[Todos] Bulletin # 9

[fvicent en dm.uba.ar]

Bulletin # 9
Asunto: Un pequeño paraiso comunista

Los primeros 8 bulletins fueron criticas de distintos aspectos del imperio
yanqui. ¿Era mejor el imperio de la URSS? Claro que no pero imagino que
son mierdas muy distintas. No se del comunismo salvo que fue el cuco que
usaron los yanquis despues de la WW2 para justificar sus guerras en
tiempos de paz como la de Vietnam. Y en forma mas directa, Videla y sus
secuaces para liquidar a 30.000 "comunistas".

Para distraerme se me ocurrio aprender sobre el comunismo en accion. Pero
en lugar de meterme con algo grosso como Stalin pense  primero elegir un
dictador comunista chiquito a ver que hizo este hijo de puta. El siguiente
articulo trata de Albania regido por un tal Enver Hoxha. (Texto compactado
por ASS de http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/hoxha.html)

CRONOLOGIA DE ALBANIA BAJO HOXHA DESPUES DE LA WW2

1945 - The provisional government begins to implement communist policies
including rural land reform and the nationalisation of resources,
utilities and infrastructure.

The Assembly initially consists of both communists and noncommunists.
However, the communists move quickly to consolidate their power.

Thousands of their opponents are branded as "war criminals" or "enemies of
the people" and tried and executed. Thousands more are imprisoned in work
camps and jails before being sent into exile on state farms. During the
new government's first two weeks in power more than 600 social leaders are
executed.

All political parties except the Communist Party are banned.

Those purged from the People's Assembly will subsequently be executed.

Future dissent will be crushed by the Sigurimi secret police. It is
estimated that by the time the communist regime finally falls, one in
three Albanians will have either served time in labour camps or been
interrogated by Sigurimi officers.

Enver Hoxha is named prime minister, foreign minister, defence minister,
and the army's commander in chief. He is also the Albanian Communist
Party's first secretary.

It is estimated that in 1946 about 85 percent of Albanians are illiterate.
By 2000 only 15% of the adult population are illiterate.

A personality cult will be developed around Hoxha. He will be portrayed as
the saviour and supreme commander. 'Great Teacher' and 'Sole Force'.
Statues of the dictator will be erected throughout the country.

1946 - Stalinist-style central planning of the economy begins. All
industries are nationalised, the government takes over trade, and
agricultural land is redistributed, with peasant small holdings replacing
large estates. Farm tools and draft animals are nationalised, rural land
sales and transfers are banned, and peasants are required to obtain
government permission to slaughter animals. Peasants are also encouraged
to join collective farms.

1947 - Albania refuses to participate in the US-sponsored Marshall Plan
for the reconstruction of the European economy. Hoxha meets with Stalin in
July.

1948 - Shaky relations with Western powers deteriorate. Britain and the US
respond by launching covert attempts to bring down the regime. Albania
strengthens security measures. In1952 a new law is introduced requiring
the death penalty for anyone over 11 years of age found guilty of
conspiring against the state.

1949 - In January the government issues a 'Decree on Religious
Communities' Religious institutions are banned from participating in the
education, health and welfare systems

At the same time, the health care and education systems are improved,
leading to a decline in infant mortality and the level of illiteracy.

1953 - Stalin dies on 5 March.

1955 - Albania becomes a founding member of the Warsaw Pact

1960 - After Albania begins to receive large amounts of aid from China
Hoxha decides to draw the country away from the influence of the Soviets.
Albania sides with China when a split between the Soviets and the Chinese
becomes public.

1961 - In the face of the ongoing criticism, the Soviet Union cancels aid
programs and lines of credit to Albania. In December the Soviets finally
break diplomatic relations.

1966 - One year after Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung unleashes the 'Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution' on the people of China, Hoxha launches
his own 'Cultural and Ideological Revolution'.

The military is politicised, salaries of white-collar workers are cut, and
bureaucrats and technicians are sent for work experience in factories and
on farms. Dissidents come under attack from the government and students,
school curricula are further restricted, farm collectivisation is widened,
foreign travel is banned.

As cultural traditions are broken down women are given equal rights and
encouraged to take up paid work.

1967 - The suppression of religion intensifies. As part of the Cultural
Revolution, Hoxha calls on students to embark on a struggle against
religious superstition.  By May over two thousand churches, mosques and
monasteries have been closed . Finally, Albanian proclaims itself as the
world's first atheistic state.

1968 - Albania denounces the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and
withdraws from the Warsaw Pact.

1970s - As China starts to wind back its aid, Albania begins to broaden
its contact with foreign governments, opening trade negotiations with
France, Italy, and Asian and African states.  Nevertheless, the fragile
Albanian economy goes into decline, reportedly resulting is widespread
purges.

1976 - After Mao Tse-Tung dies on 9 September Hoxha becomes critical of
the new Chinese regime and the developing rapprochement between China and
the West. The Chinese respond by ending all assistance to Albania.

In december 1976 Albania becomes a socialist republic that formalises
self-sufficiency (autarky) , names Marxism-Leninism as the country's
ideology, and prohibits the government from entering into any financial
dealing with capitalist or revisionist communist countries.

The constitution also bans all "fascist, religious, warmongerish,
antisocialist activity and propaganda." In 1977 prison sentences of three
to 10 years are introduced for "religious propaganda and the distribution
of religious literature."

The self-sufficiency policy will be a failure, with productivity falling
throughout the 1980s, an outcome that is made worse by an attempt to
extend the collectivisation of farms to include livestock.

1981 - Hoxha's long-time ally Mehmet Shehu dies on 18 December. Other
reports claim that Hoxha had him killed. Hoxha purges members of Shehu's
family and his supporters. In November 1982, Hoxha claims that Shehu had
been plotting with US, British, Soviet, and Yugoslav intelligence agencies
to have him assassinated.

1985 - Hoxha dies in the early hours of 11 April. He is later interred in
a tomb at the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation in Tiranë.

Hoxha is succeeded by Ramiz Alia. With Albania's Stalinist economy
teetering on the brink of collapse, the slow process of casting off the
legacy of Hoxha and his regime now begins.

PROSTCRIPT
1990 - Following large demonstrations, strikes, and the exodus of
thousands of Albanians to Italy and Greece, Alia introduces democratic
reforms, including a multiparty political system.

1991 - Albania's first multiparty elections since the 1920s are held in
March and April.  Alia is reelected for a new term as president.
However, following a general strike by thousands of workers, the
government resigns. It is replaced by a coalition of communists,
democrats, republicans, and social democrats.

When the coalition government collapses in December an interim
administration is appointed.

1992 - The Albanian Democratic Party wins a general election held on 22
March,  Sali Berisha becomes Albania's first democratically elected
president in 70 years.

In September Alia and 18 other former communist officials, including
Hoxha's widow, Nexhmije, are arrested and charged with corruption, abuse
of power, and other offences. Nexhmije will be sentenced to 11 years in
jail.

Meanwhile, in early May, Hoxha is disinterred from his tomb at the
Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation and reburied in a public cemetery.
His former tomb is demolished.

1995 - In April Hoxha's son Ilir is arrested and charged with "inciting
hatred among the nationalities and races." He is sentenced to a year in
jail.

PRESEN-DAY Albania remains the poorest countries in Europe, per capita
income was US$1,230 in 2002. The official unemployment rate is 16%, and
30% of the population lives below the poverty line.

COMMENT: While Hoxha was only a small-time killer in comparison to most of
the others featured on this site, he can be accused of suffocating an
entire society near to the point of lifelessness. His isolationist
policies turned Albania into a hermit state jealously guarding its
backwardness while literally only kilometres away neighbours developed
and, to differing degrees, prospered.

The few unreconstructed Stalinists remaining in Europe argue that while
Albanians under Hoxha may have been poor at least they had access to
universal education and health care. They also point to the development of
Albania's industrial sector achieved during Hoxha's reign.  eof
__________________________________________________

Continuaremos explorando la historia sin mucha esperanza de redención. La
intelectual judía Susan Sontag nos da el tenor:

Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it – but let’s not do it,
let’s not look after our own interests! After all, we’re white, members of
an innately evil, vicious and exploitative race. We whites are the serpent
in the ethnic Garden of Eden, the fork-tongued originators of all that is
hateful and harmful in the world. Just imagine what a paradise it would be
without us. No wars, no conflict, no racism – no bigotry or prejudice of
any kind. Everyone would live in peace and harmony, sharing the blessings
bestowed by Mother Nature. The rivers would run with milk and honey, the
skies would fill with sweetly singing bluebirds. Lions would lie down with
lambs, scorpions would refuse to sting, mosquitoes to bite.

Alas, the world isn’t white-free and our innate evil is still wreaking
havoc. It causes oppression and pollution in China, forces blacks to rape
and murder each other in Africa, creates typhoid, cholera and bubonic
plague, makes toast land butter-side-down on a global basis. Yes, there’s
no doubt about it: the white race truly is “the cancer of human history”.