– Qemal Cicollari, Chairman of the PKSH –
The Congress of Përmet is one of the most significant events of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War of the Albanian people under the leadership of the Communist Party of Albania and Enver Hoxha against the Italo-German fascist occupiers and the country’s traitorous collaborators, the Balli Kombëtar and Zogite factions.
The First Anti-Fascist National Liberation Congress of Albania, held in Përmet on May 24, 1944, was of great historical importance because it established the people’s democratic state in Albania.
This 80th anniversary of the Congress of Përmet coincides with the jubilee year of the 80th anniversary of Albania’s Liberation, from which the immense historical significance of this glorious congress is clearly visible.
Causes and Historical Circumstances, Both Internal and External, of Holding the Congress of Përmet
— The failure of the general offensive (the Winter Operation) by the German fascist occupiers and the country’s traitorous collaborators, the Balli Kombëtar and Zogite factions, in 1944.
— The strategic counter-offensive of the Albanian National Liberation Army ordered by the General Staff on April 5, 1944.
— The rapid escalation of the National Liberation War.
— The deepening political and military crisis among the German fascist occupiers and the reactionary traitors and collaborators of the Balli Kombëtar and Zogite factions.
— The feverish efforts and political and military manoeuvres of the Anglo-American imperialist allies to undermine and destroy the leading role of the Communist Party of Albania and Enver Hoxha in the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, and their political and military support for the reactionary Balli Kombëtar and Zogite factions to take control of the leadership of this war and the political power in Albania afterward.
— The outstanding victories of the Red Army and the Soviet peoples under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) and the great Stalin.
The convening of the Congress of Përmet was met with great joy by the people. One hundred and eighty-six delegates participated in the Congress of Përmet.
Due to the circumstances of the war, the elections of delegates to the congress were held through open voting; they were the first democratic elections in Albania. Women also participated in these elections, enjoying for the first time in the country’s history the right to vote in political elections.
For the first time in history, the representatives of the people were not chosen based on tribal affiliations and wealth but on their merits in the fight against the enemies of the Homeland and people.
The delegates of the Congress represented the insurgent people’s masses during the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War against the fascist occupiers and the traitors to the Homeland, the collaborators of the Balli Kombëtar and Zogite factions.
The German fascist occupiers and reactionaries exerted all their forces to discover the location of the Congress, intending to launch an armed attack against it, but they failed in this sinister goal.
The Anglo-American imperialists exerted great pressure and used all means to sabotage the Congress. The British government deemed the convening of the Anti-Fascist Congress “illegal” and ordered the head of the British military mission in Albania not to accept the invitation to the Congress, among other actions.
The Communist Party of Albania, led by the great revolutionary genius Enver Hoxha, vigilantly monitored the situation inside and outside the country, blocking and destroying the enemies’ plans, while the Congress conducted its proceedings with complete success according to the set plan.
The Congress of Përmet and the Creation of the People’s Democratic State
The Congress of Përmet was convened upon the proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Albania and approved by the General National Liberation Council in April 1944. The First Anti-Fascist National Liberation Congress of Albania (the Congress of Përmet) was held from May 24-28, 1944, in the liberated city of Përmet.
The report to the Congress, “On the Development of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War of the Albanian People in Relation to International Events,” was presented by Enver Hoxha, the leader of the Communist Party of Albania and the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, on behalf of the General National Liberation Council.
The Congress of Përmet elected the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, composed of 121 members, as the highest legislative and executive body in Albania, representing the sovereignty of the people and the Albanian state. The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council elected at Përmet was Albania’s first people’s assembly.
The Congress tasked the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council with forming the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Committee, consisting of 13 members, endowed with the attributes of a provisional people’s democratic government. The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Committee, accepted by the Congress, was thus Albania’s first people’s democratic government.
Enver Hoxha, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Albania, was appointed President of the Committee (the provisional people’s democratic government). By creating the highest organs of the people’s state power, the Congress of Përmet decided:
1. To build the new people’s democratic Albania according to the will of the people, solemnly expressed that day in the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council.
2. To prohibit the former King Zogu from returning to Albania.
3. Not to recognize any government formed within or outside the country against the will of the Albanian people.
4. To continue the fight against the German fascist occupiers and Albanian traitors with greater intensity until their complete destruction and the establishment of people’s democratic power throughout the country.
5. To unify the high command of the National Liberation Army and to award military ranks.
6. To appoint Enver Hoxha as the Commander-in-Chief of the Albanian National Liberation Army, among other decisions.
In its first meeting, the National Liberation Anti-Fascist Council took several significant decisions, which were approved by the Congress and constituted the first laws of the Albanian people’s democratic state, such as:
— The annulment of all political and economic agreements made by the Zogu government with foreign states that were against the interests of the Albanian people.
— The creation of a special state commission to identify and verify war criminals and all crimes committed by the occupiers and traitors, among other actions.
The Congress of Përmet expressed gratitude to the Soviet Union and the Red Army, led by Stalin, whose heroic fight accelerated the liberation of Albania and other countries oppressed by the fascists. It reaffirmed loyalty to the great anti-fascist alliance.
The Congress of Përmet did not ask anyone for solutions to Albania’s problems or its future. It warned the great imperialist powers that the time had passed when Albania was used as a trading pawn and that the Albanian people would no longer allow deals to be made at their expense.
The decisions of the Congress of Përmet were received with great joy and embraced by the broad popular masses. The Congress of Përmet honorably fulfilled its historical mission under the leadership of the Communist Party of Albania and the great Enver Hoxha.
During the era of socialism and Enver Hoxha, the Congress of Përmet was honored and celebrated with grandeur by the people, the Party of Labour, the socialist state and the youth.
— The people’s democratic state, born out of the Congress of Përmet, as a result of the People’s Revolution (the anti-imperialist democratic revolution) led by the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Albania and Enver Hoxha, developed continuously after the liberation of the country and its path toward socialism. This People’s Revolution evolved to a higher level into the socialist revolution, and the people’s democratic state transformed into a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, meaning the state power of the working class, where the working class, in alliance with the working peasantry, came to power under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Albania.
— The means of production (factories, plants, combines, etc.) became the property of the people.
— Private property was abolished, along with it the exploitative feudo-bourgeois classes and exploitation of man by man.
— Unemployment was eradicated, taxes and levies on the people were abolished, etc.
— Education, health care and housing in the city were free, among other benefits.
— Socialist Albania became a fully free and independent country.
After the overthrow of socialism through a “peaceful” bourgeois-revisionist counter-revolution, as a result of the revisionist betrayal by the former Party of Labour of Albania, directed by the chief revisionist and traitor Ramiz Alia, and the re-establishment of capitalism in Albania, the Congress of Përmet was also betrayed.
In today’s capitalist Albania, the ruling bourgeoisie and its bourgeois state, along with the right-wing and “left-wing” bourgeois parties like Sali Berisha’s neo-fascist Democratic Party and Edi Rama’s neo-Ballist Socialist Party have, for 34 years, attacked, falsified, denigrated and denied the Congress of Përmet, particularly the organizational and leading role of the Communist Party of Albania and Enver Hoxha in this historic Congress.
In capitalist Albania today, the decisions of the Congress of Përmet have been betrayed and denied.
— The Congress of Përmet decided to “build the new people’s democratic Albania according to the will of the people,” but today Albania is no longer a people’s democratic state as decided by the Congress of Përmet. Instead, it is a bourgeois state where the bourgeois class is in power, oppressing and exploiting the people without mercy.
— The Congress of Përmet decided to “forbid the former King Zogu from returning to Albania.” Today, in capitalist Albania, the former King Ahmet Zogu, who betrayed the Homeland and stole Albania’s gold, has been politically rehabilitated, and a monument in his honour has been erected in the middle of Tirana. Zogu’s descendants have been allowed to return to Albania, enjoy Zogu’s properties and politically strive for the restoration of the monarchy.
— The Congress of Përmet decided to “annul all political and economic agreements made by the Zogu government with foreign states that were against the interests of the Albanian people.” Today, capitalist Albania, this capitalist state, has annulled this decision of the Congress of Përmet and recognizes the political and economic agreements made by Zogu’s government with foreign states, contrary to the interests of the Albanian people. Capitalist Albania today has lost genuine political and economic freedom and independence, and it has become a colony of American and European imperialism.
The Congress of Përmet decided to “identify and verify the war criminals and all crimes committed by the occupiers and traitors to the Homeland.” Today, capitalist Albania, this bourgeois state, has politically rehabilitated the criminals and traitors to the Homeland, the Ballist-Zogite collaborators, as “martyrs” and “torchbearers” of “democracy,” and is financially compensating them for their crimes against the people and Homeland, exploiting the sweat and blood of the people, etc.
Today in capitalist Albania, the ruling Albanian bourgeois class, its bourgeois state and bourgeois parties, despite their efforts to falsify, denigrate and deny the Congress of Përmet, particularly the organizational and leading role of the Communist Party of Albania and the genius Enver Hoxha, this Congress remains majestic and undefeated with its revolutionary historical decisions and teachings in the minds and hearts of the Communist Party of Albania and the Albanian people.
The Congress of Përmet created the new people’s democratic state, the great and glorious historical work of the Communist Party of Albania and the great genius of the People’s Revolution Enver Hoxha, who faithfully and creatively applied Marxist-Leninist science to the concrete historical conditions of Albania.
The Congress of Përmet is a invaluable Marxist-Leninist lesson and a great revolutionary work, a great example of revolutionary inspiration for the Communist Party of Albania in its historical mission to lead the working class and masses in their class struggle, in the name of the ideals of freedom, democracy and socialism.
Despite very difficult conditions under the rule of a reactionary, anti-communist and neo-fascist bourgeois regime under a democratic mask for nearly 34 years, the Communist Party of Albania has conducted political activities in opposition to the bourgeois reactionary forces in power, in honour and defence of the Congress of Përmet.
The Communist Party of Albania, guided by Marxist-Leninist science, will continue to defend and honour the Congress of Përmet, the great and immortal work of the Communist Party of Albania and the great Marxist-Leninist genius Enver Hoxha, in the name of the ideals of freedom, democracy and socialism.
Glory to the 80th Anniversary of the Congress of Përmet!
Glory to the Communist Party of Albania and Enver Hoxha, the Organizer and Leader of the Congress of Përmet!
Long live the Communist Party of Albania!
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