Party of Labour of Albania Partia e Punës e Shqipërisë | |
|---|---|
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| First Secretary |
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| Founded | 8 November 1941 (1941-11-08) |
| Dissolved | 13 June 1991 (1991-06-13)[1] |
| Succeeded by | PS PKSh PSD |
| Headquarters | Tirana |
| Newspaper | Zëri i Popullit |
| Youth wing | Labour Youth Union of Albania Pioneers of Enver |
| Military wing | National Liberation Movement (1942–1945) Albanian People's Army (1946–1991) |
| Membership(1986) | 147,000 |
| Ideology | |
| National affiliation | Democratic Front of Albania |
| International affiliation | Cominform (1947–1956) |
| Colours | Red |
| Party flag | |
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TheParty of Labour of Albania (Albanian:Partia e Punës e Shqipërisë,PPSh), was theruling andsole legal party ofAlbania during thecommunist period (1945–1991). It was founded on 8 November 1941 as theCommunist Party of Albania (Partia Komuniste e Shqipërisë,PKSh) but changed its name in 1948 following a recommendation byJoseph Stalin, who considered the name more appropriate since the majority of the party's membership was made up of the peasantry instead of the working class. The party was dissolved on 13 June 1991 and succeeded by theSocialist Party of Albania and the newCommunist Party of Albania. For most of its existence, the party was dominated by its First Secretary,Enver Hoxha, who was also thede facto leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985.[2]
In the 1920s, Albania was the only Balkan country without a communist party. The first Albanian communists emerged from the followers of Albanian clergyman and politicianFan S. Noli. Once in Moscow, they formed the National Revolutionary Committee and became affiliated with theComintern. In August 1928, the first Albanian Communist Party was formed in the Soviet Union. The most prominent figure of the party wasAli Kelmendi who left Albania in 1936, to fight in theSpanish Civil War. He was later regarded as the leader of a small group of Albanian Communists in France. However, no unified organisation existed in Albania until 1941.[3]
Following theGerman attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, Yugoslav leaderJosip Broz Tito under Comintern directives sent two Yugoslav delegatesMiladin Popović andDušan Mugoša to Albania. These two helped unite the Albanian communist groups in 1941.[4] After intensive work, the Albanian Communist Party was formed on 8 November 1941 by a delegates fromShkodër with Enver Hoxha from theKorça branch as its leader.[5]
The PKSh was the dominant element of theNational Liberation Movement (LNC), formed in 1942. The LNC drove out the German occupiers (who had taken over from the Italians in 1943) on 29 November 1944. From that day onward, Albania was a full-fledgedCommunist regime. In every other Eastern European country, the Communists were at least nominally part of a coalition government for a few years before seizing power at the helm of out-and-out Communist regimes.King Zog was barred from ever returning to Albania, though the monarchy was not formally abolished until January 1946.[6]
In theelections for the Constituent Assembly held on 2 December 1945, voters were presented with a single list from theDemocratic Front, organised and led by the PKSh. The Front received 93.7% of the vote.[citation needed]
In a meeting withJoseph Stalin in July 1947 Stalin suggested the party be renamed to the "Party of Labour of Albania" because peasants were a majority in the country.[7] Hoxha accepted this suggestion,[7] and the party was renamed in 1948.[8]: 168 During the period from 1947 to 1953, relations between the Party of Labour of Albania and the Soviet Union were close, as Hoxha steered the party towards a firmStalinist line.[9] For their part, the Soviets gave significant technological and economical aid to Albania, and alsostationed military forces on the Adriatic sea with Hoxha's blessing.[10]
However, followingStalin's death, the party became the most rigidlyanti-revisionist party in theSoviet Bloc. In 1961, Hoxhabroke with Moscow overNikita Khrushchev's supposed deviations from fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism, though relations between Tirana and Moscow had begun to chill as early as 1955.[11] During this time, pro-Moscow elements of the party were purged, includingLiri Belishova and Koço Tashko.[12] Having once again eliminated his rivals, Hoxha opted instead to align his party with thePeople's Republic of China underMao Zedong. In 1968, Albania formally withdrew from theWarsaw Pact. The party even went as far as to engineer anAlbanian version of China'sCultural Revolution.[13]
AfterMao's death, the PKShfelt increasing chagrin as Mao's successorsmoved away from his legacy. In 1978, Hoxha declared that Albania would blaze its own trail to a socialist society.[citation needed]
Hoxha led the party and state more or less without resistance until his death in 1985.
Hoxha's successor,Ramiz Alia, was forced to initiate gradual reforms in order to stop the country's economic downspiral. However, in late 1989, various elements of society began to speak out against the restrictions still in place. The execution ofRomanian dictatorNicolae Ceauşescu led Alia to fear he would be next. In response, he allowed Albanians to travel abroad, ended the regime's longstanding policy of state atheism, and slightly loosened government control of the economy. However, these measures only served to buy Alia more time. Finally, bowing to the inevitable, on 11 December 1990, Alia announced that the PPSh had abandoned power and legalised opposition parties. The PPSh won theConstitutional Assembly elections of 1991. However, by then it was no longer a Marxist-Leninist party, and was powerless to prevent the adoption of a new interim constitution that formally stripped it of its monopoly of power.
In 1991, the PPSh dissolved and refounded itself as the social-democraticSocialist Party of Albania, which is now one of the two major political parties in Albania. A group called "Volunteers of Enver", led byHysni Milloshi, laid claim to the identity of the PPSh as theCommunist Party of Albania.
The ideology of the PPSh was ananti-revisionist variant ofMarxism–Leninism known asHoxhaism. The party organisation was built up followingdemocratic centralist principles, with Hoxha as its First Secretary. Article 3 of Albania's 1976 Constitution identified the Party as the "leading political force of the state and of the society." To help carry out its ideological activities it had an associated mass organization known as theDemocratic Front. Its daily publication wasZëri i Popullit (Voice of the People) and its monthly theoretical journal wasRruga e Partisë (Road of the Party).
The highest organ of the Party, according to the Party statutes, was the Party Congress, which met for a few days every five years. Delegates to the Congress were elected at conferences held at the regional, district, and city levels. The Congress examined and approved reports submitted by the Central Committee, discussed general Party policies, and elected the Central Committee. The latter was the next-highest level in the Party hierarchy and generally included all key officials in the government, as well as prominent members of theSigurimi. The Central Committee directed Party activities between Party Congresses and met approximately three times a year.
As in the Soviet Union, the Central Committee elected aPolitburo and aSecretariat. The Politburo, which usually included key government ministers and Central Committee secretaries, was the main administrative and policy-making body and convened on a weekly basis. Generally, the Central Committee approved Politburo reports and policy decisions. The Secretariat was responsible for guiding the day-to-day affairs of the Party, in particular for organising the execution of Politburo decisions and for selecting Party and government cadres.
The staunchly orthodox stand of the PPSh attracted many political groupings around the world, particularly amongMaoists who were not content with theChinese Communist Party's attitude in the late 1970s. A large number of parties declared themselves to be in the "PPSh line", especially during the period 1978–1980. However, many of them abandoned this certain affiliation after the fall of the socialist government in Albania. Today, many of the political parties upholding the political line of the PPSh are grouped around the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations.
The following parties were followers of the PPSh during the Cold War:
Various friendship associations were also formed by international Communist sympathizers who supported the Party:
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Enver Hoxha | as part ofDemocratic Front of Albania | 82 / 82 |  82 | 1st | Sole legal party | |
| 1950 | 121 / 121 | 39 |  1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1954 | 134 / 134 | 13 | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1958 | 188 / 188 | 54 | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1962 | 214 / 214 | 26 | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1966 | 240 / 240 | 26 | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1970 | 264 / 264 | 24 | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1974 | 250 / 250 |  14 | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1978 | 250 / 250 | | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1982 | 250 / 250 | | 1st | Sole legal party | |||
| 1987 | Ramiz Alia | 250 / 250 | | 1st | Sole legal party | ||
| 1991 | 1,046,120 | 56.17 (#1) | 169 / 250 | 81 | 1st | Majority | |
Дугим радом и убеђивањем на састанцима с појединцима и с по двојицом-тројицом, другови Миладин Поповић и Душан Мугоша сломили су групашки отпор код већине албанских другова. Они су успели да их убеде како је Партија неопходна радпим масама у њи- ховој борби за ослобођење од капиталистичке експлоатације и импе- ријалистичког поробљавања. Тај рад довео је до састанка 8 новем- бра 1941 године, на коме је било присутно преко двадесет ...[With long work and persuasion at meetings with individuals and with two or three, comrades Miladin Popović and Dušan Mugoša broke the group resistance of most Albanian comrades. They succeeded in convincing them that the Party was necessary for the working masses in their struggle for liberation from capitalist exploitation and imperialist enslavement. This work led to a meeting on 8 November 1941, which was attended by over twenty ...]
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