inseparable from the existence and the strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the special conditions of Albania, against which the savage capitalist-revisionist encirclement is active, and in an international situation, when the plots and rivalry of the two imperialist superpowers are becoming more and more manifest, it is impossible to have complete independence of the country without the dictatorship of the proletariat. In these conditions, only the people, with the working class and its revolutionary vanguard at the head, are determined to the end and capable of defending genuine independence.
Defence of the independence of the country is an important objective of the class struggle in the political field. This has been expressed in the Constitution, in which it is clearly stated that the Albanian people, under the leadership of the PLA, will defend their socialist Homeland at any cost and in any circumstance, that any aggressor or group of aggressors that lays a finger on socialist Albania will be burned to ashes in the fire of the people’s war. In Albania, the signing of any act of capitulation or acceptance of the occupation of the country, or any possible speculation intended to put the independence of the Homeland up for sale, is condemned as treason. Similarly, the road has been barred to possible attempts by enemy or traitor elements to call for “aid” allegedly in the name of the Albanian people and to “legalize” intervention by imperialism, social-imperialism or other reactionary forces. The solemn declaration that nobody, other than the organs defined in the Constitution, can exercise the sovereignty of the people and any of its attributes in the name of the PSR of Albania, also serves the defence of national independence. The prohibition of the establishment of foreign military basis or forces in the territory of socialist Albania, serves the same purpose.
Independence, which characterizes a genuine socialist state in every instance, can be realized in a non-socialist state also. At the present time, the struggle of various states and peoples to ensure their independence against the plundering neo-colonialist policy of imperialism and social-imperialism, has assumed great impetus. The struggle to win and safeguard the independence of states, even when it is not connected with the struggle for socialism, is important to the general struggle against imperialism and social-imperialism. Therefore, while defending its own independence in all fields and forms, in its foreign policy, socialist Albania also wages a stern class struggle against any form of aggression, colonial exploitation, tutelage, dictate and hegemony, national oppression and racial discrimination. It upholds the principle of the self-determination of peoples, the exercise of complete national sovereignty and the equality of all countries in international relations. In this direction it has denounced any neo-colonialist “theory”, such as those on the so-called “interdependence of nations”, and “limited sovereignty”, with which American imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism try to justify their enslaving practices for domination of the other countries and states. A genuine socialist country, as the PSR of Albania is, does not accept any form of dependence, intervention and dictate imposed from abroad for itself, and opposes their imposition on others.
The defence of the socialist Homeland has been secured and is secured through stern class struggle. This struggle stands out not only in our correct Marxist-Leninist concepts on defence, which are diametrically opposed to the concepts of our enemies, but also in the particular importance that the question of defence assumes in the conditions of our country.
In leading the defence of the country, the Party has always considered this question as a duty above all duties and has linked the realization of it with the military training of the whole people organized in the Armed Forces. “Our Homeland belongs to the entire people, therefore it is defended not only by the regular army, in uniform, but by the entire armed people, militarily organized and trained”, (7) says comrade Enver Hoxha. The Party of Labour of Albania has put into practice the Leninist teaching about replacing the “barracks army” with the armed people, making “every citizen a soldier, and every soldier a citizen”. It has based the whole military activity and training of the people on the waging of people’s war on the principles of the popular military art. This constitutes an important contribution of the PLA to the defence and further development of the Marxist-Leninist ideas on the army and defence.
Historical experience has confirmed that even after the revolutionary army of the dictatorship of the proletariat is created, under certain conditions, it can degenerate and be transformed into a weapon for domination over the people, as occurred in the revisionist Soviet Union and in the other former socialist countries, or as the putschist group in our army, which was discovered and smashed in recent years, endeavoured to do in our country. In the Albanian People’s Army the proletarian policy is in command, and this is a guarantee that it will remain a conscious army of the revolution always loyal to the people and socialism.
Putting politics in command, means that in our army of the dictatorship of the proletariat the political factor has superiority over the military factor. This in no way underrates the role of weapons and military training. On the contrary, supplying the army with modern armament and equipment, as well as its military training, are at the centre of attention of the Party and the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the process of the class struggle, the problems of defence have been tackled by the Party at all times from the class political angle, establishing a correct dialectical report between man and weapons, which, as the Party teaches us, play a major role in the war, but not the decisive one, because this decisive role belongs to man, to his ability and determination, to his lofty consciousness and readiness to shed his blood in the field of battle in order to triumph over the aggressors.
The measures that the PLA took at the proper time for the reestablishment of the function of the political commissar, for the creation of party committees in the Army, for the abolition of military rank, and so on, have contributed greatly to strengthening the defence of the Homeland. These measures found the unanimous approval of the people and, at the same time, aroused the anger and opposition of our enemies, who, as the 7th Congress of the Party stressed, until the day when they were discovered, were trying to introduce the detestable methods and practices of bourgeois and revisionist armies into our Army.
The struggle to strengthen our defence has always been guided by the principle of self-reliance. Applying this principle consistently, the Party led the people in the revolution during the National-Liberation War and won. And now, relying on the internal factor, on the military readiness of the people to cope with any aggression or coalition of aggressors, at any time and under any circumstance, our defence is secure, regardless of the sacrifices we shall have to make.
The principle of relying on the internal factor in the field of defence assumed particular importance after the betrayal by the Khrushchevite revisionists, who attempted, in the most brutal fascist way, to intervene in the internal affairs and jeopardize the independence of Albania. If these enemies did not get away with the methods which they have used elsewhere with success, this was because they did not find any breaches in the ranks of the Party and the people.
The defence of the country has been strengthened in constant struggle against the external and internal enemies, against their savage criminal activity against the Party and the people. The freedom-loving, valiant and indomitable Albanian people and their Armed Forces have been educated by the Party so that, in case of aggression, they will not limit themselves merely to the task of repelling the enemies, but will fight till their complete and final annihilation. At the same time, they will always be beside the peoples fighting to win their freedom, or to defend it from the superpowers or from the aggressive activity of other capitalist and revisionist states.
3. The class struggle in the political field for the preservation and strengthening of the unity of the people around the Party
The defence and strengthening of the unity of the people around the Party is an important direction of the class struggle in the political field. Without this unity it would have been impossible to establish and consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat itself, to secure the independence of the country, and to defend the socialist Homeland. The steel unity of the people around the Party and its Central Committee, with comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, is the source of all the victories achieved up to date and the guarantee of even greater victories in the future.
The Party and comrade Enver Hoxha teach us that the unity of the people and the class struggle are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, between them there is a dialectical connection, which is expressed in the fact that, on the one hand, the unity of the people around the Party constitutes a powerful weapon for the successful waging of the class struggle, while, on the other hand, the consistent and correct waging of the class struggle itself, is an impulse to the preservation and strengthening of this unity.
The implementation of the line of the Party for the construction of socialism and the defence of the Homeland has been and still is the fundamental question of the class struggle in the political field. At the present stage of the class struggle, it is a task of a very great importance to study the line of the Party ever more deeply, so that this line becomes thoroughly understandable for the masses, not only in its general directions, but in all its aspects, so that the masses become even more solidly convinced of the correctness of this line and mobilize themselves to put it into practice. Socialism is a social order which is built for the masses and by the masses, under the leadership of the Party, therefore the more conscious the masses become, the more profound their knowledge of the line of the Party which leads them, the more active will they be in the struggle for the construction of socialism and the defence of the Homeland.
The dissemination and implantation of Marxism-Leninism ever more deeply among the masses is another important objective of the class struggle, because only on the basis of the revolutionary world outlook of the working class it is possible to secure the construction of socialism and defence of the Homeland as well as to safeguard the unity of the people around the Party. In Albania, Marxism-Leninism is the ruling ideology. The entire socialist social order develops on the basis of its principles, and it sets the tone and conditions the entire development of the spiritual life of the country. On the basis of Marxism-Leninism and in stern class struggle against old blemishes and the bourgeois-revisionist ideological aggression, a process of major importance is developing, the most profound and complicated in our whole battle against the old world, the process of the formation and tempering of the new man.
In the stern class struggle against the influences of the bourgeois and revisionist ideology, against the remnants and bad customs from the past, and petty-bourgeois outlooks and psychology, our people become imbued with the proletarian world outlook and morality, in the course of attacking and rooting out any concept and phenomenon which violates the unity of the people. The aim of the class struggle is to ensure that the people always live in revolution, are characterized by a high level of political consciousness, by exemplary heroism at work and the spirit of sacrifice for the interests of the Party, socialism and the Homeland.
The struggle for the protection and strengthening of the socialist property, which constitutes the foundation of the socialist order, is also a struggle for the strengthening of the unity of the people. In this case, the class struggle is aimed at the uninterrupted development of the productive forces and the continuous perfecting of the socialist relations of production, which constitute two aspects of the new mode of production, at the protection and best possible administration of the socialist property; at the gradual elimination of the hang-overs and blemishes which the socialist relations of production inherit from the past, such as “bourgeois right” in the field of distribution, the distinctions between mental and physical work, and between town and countryside.
The alliance of the two friendly classes, the working class and the cooperativist peasantry, under the leadership of the working class, constitutes the foundation and highest principle of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The class struggle to strengthen the alliance between these two friendly classes is a struggle to strengthen the unity of the people. These two classes make up the overwhelming majority of the people, and the decisive role in the construction and defence of socialism is theirs, just as it was in the National-Liberation War.
The preservation and strengthening of the unity of the people around the Party is a continuous process, which runs parallel with the deepening of the socialist revolution itself. This unity is achieved not by artificially covering up the contradictions, but by recognizing them and resolving them correctly through class struggle. If we were to dodge contradictions and fail to wage the class struggle to resolve them, this would have grave consequences for our unity itself. This applies both to the contradictions between us and the enemies, which are mainly resolved by means of violence, and to the contradictions among the people, which are resolved by means of persuasion thorough educational work. Resolving contradictions among the people, too, calls for a constant struggle, never becoming reconciled to shortcomings and mistakes, to alien manifestations and attitudes. If these are covered up and thorough-going criticism of them is not made, allegedly for the sake of unity, it would not be real unity, but a false and formal unity.
Hence, in waging the class struggle to defend and constantly strengthen the unity of the people around the Party, it is important to recognize and resolve the two types of contradictions which exist in socialist society. Failure to understand the character of two types of contradictions which exist in our society correctly, confusion of antagonistic with non-antagonistic contradictions, says comrade Enver Hoxha, harms the line of the Party, by leading to sectarian and opportunist stands, to the detriment of the unity of the people. In waging the class struggle correctly and consistently for the strengthening of unity, it is important that the following two points are always kept in mind:
First, care must be taken to always maintain a clear line of demarcation with the class enemy. There is not and cannot be unity with and a conciliatory attitude towards the class enemy. The contradictions with the enemy are antagonistic and irreconcilable and can never be treated as contradictions among the people. On this issue there must be stern struggle against any tendency for the artificial easing of the class struggle against the remnants of the overthrown classes or new enemy elements. The Party of Labour of Albania not only has maintained a determined, clear-cut and severe stand towards the class enemy in the practice of our revolution, but it has also continually exposed the preaching of modern revisionists about the relaxation or dying-out of the class struggle against the enemy element in socialism. Acting as disguised enemies of the working class, the modern revisionists distort the real nature of the contradictions with the class enemies in socialism and present the question as though they lose their antagonistic character once the basis of socialism has been built, therefore “instead of struggle against them there must be rapprochement and agreement”. In reality, however, there can be no talk of any softer attitude towards, or reconciliation with, the class enemy, because such reconciliation would cost the proletariat and socialism dear, just as it did in the Soviet Union and the other countries that followed it.
Second, attention must always be paid to the struggle, on the other flank, against any tendency to treat contradictions among the people as contradictions between us and the enemy. In the process of the class struggle to strengthen and defend unity we must attack and uproot sectarian and liberal stands in the resolution of non-antagonistic contradictions, which might transform them into antagonistic contradictions.
For the correct resolution of contradiction among the people, the combination of the method of conviction with that of compulsion is very important.
The Party and comrade Enver Hoxha attach great importance to thorough understanding and strict implementation of a correct balance between persuasion and compulsion. The method of persuasion is the main one, because the struggle against negative phenomena which show up at work and in the life of society is, to a large extent, a struggle which is waged among the people. With this fact in mind, Lenin wrote: “First we must convince, and then constrain. We must at all costs first convince and then constrain.” (8)
It is necessary to apply compulsion against those, who through condemnable actions, commit acts directed against the laws and regulations sanctioned by the socialist state. The administrative or penal measures taken during the implementation of compulsion by the proletarian state serve mainly to put an end to negative phenomena, be they crimes or mere infringements. They are intended to combat the consequences resulting from actions contrary to law, but they are not enough to eradicate the roots of the evil which lie hidden in the alien concepts in people’s minds. The latter aim is achieved by the method of persuasion.
In the socialist state, the method of persuasion and that of compulsion are realized in combination with each other. Overdoing one or the other method, contrary to the concrete conditions, destroys the correct balance that must be maintained. Thus, it is erroneous to overlook serious mistakes, or to be satisfied with continuous criticism, allegedly as educational work and conviction, even when the offences are grave or repeated and ought to be punished. Such a stand, which stems from failure to understand that punishment, also, has an educational character, would lead to the encouragement of conduct contrary to the norms of justice and socialist morality. On the contrary, the use of methods of compulsion out of place and neglecting the method of persuasion would lead to friction between the masses and their state, which would have extremely grave consequences, because it would undermine the unity of the people with the Party and endanger socialism.
1. Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Congress of the PLA, p. 127
2. Enver Hoxha, Reports and Speeches 1969-1970, p. 219
3. Enver Hoxha, Report to the 5th Congress of the PLA, p. 134
4. Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Congress of the PLA, p. 121
5. K. Marx-F. Engels, Selected Works vol. I, pp. 453, 454
6. Enver Hoxha, Reports and Speeches 1967-1968, p. 37
7. Enver Hoxha. Report to the 6th Congress of the PLA, p. 119
8. V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 32, p. 242
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