Today is the anniversary of the birth in 1908 of Albanian communist Enver Hoxha, born in southern Albania when the nation was just gaining independence after centuries of foreign rule. Under his leadership, the anti-fascist Partisan guerrillas liberated Albania from Italian and German occupation during WWII, at a staggering cost in lives and property and relying on their own forces. The Partisans went on to liberate parts of Yugoslavia, while the other occupied countries in Europe had enough trouble driving the fascist forces from their own territory. Hoxha became First Secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania and held various government posts, leading Albania from the hardscrabble rural economy inherited from the Zog dictatorship to socialism, with an advanced industrial base and a drive for self-sufficiency. During this time the PLA also fended off take over attempts by the UK, USA, Greece, and Yugoslavia, and then, almost alone among the communist parties with state power, refused to follow the destructive revisionist road of the USSR after the 50's and denounced the revisionism of its Chinese ally in the 70's, despite the economic cost. Even Albanian counterrevolutionaries have to admit that Hoxha's policies defended Albanian sovereignty, liberated women, increased education and public health, encouraged study of Albanian history and culture, and modernized the economy. Of course there were also mistakes, and a counterrevolution succeeded, but socialist Albania's experience and Hoxha's many books should be studied by other communist parties, and Hoxha deserves a place among the great figures who fought for a socialist society in the 20th century and created a valuable legacy for those of us in the 21st.
Hoxha died April 11, 1985 and the PLA took a revisionist course, allowing a counterrevolution in the 90's, leading to the rule of the so-called Democratic Party of Albania. They made Albania a lackey of the EU and USA, and then they wonder why they were snubbed by the imperialists during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, despite the just demands of ethnic Albanians in the former Yugoslavia and the rights of Kosova under the Yugoslav constitution. Today the PLA has been reconstituted, under its original name, the Communist Party of Albania, and Hoxhaism remains influential in the international communist movement, including here in the USA.
I think the CPA's current website is www.pksh.org, but it could be a different group. An Albanian site dedicated to Enver Hoxha is at www.enverhoxha.info and some of his works are online at www.marx2mao.com, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works-index.htm, and sites referenced on Wikipedia, and some WWII and early socialist Albanian history is referenced in the Kosova timeline at www.historycommons.org.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment