Interview with Ubaldo Buttafava

Interview with Ubaldo Buttafava Secretary of the Central Committee of the Organization for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy

Rome, March 22, 1997

Q. The bourgeois press in the United States only says that there is anarchy in Albania, and that the rebellion was due to the pyramid money schemes. What are the real facts, and what is the situation in the last days?

A. The popular rebellion in Albania is the product of an economic, social and political crisis which has matured over the last year. It is the result, in the first place, of the reformism of Ramiz Alia and Fatos Nano inaugurated in 1991 at the Xth Congress of the PLA with the expulsion from the Party and from political office of those faithful to Enver Hoxha and the defense of socialism; and in the second place to the "Democratic" politics of Sali Berisha who has demonstrated a neo-colonial policy of subservience to the U.S.A. and to Italy.

The popular rebellion is made up internally of diverse political forces, among them the new Communist Party of Albania.

Q. What are the perspectives of the struggle, and what is the possibility that this struggle will lead to the re-establishment of socialism in Albania?

A. The Albanian crisis will not be brief, it will be a component of the revolutionary movement which is arising in the whole Balkans and the ex-USSR.

The perspective of the struggle in Albania is linked to the possibility of giving a stable character to the movement; to the creation of a unified and long-term political leadership; to the foreign intervention and to the unmasking of the reformism of the Socialist Party which is linked to Europe. The main obstacle to the socialist perspective in Albania is represented by the Socialist Party. The Communist Party of Albania is rapidly developing, but one must consider that in the last years it has been in a state of complete illegality and subject to fascist repression; recently two members of the Central Committee were condemned to three and a half years in prison for the simple possession of political documents.

Q. What is the role of the Communist Party of Albania in the struggle?

A. The Communist Party of Albania, which held its Congress in the summer of 1996, follows the general line outlined by the great Marxist-Leninist Enver Hoxha, the line of revolution for socialism, and with this aim it calls to the struggle all the patriotic forces which are fighting for liberty, independence and sovereignty.

Certainly during the last 15 years reformism and capitalist ideology have create much confusion, but in Albania there is a strong national sentiment and a spirit of struggle.

Q. What has been the role of the Socialist Party?

A. The Socialist Party is a typical social-democratic party which openly supports capitalism, bourgeois democracy, integration into Europe and NATO. It is the true obstacle to the revolution and the principal counter-revolutionary force; but in these days it is being unmasked in the eyes of the masses.

Q. To what extent have the U.S. and European imperialists been militarily involved, and what do you think is the possibility that, if the struggle threatens to overthrow the Berisha government, that they will send in troops in mass?

A. There is a united front against the popular rebellion: Berisha, the Socialist Party, Europe and the United States. If the government of Berisha and Bashkim Fino should not be able to halt the rebellion there will be massive military intervention from Europe supported by the United States. There will be a new Vietnam which will ignite the Balkans. At this moment Italy is about to intervene at Durazzo and Valona to encircle the popular rebellion.