From Albania Today, 1978, 6
By Sofokli Lazri – Professor, specialist of international problems.
The foreign policy of our Party and state is a consistent policy of principles, which defends the interests of the homeland and revolution, not only because it sticks loyally to the principles of Marxism-Leninism, but also because it proceeds from a correct evaluation of the world situation, from a concrete scientific analysis of the international phenomena and practice, from a dialectical synthesis of the present-day processes
Problems of international relations, in general, and of the foreign policy of various states, in particular, are attracting the attention of public opinion throughout the world today. They have theoretical and practical importance, for they bear directly on the life of all peoples and nations of the world without exception, influencing both their present and their future.
This is why, along with the struggle to guarantee and strengthen the freedom and independence of the socialist Homeland, the struggle for the consolidation of the victories achieved and the successful construction of socialism, the Party of Labour of Albania has waged an all-round struggle on many fronts to strengthen the positions of our Republic abroad, to enhance its prestige and authority and the positive and revolutionary role it can play in international relations and their development in progressive directions.
The foreign policy followed by our Party and state is the policy of a true socialist country, a policy of proletarian principles.
Lenin pointed out that the foreign policy of every country, like its economic, cultural and military policy, has a class character, that it is the continuation of its internal policy, an expression of those social aims and objectives which the class in power seeks to attain. “In 'alliance' with the imperialists, that is, in humiliating dependence on them – such is the foreign policy of capitalists... In alliance with the revolutionaries of the advanced countries and with all the oppressed peoples against all imperialists of every stamp – such is the foreign policy of the proletariat,"1 writes Lenin.
In charting its foreign policy, the Party of Labour of Albania has consistently adhered to these immortal teachings and principles of Leninism, and applied them in a creative manner in the concrete conditions of our country and in conformity with present day world developments.
“The foreign policy of the People's Republic of Albania,” says Comrade Enver Hoxha, “is the policy of a socialist country, where the dictatorship of the proletariat, led by the Party of Labour, is in power, which is inspired by and remains loyal to the doctrine of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. The foreign policy of the People's Republic of Albania,” he continues, “defends the interests of our country in the international arena, and together with the socialist, democratic, and progressive countries defends and fights for freedom, progress and genuine democracy ail over the world, for the freedom of the people who work withhand and brain.”2
It is precisely this consistent and principled policy, which together with the internal factors, has made it possible for the new Albania to resist the innumerable imperialist-revisionist pressures, threats and blackmail, which it has had to battle against, during these 34 years of its free existence. It is this policy which has led to the foiling of all the plots, intrigues, manoeuvres and traps prepared by its many enemies, in their efforts to bring our country to its knees, to subjugate it, and enslave the Albanian people. It is this policy which has made the voice of socialist Albania listened to throughout the world and our country honoured and respected everywhere.
The foreign policy of our Party and socialist state is principled and consistent, it defends the interests of the Homeland and the revolution, not only because it remains loyal to the principles of Marxism-Leninism, but also proceeds from a correct assessment of the situation in the world, from a concrete scientific analysis of the phenomena of international life, from a dialectical summing-up of the processes occurring in the world today.
Correct understanding of the contradictions of our epoch, realistic and objective examination of the interplay of forces operating in the international arena, and recognition of the fundamental trends of development in the world today, are factors of decisive importance in defining foreign policy and attitudes towards international developments.
The analysis that Comrade Enver Hoxha has made and is constantly making of international events provides a brilliant example of the Marxist-Leninist assessment of extremely complicated world phenomena and processes, and of how very valuable lessons are drawn for the practical activity of our Party and state. On the other hand, it also shows the method for dealing with and interpreting the present international relations, and understanding the trends of development in the world today.
Since its founding, socialist Albania, led by its Party of Labour, has been a consistent and resolute opponent of imperialism and the international bourgeoisie and all reactionary forces. It has openly and courageously exposed and condemned the aggressive warmongering policy of imperialist powers and their efforts to deprive the peoples of their freedom and independence and undermine the cause of the revolution and socialism.
At its 7th Congress, the Party of Labour of Albania stressed again that today, as in the past, determined opposition to US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism is a decisive condition for safeguarding the freedom and independence and the construction of socialism in our country. This stand also represents the only correct, principled and internationalist policy which serves the general cause of the revolution and socialism, the cause of the liberation and progress of the peoples.
The fight against US imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, the other imperialists and world reaction, which are the cause of all the misery of mankind, the starvation and poverty in which hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are living, the instigators of strife and division among nations, has ranked Albania alongside the most progressive forces of the world, in the forefront of the revolutionary struggle of the peoples for freedom and socialism, in the front ranks of the resistance to the warmongering plans of imperialism and reaction. “Socialist Albania”, says Comrade Enver Hoxha, “makes its modest contribution to this struggle and these great efforts of mankind, modest aid but which it gives openly, unhesitatingly, and unafraid of any one. However”, continues Comrade Enver Hoxha, “you must know how to seek and find the sacred cause dear to all peoples, to make it your own and defend it with all your might. But, in order to defend it with all your might, you must first be ready to make any sacrifice. The People's Republic of Albania has chosen this course thanks to its glorious leadership, the Party of Labour, and it has not swerved, and will never swerve from this road in the face of any storm."3
Our Party has always defined its stand towards the US, Soviet and any other imperialisms in clear and unequivocal terms: no illusions and no concessions, but resolute and persistent struggle to defend our freedom and independence, to defend the revolution and socialism and Marxism-Leninism. It has considered their stand toward imperialism a “touchstone” for all political forces, a demarcation line which divides those who defend the vital interests of the peoples and the future of mankind, from those who trample them underfoot, which divides revolutionaries from traitors. The entire modern history of our country, the consistent fight of the Albanian people, day by day, against the aggressive course of the superpowers, our Party's exposure of their plots, schemes, manoeuvres, and all their activities to the detriment of the cause of the freedom and independence of the peoples, are evidence of this stand and these class criteria. New Albania was born at a time of great upheavals caused by the Second World War, when a broad class battle was being waged on a national and international scale for the consolidation and progress of the revolutionary, liberation, democratic and anti-fascist forces. One of the fundamental problems facing all these forces at that time was the attitude that should be maintained towards US imperialism and its policy of aggression.
Following the defeat of the fascist powers and the great weakening of the old imperialists, the United States had come out with pretentions to establish its domination over the whole world. It had taken up the old fascist banner of anti-communism, and had rallied round itself the whole of international reaction, which wanted not only to preserve and consolidate the capitalist system of colonial exploitation, but also to wipe out socialism in the Soviet Union, and re-establish the overthrown regimes in the countries of people's democracy, to halt and suppress the revolutionary and liberation movement which had been built up all over the world.
In these conditions, the question was posed in a sharp and unequivocal manner: either to oppose imperialism with all one's might, without any concession, or fall prey to its plots and schemes. To give way before the imperialist onslaught, to seek conciliation and compromise with it, would mean, gradually but inevitably, to lose the freedom and independence of your country, to betray the ideals which had been fought for and for which so much blood had been shed.
Many anti-fascist forces, which, after the war, failed to resist the attacks of US imperialism, its diplomatic stratagems or economic blandishments, gave way in the face of the imperialist pressure. From its opportunist stand towards imperialism, the leadership of the Greek partisan movement capitulated to the fascist monarchy set up by reaction and was smashed; it was on this fundamental issue that the Communist Party of Yugoslavia slipped and fell into the revisionist quagmire and put the country back in the capitalist and pro-imperialist camp; the counter-revolutionary course which turned the communist parties of the West into defenders of the capitalist system and imperialist policy, began with their concessions to the Atlantic bourgeoisie of monopoly Europe.
Likewise, it was over the questions of the stand towards US imperialism that the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union broke their heads, after Stalin's death. Their policy of renouncing the fight against US imperialism, their policy of rapprochement and collaboration with it was one of the main factors, which led to the re-establishment of capitalism in the Soviet Union and turned it into a superpower which, today, is contending with the United States of America for world domination. Now we are witnesses to that regressive and reactionary process which is taking place in China, the leaders of which have become the most zealous and closest allies of US imperialism.
The unprincipled compromises and the many concessions that the Soviet revisionists and all the other opportunists are making to American imperialism are not making it any more gentle or better behaved. American imperialism has carried on its ceaseless acts of aggression and interference in the internal affairs of others with ever greater intensity and ferocity. Today, the United States is sabre rattling everywhere. Far from disarming, as Khrushchev hoped, it has stepped up the armaments race to unimaginable proportions. The military bases of Yankee imperialism have been extended to new countries, parallel with the stepping up of its threats and blackmail against the peoples, its brutal pressures and total disregard for the rights of others. Just as before, US imperialism remains the greatest champion of reactionary regimes everywhere and the savage enemy of the revolution and socialism. Time is confirming with ever greater force what Comrade Enver Hoxha said at the Moscow Conference of the 81 Communist Parties, that "'imperialism is aggressive, it will be aggressive if even a single tooth is left in its head”. After Stalin's death and the revisionist counterrevolution which took place in the Soviet Union, the genuine socialist revolutionary and liberation forces of the world were faced with the acute problem of their stand towards the new Soviet imperialism which emerged with pretentions to world domination. This was a key moment which demanded loyalty to principle and courage, ideological clarity and political wisdom.
Our Party was the first to put its finger on the great Khrushchevite betrayal and to denounce to the world the expansionist and hegemonic policy of the Soviet Union. Socialist Albania was the first country which heroically resisted the vengeful assaults of the Soviet revisionists, their vituperation and curses, their pressures and threats, and marched forward on its course, free and independent. Those countries which retreated before the chauvinist attack of the Soviet revisionists, which submitted to their policy of dictate, lost their freedom and independence, and their socialist victories. Poland and Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, and other countries, were turned into vassal states under the Soviet imperialists' jackboot, where the Kremlin makes the law. Our Party's forewarning that the Soviet Union would be rapidly transformed into an imperialist state, is a major threatening reality today, which affects and endangers the peoples of the world.
Now, the Soviet revisionists have come out openly with pretentions to world domination. Their foreign policy is a typically colonialist and neo-colonialist policy, which is based on the power of capital and the force of arms. The struggle which the Soviet Union is waging today to occupy strategic positions in the Middle East, the stationing of its naval squadrons in the waters of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the extension of its grip on Africa and Latin America, its pressure on Europe and its interference in the affairs of Asia, all bear the brand of this policy. Like the US imperialists, the Soviet revisionists are striving to extinguish the flames of the revolution and the liberation struggles of the peoples everywhere, to exert their control and impose their dictate everywhere, in order to dominate the world.
These are the facts, these are the reasons, from which our Party proceeded, when, at the 7th Congress it stressed once again that any illusion and wavering, however slight, in the stand towards the present Soviet Union, is fraught with catastrophic consequences for those political forces and movements which continue to believe in Moscow's demagogy and deception.
Our Party has waged and still wages a great struggle to expose the political, ideological propaganda, and other efforts of the old and new imperialists to justify aggression and perpetuate imperialist slavery.
It has shown that the so-called “new theories”, “new policies”, “new strategies”, and all kinds of other “new” inventions which American imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, and now Chinese revisionism, are producing every day, are intended to break down the resistance of the masses to the rising tide of expansion and hegemonism of the imperialist powers, to reduce the people's opposition to the plans for the war they are preparing.
The aim of the imperialist-revisionist tactic is to spread a psychosis which gives the greatest possible encouragement to tendencies to compromises and concessions. It strives to create in the masses an attitude of passive resignation to events, an atmosphere of political and ideological indifference towards the expansionist course and acts of the superpowers, to cover up their aggressive plans and their imperialist policy in general, their efforts to establish their control and domination over the national political, economic, and military life of all countries.
The Washington chiefs have devised their own theory on international relations, which they call the theory of the "interdependent world". According to this theory, a great number of intensive economic, political, military, cultural and other ties have been established in the world today. The international division of labour has become so extensive that allegedly no country can live on its own. On account of these links, they claim any kind of crisis, in any country, has immediate repercussions everywhere, and is inevitably bound to involve the other countries. Therefore, nobody can act according to his own interests, and intervention, whatever its nature, even military, is not only permissible, but even objectively necessary. With this they are trying, among other things, to justify their current large-scale imperialist economic aggression to plunder the developing countries of their raw materials, to set arbitrary prices for commodities on the international market, to establish the domination of the dollar in world financial relations and so on.
American imperialism wants to maintain the status quo of those unfair international relationships which enable the US monopolies to exploit the peoples, which open the way for the political, economic, and military expansion of the United States of America, and to perpetuate the capitalist system and the American domination throughout the world.
In order to justify their hegemonic and expansionist policy the social-imperialists, too, have invented the theory of their international policy which they call the “policy of the easing of tension”.
According to them, the key to the solution of all present-day world problems is the so-called “easing of tension”, or “détente”. If tension is lowered, claim the Kremlin chiefs, then the revolution can be carried out in a peaceful way, the peoples are liberated peacefully, the well-being of the peoples can be raised in peace, and so on. But, when the Soviet revisionists speak of lowering tension, they have in mind, in the first place, the relations between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. They appeal to imperialist America to divide the world jointly, to jointly determine the imperialist norms of international life, to jointly exercise their dictate on all world problems, to become the arbiters on all problems, which arise among nations.
On the other hand, elevating to theory their counterrevolutionary chauvinist thesis that the issue of war or peace, and the question of the freedom and economic development of various countries depend on the two superpowers, on the “harmony” and “equilibrium” between them, they call on the peoples to renounce the revolution and the struggle for national liberation, and leave their fate in the hands of US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.
In a word, they want the countries and nations to relinquish their sovereignty, to remain defenceless and unprepared in the face of imperialist attacks, to pave the way, and remove all obstacles to Soviet political, economic and military expansion.
Our Party has exposed these ultra-reactionary “theories” which are intended to dig the grave for the peoples, to justify imperialist domination and the preservation of the spheres of influence, to open the road for neo-colonialist expansion and exploitation.
We have always combated the concept of the “concert of powers”, an imperialist concept which the peoples cannot accept. Our Party has always strongly emphasized that our country will never agree that international policy should be a monopoly of the great powers. Our people can never reconcile themselves to the efforts of the imperialist powers to create the impression that the world cannot find stability except under their tutelage, or that conflicts cannot be settled without their arbitration.
The imperialist powers never settle differences and conflicts. On the contrary, on every occasion, they add to the flames. This “harmony” of theirs results in a dirty bargain at the expense of the freedom and sovereignty of the peoples. “If you submit to the Soviet-American dictate,” says Comrade Enver Hoxha, “you cannot escape its yoke. We Albanians accept neither their dictate nor their yoke”.
Socialist Albania upholds the principle that all peoples, great or small, must be equal in international relations, and there must be no discrimination of any kind. It opposes any form of dictate, pressure, control and arbitration by the great powers and their monopolization of world affairs. It defends the view that all the peoples have the right to have their own opinions and views on all questions and to express them openly, though they may not be to someone's liking. It thinks that the right to exercise complete sovereignty in all fields belongs to the peoples and to them alone.
The People's Socialist Republic of Albania has never reconciled itself to and has publicly denounced the war preparations of the superpowers and their armaments race, in which the essence of the reactionary imperialist system, its inhuman philosophy, and all its degeneration and rottenness are clearly expressed.
This race, which recognises neither principles nor borders, and which is draining the countries of colossal wealth, which the working people create with their toil, has also been imposed on other countries. The arms trade has become the biggest business for the superpowers, the main item of their exports and their most effective means of bringing about the political and economic dependence of the recipient countries.
In order to lull the masses to sleep and deceive them, the superpowers have created the myth of disarmament, and with this smokescreen they have covered the whole globe. But it is precisely the superpowers which have so much to say about disarmament, that are competing to produce more and more sophisticated weapons of mass extermination. Today US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism are conducting a deafening propaganda campaign to pin the attention of world opinion on the SALT talks, in order to create the fixed idea that peace and security for all the world depend on the result of these talks, that the Soviet-American agreements on the so-called mutual limitation of strategic weapons mark the beginning of complete and general disarmament.
But, as our Party has pointed out, both when the superpowers work together and when they quarrel, it is others who pay the bill.
The agreements, treaties, mutual concessions and compromises concluded between the United States and the Soviet Union on the basis of their policy of expansion and hegemony, can never contribute to the strengthening of peace and international security, either on a general or a local scale. They do not eliminate the inter-imperialist rivalry, which constitutes one of the chief sources of the outbreak of wars of aggression, but on the contrary, lead to even sharper contradictions and increased tension on all continents. They lead to greater insecurity and create explosive situations everywhere which, at moments of crisis, burst out irresistibly to the detriment of peoples and nations.
At present, the American imperialists and the Soviet social-imperialists, each under the pretext of protection from the threat of the other, are proposing to take various countries under their atomic umbrellas.
But it is becoming more and more clear that the military protection of the superpowers is fictitious, because it gradually transforms the “protected” country into a simple protectorate. Were the various countries to entrust the Americans and the Soviets with their national defence, they would be putting a very heavy mortgage on their freedom and independence. This sort of “defence” is conditional on many restrictions and concessions such as acceptance of foreign military bases, placing the army of the "defended" country under the military command of one of the superpowers, harnessing the country to the war chariot of American imperialism or Soviet social-imperialism, and so on. Each of the superpowers uses the bogey of the other to dominate its allies, to subjugate the fearful and to enslave the peoples.
In these grave and turbulent situations, when the policy and activity of the superpowers constitutes a serious and direct threat to the freedom and independence of the peoples and countries of the world, the Party of Labour and socialist Albania have maintained a correct revolutionary stand, as befits a genuine Marxist-Leninist Party and a genuine socialist country. They have always spoken openly of the dangers and pointed out the truth without hesitation, or the slightest reserve.
The Party has stressed that today, just as in the past, the danger from the policy of imperialism and social-imperialism to our freedom and independence, as well as to peace and the security of the peoples, is a real and active one, therefore, the fight against the two superpowers and their allies is an imperative duty which must be carried out by everyone, every day, every hour, and in every field. That is why our Party considers the waging of the struggle against imperialism and social-imperialism through to the end and with all its might, as the basis and permanent task of its foreign policy. It sees this fight as an essential condition for the defence of the freedom and independence of the Homeland and the construction of socialism, as well as a condition and internationalist obligation for the support of the revolution and the liberation struggle of the peoples.
The final objective of the strategy of the two superpowers is to destroy socialism, to crush the revolution, and to establish their domination over the whole world. In reply to this aggressive global policy threatening the future of all the peoples, our Party firmly upholds the thesis that real peace and security for the peoples, freedom and socialism, can be won and defended only by fighting both against US imperialism and against Soviet social-imperialism and any other imperialism. It has stressed that you can never rely on one imperialism in order to oppose another. “Our Party thinks”, says Comrade Enver Hoxha, “that the peoples must be told openly about the situations, because this is the only way to assist their true unity, the unity of truly anti-imperialist and progressive states and governments. In order to unite the peoples in the fight for freedom, independence and social progress, against any oppression and exploitation by whomsoever, first the demarcation lines must be laid down, it must be made clear to them who is their chief enemy, against whom they must fight, and with whom they must unite.”4
At its 7th Congress and in its later documents, our Party openly criticized the imperialist theories of the Chinese leadership and its hostile acts against the revolution, socialism, and the cause of people's liberation.
The Party of Labour of Albania and the People's Socialist Republic of Albania were aware that its principled criticism of the counterrevolutionary deviation of the Chinese leadership would cause an outburst of the chauvinist vengeance of those who are guiding the policy of Peking today.
China's brutal, perfidious and fiendish breaking off of economic and other relations is very clear testimony to this. But the Albanian people and their Party remained faithful to their principles, their correct and consistent policy and made no concessions. They remained loyal to the line of resolute opposition and struggle against any imperialism, any power bent on expansion and hegemony, which seeks to undermine the cause of the revolution and the peoples and to incite war. Marxism-Leninism has taught us, and our own experience has confirmed, that the fight against imperialism and revisionism of every description is our salvation, is the decisive condition to ensure the freedom and independence of the Homeland and to carry forward the cause of socialism.
The true revolutionaries, the peoples and all those who are fighting for national and social liberation, for international peace and security, can never reconcile themselves to the aims of the Chinese leadership, which is trying to peddle its great power policy as the strategy of the revolution and the general line of the Marxist-Leninist movement. Exposure of the anti-Marxist theories and strategies of the Chinese, as well as opposition to their pragmatic and chauvinist aims is an historic duty and an absolute necessity today.
The Chinese theory of “three worlds”, on which the entire foreign policy of China and all its international attitudes are based today, is very much akin to, not to say almost identical with, the so-called new geopolitical bourgeois theories, which try to explain away the great contradictions of our time with the geographical positions of the countries in which they arise, with the size of their population and territory, with the level of their industrial and cultural development, etc. These theories are intended to justify the policy of aggression and hegemony of imperialism, a policy which, they claim, does not stem from the predatory and exploiting nature of this system, but from “objective conditions”, which do not depend on the system.
Their aim is to negate the class struggle and national oppression, and as a consequence, the need for the revolution and national liberation, to compel the workers and the peoples to resign themselves to the situation in which they live as inevitable.
According tothe Chinese theoreticians, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the contradiction between imperialism and socialism do not exist.
That this is a case of flagrant deviation from the analysis made by Marx and Lenin, from Marxist dialectics, from class criteria in analysing and appraising contradictions, is abundantly clear. But, lurking behind the anti-Marxist formulations there is also a pragmatic political line aimed at achieving definite counter-revolutionary objectives.
Recognition of the existence of these contradictions naturally entails recognition of the need for the revolution, recognition of the necessity for the struggle against the bourgeoisie and imperialism. When the fundamental contradiction of our epoch is “displaced” or “altered”, the need for the “setting up of a united front” with the bourgeoisie and US imperialism is automatically accepted. In a word, the claims about the development and alteration of the fundamental contradictions of our epoch are a “theoretical” justification of the great power imperialist policy that China is following today.
When Lenin says that ours is the epoch of the collapse of imperialism, the epoch of the proletarian revolution, he means that the fundamental contradiction of our epoch is that between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, between capitalism and the triumphant proletariat – socialism, that the proletariat and its struggle for the overthrow of bourgeois society stand at the centre of this epoch. After making this analysis, Lenin called on the Russian and the world proletariat to carry out the revolution.
Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin saw and gave the correct explanation of the interconnection between liberation wars in the colonies and the proletarian revolution in Europe. They dwelt at length on the need for the hegemony and leadership of the proletariat in the national-democratic and anti-imperialist revolutions. But they never preached that “the countryside will liberate the city”, that Poland would liberate the Russian or German proletariat, that the Irish would liberate England, or the Africans would liberate the workers of Europe.
At first the Chinese leaders called for unity of the “third world” in the fight against the “first world”... Later, they preached that the “second world” could and must become the ally of the “third world” in the fight against the two superpowers. And, ultimately, they came out with a new strategic platform to the effect that the “third world” and the so-called “second world”, in which “all the industrialized countries of the West and the East” are included, must unite, all of them without exception, with US imperialism, and together put down Soviet social-imperialism.
In reality, the call for unity of two and a half worlds against the remaining half a world has nothing to do either with the genuine fight against Soviet social-imperialism, or with the revolution and the liberation of the peoples. It is a call for an inter-imperialist war, it is a demand for a reshuffle of the cards to start a new round of the imperialist game for the division of spheres of influence and world markets in which the Chinese, too, will have its share.
But the peoples know only too well the meaning of imperialist war, which Lenin called a crime, and they do not want to become its victims. They are against the imperialist world conflagration, which the Chinese are inciting, and they are fighting ceaselessly to foil the plans of the imperialists, to prevent them from leading mankind to a new carnage.
Moreover, the Chinese leaders endeavour to give their coalition of the “third world” and the “second world” with US imperialism the colour of a “revolutionary front”, in order to oppose Soviet social-imperialism.
However, the struggle against Soviet social-imperialism, both on the ideological plane, i.e., as the centre of modern revisionism, and on the plane of the defence of national sovereignty and independence against the aims of its expansionist policy, cannot be waged by uniting with the military blocs of US imperialism and, still less, by fighting to attain the objective of these blocs, as the Chinese propagandists advocate.
In the fight against Soviet social-imperialism, the ideal for which it is carried out is of great importance. The imperialists fight one another over spheres of influence and markets, each striving toextend its plunder and exploitation to other countries. Revolutionaries are guided in their struggle by the ideal of socialism and communism, of the freedom and independence of the peoples, of democracy and progress, against all imperialists without exception, against reaction of every hue and stamp. The Chinese leaders call on the peoples to get behind the chariot of the US imperialists, to let themselves be used as cannon fodder.
The Chinese leaders claim that, although US imperialism is still seeking to impose its domination on the world, it has suffered defeat and all it can is to try to protect its interests and go over to defence in its global strategy.
To pretend that the present “strategy of US imperialism is a defensive strategy” is not just an erroneous analysis of the reality, not just an ignoring and distortion of the facts. This counter-revolutionary “thesis” has also been contrived in order to prettify imperialism and to justify alliance and rapprochement with it. But, even worse, is that by presenting the strategy of US imperialism as “defensive” the Chinese revisionists are endeavouring to disarm the peoples before the imperialist aggression, to demobilize them ideologically, politically and morally before the expansionist and hegemonic offensive of imperialism, to blunt their vigilance. Taken as a whole, the thesis which alleges that US imperialism has gone over to the defensive, that it wants only to preserve the status quo, represents the platform of the imperialist propaganda intended to sabotage and disrupt the liberation movement of the peoples and to justify imperialist aggression.
The Chinese line of “uniting with everyone that can be united” is intended to defend and support not only US imperialism but also the other imperialisms.
The Chinese say that “the second world has a dual character”. But they see only one aspect of this character, its possibility to unite with the “third world”. However, the question arises: could this “world” unite with the “first world” to fight socialism, the revolution and the people's liberation? History tells us that this “world” fought with arms shoulder to shoulder with US imperialism, in Korea and Vietnam, in the Middle East it is united with Israel, and it marched to Prague together with the Soviet tanks. To think that the so-called “second world” will unite with the revolution and the peoples' liberation, as the Chinese revisionists do, means to unite with the international bourgeoisie against the revolution and socialism, against the peoples.
The false slogan that this unity is essential for the defence of national independence cannot rescue the Chinese leadership from this anti-Marxist, counter-revolutionary position. “Defence of the Homeland” is a great slogan with which the bourgeoisie and opportunists have been speculating for centuries with a view to using and exploiting the masses for their own ends. But in the concrete case, if it is a question of the defence of national independence, as the Chinese claim, why is defence against US imperialism not mentioned? For more than thirty years now, the proletariat and the working masses of Europe have been fighting against NATO and American bases in Europe, against interference and control by American capital, against the harnessing of their countries to the chariot of American imperialism. Now they are being told to cease this fight, to submit to American imperialism, to unite with it, to sacrifice themselves for foreign interests!
The call for the setting up of a united front of the “third world” with the “second world”, according to the Chinese leaders, is a call for liberation, for opposition to the interference of the superpowers, and so on and so forth. But even on this issue, it must be stressed that the Chinese leadership is not calling for the unity of the peoples, but of governments and the bourgeois ruling circles of these countries, and more precisely, for unity of the European monopolies and the big bourgeoisie with the neo-colonialist bourgeoisie of the “third world”. Meanwhile, in the scheme of this “Front”, the peoples and the proletariat remain a passive element, an obedient mass, and they must submit to their bourgeoisie and follow it in the inter-imperialist war, which China is inciting and trying to bring nearer. This “mass” is to keep quiet, must neither think nor speak of revolution, of liberation from neo-colonialism, of closing down foreign military bases, or establishing national sovereignty in all fields. China does not want the peoples to make any move in these directions, for if they were to do so, they would run up against NATO, the Common Market, the multinational companies of Western Europe, would come up against the opposition of those “who want to defend only what they have”, in a word, they would come up against all the pillars of the imperialist system, which like a great monster is sucking the blood of the peoples, not only of the “third world”, but also of the “second world”.
Such terms and notions as the “international bourgeoisie”, “reaction”, “fascism” no longer figure in the political vocabulary of the Chinese leadership. Is this merely a lapse of memory? Not at all! If you mention the international bourgeoisie you must necessarily say where it is, what it stands for, and moreover, what must be done about it. But can they speak ill of this bourgeoisie when they are proposing the “second world”, with its capitalists and fascists, militarists and monopolists, to the proletariat and peoples as allies, when they consider this “world” one the pillars of the “broad united anti-imperialist front”?
The same may be said about reaction and fascism. Are there reactionary forces, oppressive, exploiting, fascist, anti-communist, and anti-popular governments in our world?
No one has any doubts about this. Even Carter, who poses as wanting to make the bourgeois world “moral”, tries to keep his distance from a number of governments discredited as openly fascist or employing open reactionary methods. But why are the Chinese leaders silent about this? They are silent because the fascist juntas and the reactionary governments, the kings and the shahs are all lumped together in that world which China calls “the motive force of history”, because they are participants in the Chinese leaders’ “united front”. When Iran is seething with the people's revolt against the mediaeval regime of the Shah, Hua Kuo-feng goes to Tehran and kisses the Shahinshah. Now Peking has become the Mecca of kings and fascist dictators, of generals of the former Wehrmacht and the Japanese Imperial Army, of warmongers and reactionaries from all countries.
The present-day reality, the class struggle which is being waged on a world scale, daily international events are more and more revealing the opposition of the Chinese leadership to Marxism-Leninism and their expansionist aims. As time goes by, these features of the Chinese leadership will become more and more obvious, hence they will be exposed even more badly. The Chinese leadership has cut off its aid to socialist Albania in a brutal and arrogant manner. This act, which public opinion throughout the world condemned, was clear testimony to the chauvinist superpower policy China is now pursuing. It was a deliberate action to attack Albania, to attack what it stands for and symbolizes, its struggle for the defence of Marxism-Leninism and the construction of a genuine socialist society, to attack the progress and the strengthening of the international Marxist-Leninist movement and proletarian internationalism. At the same time the Chinese leaders incited the Cambodian-Vietnamese conflict, and are exerting unprecedented pressure and blackmail on Vietnam, interfering seriously in its internal affairs. The peoples of the world cannot fail to see that these events on Chinas borders reflect China's strivings for imperialist expansion towards the south, and cannot fail to see its pretensions to present itself as a new superpower seeking spheres of influence and hegemony.
With these acts and many others of this kind, China has now lined itself up with American imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism and, in practice, has come into conflict with the peoples, the revolutionaries, the patriots and the honest people in the world.
The Albanian people have not been and never will be alone in the struggle against imperialism, social-imperialism, all other imperialists and reaction. Today, many other revolutionary and liberation forces which are colliding with their aggressive policies and actions are fighting them, too. Therefore, the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania attaches importance not only to its own struggle, but also to the revolutionary and liberation struggle of all peoples, which it supports and links itself with. The support of the revolutionary and progressive public opinion of the world for the correct struggle and stands of our Party and state in their foreign policy is an objective reality. It is a great source of inspiration and another assurance of the triumph of our just struggle.
At the same time, the history of new Albania is vivid testimony to the efforts which our Party and our country have made to support and assist the cause of socialism and the freedom of the peoples of the world with all the strength at their disposal, regardless of the attacks of the enemies and the sacrifices involved. It is enough to mention the struggle against modern revisionism, the greatest enemy of the communist movement, the most diabolical saboteur and underminer of the efforts of the peoples for their freedom and independence. The Albanian communists and people, in the extremely severe conductions of the years 1948, 1960 and 1976, were among the first to rise to expose Yugoslav, Khrushchevite and Chinese revisionism in turn, and to give unhesitatingly and courageous support to the genuine Marxist-Leninist revolutionary forces, all those who genuinely wanted to fight for the cause of socialism and communism.
It is this consistent principled and resolute struggle, this lofty internationalist stand, this unshaken confidence that socialist Albania will march on this road, that draws the Marxist-Leninists, the revolutionaries, the patriots and progressive people of different countries close to our Party and country, and encourages and inspires them to fight to the end for their just cause.
Our Party and people have been and are conscious that their fight against imperialism and revisionism, their open and unreserved support for the struggle of the proletariat and the peoples, inevitably brings down upon them the wrath and vengeance of the enemies, their pressures and blockades, blackmail and threats. But no force, no reason can turn our Party and people from the honourable course on which they have always marched, nothing can induce them to renounce their internationalist stand. To act otherwise would be a catastrophe. Stalin explains this question very well when he says, “This is the alternative: either we continue henceforth to implement our revolutionary policy, rallying the proletarians and the oppressed of all countries around the working class of the USSR – and then international capital will hinder our progress in every way; or we give up our revolutionary policy, and make a series of concessions on principles to international capital – and then perhaps international capital will not be against 'helping' us, to bring about the degeneration of our socialist country into a 'docile bourgeois' republic”. And he adds: “America demands that we renounce in principle our policy of support for the liberation movement of the working class of the other countries, and then everything would go smoothly if we were to make such a concession... or others of this type, without negating ourselves.”5
This great proletarian principles and this outstanding Leninist stand were brutally trampled underfoot and abandoned by Khrushchev and his followers. Their reconciliation with imperialism, with big international capital, their opportunism in their relations with the pro-imperialist cliques of the new countries of Asia, Africa and other continents, turned them into enemies of the revolution and the liberation of the peoples.
The same thing is happening now with the Chinese leaders. In order to secure aid and credits from the USA and from the big capital of the world, they went over to the side of imperialism, neo-colonialism, and together with them are fighting against the peoples, the revolution and socialism. With their policy of rapprochement and collusion with imperialism and colonialism, they have negated the Chinese revolution itself, and are assailing the international solidarity of the workers and peoples of the world.
The Party of Labour and socialist Albania have stood loyal to the Leninist teachings of proletarian internationalism and the great revolutionary traditions of the proletariat.
They have always made a high assessment of the revolutionary struggle of the international working class against the bourgeoisie and revisionism, the struggle which the oppressed peoples are waging for freedom and independence, against imperialism, social-imperialism and reaction, as a struggle which strengthens our freedom and independence, too. “Just as the Marxist-Leninist parties and the progressive peoples everywhere in the world have helped us in the past, in our struggle for national liberation and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, we, too, are duty bound to help the proletariat, the Marxist-Leninist Parties and all the progressive forces in the struggle they are waging, so that their peoples, too, will achieve their freedom and socialism”.6
Socialist Albania has always wished the peoples of all countries well, including those who live under a different social system, but not their oppressors and exploiters, with whom it has always been and will be irreconcilable. “The progressive peoples and democratic states that are fighting to establish their national sovereignty over their assets, who are fighting for their political and economic independence, for equality and justice in internal relations, enjoy the full solidarity and support of the Albanian people and state”,7 Comrade Enver Hoxha has declared. With regard to the states which do not maintain a hostile stand towards our country, Albania has always been and is for building normal relations on the basis of equality and respect for sovereignty, mutual benefit and non-interference in internal affairs.
But while struggling for good understanding, for the establishing of good neighbour relations and the preservation of genuine peaceful co-existence with other countries, our Party, at the same time, adheres to the principle that state relations, at whatever level, cannot be made the excuse for ceasing the ideological struggle and reciprocal polemics. The ideological struggle pervades the entire foreign policy of our socialist state. Nineteen years ago, in an article about this problem, Comrade Enver Hoxha wrote: “The Yugoslav leaders and their organs of propaganda deliberately confuse two entirely different and opposite things: the question of the peaceful coexistence of countries with different socio-economic systems, and the struggle against revisionism. And they ask: How can the one be reconciled with the other? Thus the revisionists arc people who confuse even the clearest and simplest things. Peaceful coexistence of socialism with capitalism does not imply ideological reconciliation between them. And, consequently, the improvement of the international situation does not, in any way, infer 'reconciliation' with revisionism. On the contrary, peaceful coexistence in the ideological field is the recognized platform of lackeys of the imperialist bourgeoisie, of opportunists and revisionists”.8
The implementation of this principle has great significance because, for a socialist country, preservation of its ideological independence, preservation of the right to fight in the international arena, too, against all idealist, anti-Marxist and reactionary ideologies and practices, against all those trends and organisms which impede the progress of the world towards socialism and communism is just as important as the preservation of its state independence. Our Party has always upheld this stand, and did so again at its 7th Congress, the report to which reads: “Our socialist state does not interfere in the internal affairs of any country with which it has various political, economic and cultural relations. But this does not mean that, for the sake of these relations, or of good neighbourliness with the bordering states, or the policy of non-interference in internal affairs, the Albanian state should not express its opinions on international policy in general, as well as on the ideological and political stands of these states, just as they, too, have the right to express their opinions on the ideological and political stands of the Albanian state”.9
The policy of our socialist state is an independent policy which expresses the sovereign will and judgement of our people, because it has been formed independently of any foreign dictate and is not influenced by temporary international circumstances.
It is possible to maintain and implement this independence because, apart from its sound ideological basis, our country has all the other essential objective and subjective conditions needed for such a thing. In the first place, our country is economically independent, it does not depend on foreign powers for anything, it does not accept credits, has no debts, has no joint companies, and so on, which transform political independence into a meaningless formula and determine both the internal and foreign policies.
Therefore, the refusal of our country to accept credits, aid, etc. from the imperialist and capitalist countries, its non-participation in international organizations which restrict national sovereignty or condition freedom and the free exercise of the people's will, principles which have been sanctioned in the Constitution, constitute a guarantee that Albania will always pursue an independent policy, and create the practical conditions which make it possible to really implement this policy.
The bourgeois and revisionist propaganda has long been screaming that Albania is an isolated country because it does not have diplomatic relations with this or that state, because it does not trade with this or that country, etc. They do this with evil intent, and also because they proceed from the old bourgeois concepts that inter-state relations imply only treaties, military alliances, enslaving agreements, the activities of multinational companies, and the importing of the degenerate bourgeois way of life.
This concept which has found favourable soil in the day-to-day practice of the capitalist states, is an expression of the policy of the great imperialist powers which seeks to break down all barriers and extend the political, economic, military and cultural domination of imperialism over all continents and states. It represents an instrument for interference in internal affairs and to justify national and colonial oppression.
Marxism-Leninism and the practice of the socialist construction of our country have exposed and refuted this reactionary concept. They have proved that the independent economic development, national defence, the raising of the cultural level of any country, regardless of the size of its territory and population, can be achieved and carried forward on the basis of self-reliance while maintaining complete independence in all fields.
When the Party of Labour and the Albanian people expose and fight the economic and military integration of imperialism, when they reject the enslaving system of capitalist credits and aids, they are not seeking the isolation of the country and its autarky. They reject the old bourgeois mentality according to which no state can walk on its own feet, but not the development of normal trade relations based on mutual interest, useful cultural exchanges, etc.
The long practice of the international relations of our state in these fields thoroughly vindicates the correct and principled stand it has maintained. Socialist Albania, today, has diplomatic relations with 82 states and commercial exchanges with scores of countries. Albanian books, films and music have crossed the borders of many states, just as the progressive cultural values of the other peoples come into Albania. Albania is a country closed to enemies and reactionaries, but it is open and hospitable to those who wish it well, who fight, together with it, against imperialism and reaction, for national freedom and the progress of mankind.
The concepts of the relations and isolation are, thus, two completely different notions to the bourgeoisie and the communist. Therefore we are not isolated, but the imperialists and the bourgeoisie are isolated from their own peoples.
With evil intent and in order to sow doubts about the Albanian
proletarian state, continuously, but more especially at given moments,
the various enemies insinuate that Albania will side with this or that
imperialist power. But, as our Party has declared, the whole world
ought to know that Socialist Albania has never held out its hand to any
imperialist power and will never do so, and that the borders of Albania
are inviolable. The Albanian people, who are well acquainted with their
enemies and the enemies of the peoples, and who are well aware of where
the dangers come from, will fight resolutely and unwaveringly in
defence of their freedom, independence and sovereignty, as they have
always done. They look to the future with confidence, because they have
confidence in their own strength and enjoy the support, assistance and
solidarity of international progressive public opinion, and numerous
friends and well-wishers all over the world.
They have been defined at the Congresses of the Party, in the plenums of the Central Committee and in a number of documents of the Party. But the major contribution and the great work of Comrade Enver Hoxha is at the source of our foreign policy, its development and consolidation, and the formation of its features and style.
The consistent, correct and principled policy pursued by new Albania in the difficult and complicated international circumstances, which characterize the period after the Second World War, its accurate directions and resolute stands are closely linked with the name of Comrade Enver Hoxha.
The profound dialectical analysis which Comrade Enver Hoxha makes of international phenomena and events, the scientific conclusions and convincing arguments he uses, the wise and flexible tactics he adopts to cope with the fiendish attacks of the enemies, the correct course he chooses to realize the aims and objectives of the foreign policy of our Party and state, all bear the stamp of his Marxist-Leninist personality.
The struggle waged by the Party of Labour and the people of Albania with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head against imperialism and reaction, and in particular, the struggle for the ideological and political exposure of Yugoslav, Soviet and Chinese revisionism will remain as one of the most outstanding acts of revolutionary courage, political bravery and clarity about the future.
Today the Party of Labour and socialist Albania enjoy great prestige, respect and sympathy among the revolutionaries and the progressive people of the world. And this is not for sentimental reasons, or for some special preference. The place which Socialist Albania occupies in the world, its prestige and authority are due, in the first place, to the successes it has achieved in the liberation of the country from the foreigners and in the successful construction of the new socialist society, to its long and resolute struggle against imperialism and revisionism, and the correct policy and the clear revolutionary stands it maintains on all important international key issues.
As a result of the expansionist and hegemonic policy of the United States of America, the Soviet Union, and now China, too, towards the small countries, even when they are not included in blocs and spheres of influence, continuous attempts are being made to impose various forms of dependence on them. Albania has resolutely fought and fearlessly exposed these policies.
Bravely standing up to the many storms which have been crashing around it, Albania has shown everybody that even in the present-day world, fraught with so many dangers, with so many unexpected and unknown elements, the freedom and independence of the Homeland, socialism, the revolutionary principles and ideology can be defended with success when the people are determined to fight to the end, when they are led by a genuine Marxist-Leninist Party and are convinced that they can triumph over the enemies.
1 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 25, p. 86 (Alb. ed.).
2 Enver Hoxha, “Our policy is an open policy, it is the policy of proletarian principles”, Tirana 1974, p. 20, 30 (Alb. ed.).
3 Enver Hoxha, "Our Policy is an open policy, the policy of proletarian principles”, Tirana, 1974, pp. 30-31 (Alb. ed.).
4 Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Congress of the PLA, p. 206 (Alb. ed.).
5 J. V. Stalin, Works, vol. 11, pp. 55-56 (Alb. ed.).
6 Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Congress of the PLA, p. 287 (Alb. ed.).
7 Enver Hoxha, from the Speech at the People's Assembly, December, 27, 1976.
8 Enver Hoxha, Works, vol. 17, pp. 357-358.
9 Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Congress of the PLA, p. 230. (Alb. ed.).
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