"Our Marxist-Leninist theory teaches us that the deepening of crises within the capitalist world is the beginning of the death agony and coma of this world. Therefore, world capital is making desparate efforts to escape from this terrible grip which has it by the throat and is strangling it. But escape is impossible, because it is the capitalist system itself which gives birth to the crisis, which fosters it and intensifies it to the higher degree. The temporary or relatively long-term treaties and agreements between imperialists are only palliatives, they are built on sand”
Enver Hoxha
Now, there is alot of dissent against Enver Hoxha in the Marxist-Leninist camps and I can't see why so, I'm gonna help provide a basic run down of Hoxhaism and its correctness. First I'm gonna provide a basic explanation from Marxism-Stalinism:
Marxism grew out of criticism of the pre- Marxist socialist views, from the demarcation of all ideas and theories of the petty bourgeoisie and the emerging middle class on socialism, which were accompanied by the newly-born capitalist society. With Marxism, for the first time, an independent ideology of the working class was created . Marxism was the first scientific foundation of communism, created and spread all over the world, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
Leninism grew out of the struggle for the defense of Marxism against such petty-bourgeois and bourgeois notions and theories that had been disguised in a "Marxist" cloak. This was needed to camouflage the bourgeois revision of Marxism. The intention of this bourgeois ideology is to deceive the uprising proletariat and to lead the proletariat away from the socialist revolution which inevitably bursts out - caused by the contradictions of world imperialism. With the development of capitalism to world imperialism, Marxism developed further to Leninism in the struggle against reformism and revisionism. Leninism is the actual theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general. Leninism is the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in particular.
Stalinism evolved from the struggle in defense of Marxism-Leninism, in the period when socialism in one country prevailed over capitalism, and when the victory of the first socialist state began to expand around the world. Stalinism was the ideological weapon of the socialist working class against such notions and theories by which capitalism should be restored, by which the advance of world socialism should be stopped, and by which the Soviet Union of Lenin and Stalin should be destroyed. Stalinism developed further in the struggle for the socialist transformation of the Soviet Union into a communist country. Stalinism was the ideological basis of the socialist world camp, the stepping stone of the triumphal procession of world communism.
With the struggle against the social-chauvinist Yugoslav ( first revisionism in power), Stalinism became the basis of the development of Hoxhaism. Beginning with the struggle against Yugoslav revisionism, Hoxhaism developed as the world-proletarian, ideological weapon for the fight against the global spreading of modern revisionism at power. Thus, Hoxhaism arose when modern revisionism was already in power for the purpose to liquidate the new Marxist-Leninist world movement and to destroy the last socialist country - Albania. Hoxhaism developed as a self-contained theory and tactics for the defense of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the anti -revisionist and anti-socialimperialist struggle of the world proletariat, for breaking through the encirclement of the capitalist- revisionist world. Hoxhaism is the scientific expression of the highest stage of social development of the ruling proletariat in the period of the capitalist-revisionist encirclement.
The anti-revisionist, international character of Hoxhaism appeared precisely with the speech of Comrade Enver Hoxha on 16 November 1960, at the Moscow Conference of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties. This was not only a demonstration against anti-Stalinism. For the first time, Enver Hoxha represented the reviolutionary interests of the entire world proletariat and of all the peoples in their liberation struggle against imperialism and revisionism, for freedom, independence and socialism. Hoxhaism emerged from the struggle for communism and the socialist world revolution against the bourgeois- revisionist counter-revolution, which served to the restoration of the sole reign of world capitalism.
Wherein consists historically the internationalist nature of Hoxhaism ?
The Hoxhaism was the only correct Marxist-Leninist weapon against this new imperialist/social-imperialist challenge, namely:
- to defend and strengthen the socialist world in the struggle against modern revisionism
- to fight against the restoration of capitalism under the terms of the rule of the capitalist-revisionist world
Hoxhaism is the doctrine of the anti-fascist struggle for liberation and the people's revolution against fascism, its transition to the socialist revolution, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the building of socialism in a feudal and mainly underdeveloped agricultural country.The teachings of Enver Hoxha are the teachings for the victorious construction of socialism in the period of the restoration of capitalism, are the teachings of full developed socialism by relying on one's own forces and successful struggle of breaking through the capitalist-revisionist encirclement, in particular by means of the Marxist-Leninist World Movement and the anti-imperialist forces of the peoples.Hoxhaism has proven that not only the weakest imperialist power can sucessfully be broken away from the world imperialist chain (as the Leninist theory has proven) but even a country in which capitalism was still not developed, thus the transition to socialism without the intermediate stage of capitalism.Hoxhaism has proven historically that the proletarian dictatorship of even a small country like Albania can become the world centre of communism, the lever and basis of the socialist world revolution.Hoxhaism is the ideological weapon for holding high the banner of Marxism-Leninism and for its defense of over 40 years against the whole capitalist-revisionist world.
Now, Hoxha contributed many specific things...
The armed uprising and the creation of the people’s armed forces passed through three main stages:
In the first stage, the basis was laid for the general armed uprising and for the organization of the regular national liberation army. In this stage guerrilla units, regular partisan çetas and battalions and volunteer territorial self-defence units were set up, and the general moral-political preparation of the masses of the people for the armed uprising was carried out.
In the second stage, the war was turned into a general uprising of the people, the partisan çetas and battalions were organized in the centralized National Liberation Army, led by a general staff. The partisan brigades and groups were formed in this stage. The military administration in the rear was set up, too.
In the third stage, the people’s general uprising led to the expulsion of the occupiers and the complete liberation of the country, to the wiping out of the reactionary organizations and armed forces, tools of the occupiers, to the complete destruction of the state apparatus of the occupiers and traitors. In this stage, the National Liberation Army as a whole was changed into the regular army of the Albanian people and the Albanian state of people’s democracy.
The uprising found its inspiration and began in the cities.
As it extended and grew stronger, the centre of gravity passed to the countryside. The countryside became the main base of the uprising and the peasantry its main force. At the same time, the uprising as a whole was being extended and deepened in the cities, too.
Also, In the economic field the revolution has achieved two main objectives. First, the economic base of the landowners and the bourgeoisie has been eliminated, private ownership of the means of production has been wiped out and replaced with socialist social ownership, both in town and countryside. Second, the economic backwardness and the one-sided structure of the economy, which consisted mainly of small-scale agricultural production, has been liquidated, and a new, multi-branched structure has been built, consisting of large-scale industrial and agricultural production, relying mainly on the use of modern technique.
By means of nationalization, the big and medium capitalist property in the city was liquidated and replaced by socialist social property. The form of state capitalism was not used.
The nationalization was carried out in a profoundly revolutionary way, based on expropriation without compensation.
The private property of the small-scale producers of the towns was changed into socialist property by means of the voluntary uniting of these producers in cooperatives of artisans which, in the long run, merged into state enterprises.
The private property of small-scale producers in the countryside was changed into cooperativist social property by means of the collectivization of agriculture. The collectivization was begun and completed without the prior nationalization of the land owned by the small producers and which, according to the law, they could not sell and buy, and without waiting for the prior industrialization of the country, but parallel with the rise and development of the new socialist industry. In the process of the collectivization of agriculture and the development of industry, the material-technical base of large-scale socialist production was created in the countryside, too, while the nationalization of the land was carried out de jure in the new Constitution of 1976.
The collectivization of agriculture was done on the basis of convincing the peasantry of the superiority of the socialist system of agriculture. With the help of the Party, it created this conviction from its own experience. The Party has always strictly applied the Leninist principle of the free will of the peasants to unite in cooperatives. The middle peasants, like the poor peasants, embraced the road of collectivization and entered the cooperatives en masse.
The only form which was used for the collectivization was the agricultural cooperative of production, based on social ownership of the means of production, work in common and the distribution of the product solely on the basis of the work done by each member of the cooperative.
The socialist industrialization of the country served as the main key to the development of the productive forces and the construction of a many-sided economy. Industrialization created real possibilities for the setting up and development of new branches of the economy, for the creation of an advanced, multi-branched agriculture and for its intensification.
Last but not least you had Hoxhas Cultural Revolution:
In the mid-1960s, Albania's leaders grew wary of a threat to their power by a burgeoning bureaucracy. Party discipline had eroded. People complained about malfeasance, inflation, and low-quality goods. Writers strayed from the orthodoxy of socialist realism, which demanded that art and literature serve as instruments of government and party policy. As a result, after Mao unleashed the Cultural Revolution in China in 1965, Hoxha launched his own Cultural and Ideological Revolution. The Albanian leader concentrated on reforming the military, government bureaucracy, and economy as well as on creating new support for his Stalinist system. The regime abolished military ranks, reintroduced political commissars into the military, and renounced professionalism in the army. Railing against a "white-collar mentality," the authorities also slashed the salaries of mid- and high-level officials, ousted administrators and specialists from their desk jobs, and sent such persons to toil in the factories and fields. Six ministries, including the Ministry of Justice, were eliminated. Farm collectivization spread to even the remote mountains. In addition, the government attacked dissident writers and artists, reformed its education system, and generally reinforced Albania's isolation from European culture in an effort to keep out foreign influences.
In 1967 the authorities conducted a violent campaign to extinguish religious life in Albania, claiming that religion had divided the Albanian nation and kept it mired in backwardness. Student of agitators combed the countryside, forcing Albanians to quit practicing their faith. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions had been closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, and workshops by year's end. A special decree abrogated the charters by which the country's main religious communities had operated. The campaign culminated in an announcement that Albania had become the world's first atheistic state, a feat touted as one of Enver Hoxha's greatest achievements (see Hoxha's Antireligious Campaign, ch. 2).
Traditional kinship links in Albania, centered on the patriarchal family, were shattered by the postwar repression of clan leaders, collectivization of agriculture, industrialization, migration from the countryside to urban areas, and suppression of religion. The postwar regime brought a radical change in the status of Albania's women. Considered second-class citizens in traditional Albanian society, women performed most of the work at home and in the fields. Before World War II, about 90 percent of Albania's women were illiterate, and in many areas they were regarded as chattels under ancient tribal laws and customs. During the Cultural and Ideological Revolution, the party encouraged women to take jobs outside the home in an effort to compensate for labor shortages and to overcome their conservatism. Hoxha himself proclaimed that anyone who trampled on the party's edict on women's rights should be "hurled into the fire."
From this, came a ton of achievements;
Mehmet Shehu, then premier of Albania, summarised the victories of Albanian socialism in the following terms: “The health service is free of charge for all and has been extended to the remotest villages. In 1960, we had one doctor per every 3,360 inhabitants; in 1978, we had one doctor per every 687 inhabitants, and this despite the rapid growth of the population. The natural increase of the population in our country is 3.5 times higher than the annual average of European countries, whereas mortality in 978 was 37 percent lower than the average level of mortality in the countries of Europe, and the average life expectancy in our country has risen, from about 38 years in 1938 to 69 years. That is, for each year of the existence of our people’s state power, the average life expectancy has risen by about 11 months. That is what socialism does for man! Is there a loftier humanism than socialist humanism, which, in 35 years, doubles the average life expectancy of the whole population of the country?” (‘The magnificent
balance of victories in the course of 35 years of Socialist Albania (Speech)’, 28 November 1979)
When it comes to wages and taxes;
The PLA took care of establishing a relationship as correct as possible between the wages of the cadres and the workers and collective peasants, a relationship which did not allow any significant differences in wages. At the same time the PLA fought against tendencies of petty-bourgeois egalitarianism in wages which is alien and harmful to socialism, too. At the beginning of the 80s the relationship between the average wage of a worker and the salary of a plant manager in the corresponding branch was 1:1.7, the relationship between the average wage of a worker and the salary of a department head in the ministry around 1:2, the relationship between the lowest and the highest wages of the workers within the specific branch around 1:1.5-1.65, etc. The relationship between wages is defined by law.
In developing and implementing the tax policy towards the people, the Party of Labour of Albania was always aware that taxes are a temporary historical category. Therefore it prepared, step by step and with the utmost care, all the necessary conditions to abolish it. On November 8, 1969 very important measures were taken to eliminate the system of taxes and other direct charges for the population completely. This is because the area of the socialist relations of production had expanded and the productive forces of the country developed rapidly. The share of taxes and fees of the population in the income of the state budget was 92 percent in the fiscal year 1945-1946 (the first year of liberation), in 1950 it had fallen to 12.6 percent and to 2.7 percent in 1960; 1969 it was only
0.1 percent.
The process in which the taxes and fees have been abolished for the people did not take place at once and not in an administrative process. The taxes were abolished gradually, while simultaneously the socialist sector of the economy developed and the class structure of the country changed.
Article 31 of the Constitution states: “The citizens pay no taxes and fees.”
Even the retirement policies;
The Albanian socialist legislation does not define an uniform limit on the retirement age or on the length of service. The retirement age and years of service necessary for obtaining a pension were determined primarily by the difficulty of the work and by the gender. The more difficult the work is, the lower is the retirement age. According to this principle the workers were divided in three categories regarding the retirement age: The first category includes the working people who do work that is considered very hard. In this case, the pension age for women was set at 45 years and for men at 50 years. The required period of service for women was 15 years and for men 20 years.
This category includes the workers who were working underground, some occupations in the metallurgy and chemical industry, the working people who work at the blast furnaces, on metal melting and casting, etc., the workers involved in the production of ammonium nitrate and superphosphate. Similarly, the working people who are exposed to radioactive substances and ionising irradiation belong to this category, further some occupations in the civilian air traffic as well as in education and in the field of culture, like dancers, acrobats, circus performers, musicians who play wind instruments, members of dance companies, etc. In the health sector the radiologist, the staff of the cobalt therapy departments and others are included.
The second category includes the workers who carry out less heavy work than that of the first category. For them the retirement age is set to 50 years for women and to 55 years for men, the length of service to 20 or 25 years. The right to a pension under this category belongs to the workers in some occupations in oil and gas industry, a number of other occupations in metallurgy and chemical industries, who do a less hard work than those of the first category. Similarly, some occupations among this category were geology, the textile industry, leather industry, the tobacco industry, some jobs in the commercial fleet; furthermore the fishing workers, teachers, surgeons, psychiatrists and others are covered in this group.
The third category includes all workers who carry out other work that does not belong to the first or second category. The retirement age in this case is 55 years for women and 60 for men, the length of service 20 or 25 years.
In order to receive a pension at the age of 45, 50 or 55 years, it is sufficient when the worker was active for three quarters of his service in one of these occupations. For the workers in the mines, it is sufficient if they had spent half their working lives underground in order to obtain the pension of the first category. For example, if a miner of a chrome mine who has worked 10 years underground, changed at his own request to a work in another place, say as a mechanic in a metal processing plant, where he will work another 10 years, then he was entitled to a full retirement pension at the age of 50 years because he had spent half his service underground. For some special categories of workers pensions are provided at even more favourable conditions.
These, for example, include mothers with many children, the blind, deaf and persons with congenital physical damage. The former – the mothers with many children – may retire after 15 years of service and at the age of 50 years, if they gave birth to six or more children and raised them till the age of eight years. Blind, etc., receive pension after 15 (men) or 10 (women) years of service if they are 50 or 40 years of age.
There is also a pension “for special merits.” This pension goes to persons who made an enormous contribution in the great anti-fascist National Liberation War, or who decorated themselves in the field of science, technology, culture, in public or social branches of the economy. In the period of socialist construction not only the workers from the city, but also those of the village received the benefits of the pension. The pension was for the working people of town and country alike, it was 70 percent of their salary. For the calculation of this pension the worker had the right to pick the highest wage he received for three consecutive years in the last 10 years.
Other accomplishments include:
Hoxha distributed more than 50% of the land to the peasants and working class.
Hoxha improved literacy rates to nearly 100 percent.
Hoxha established numerous schools and the first University of Albania.
Hoxha established legitimate infrastructure; roads, hospitals, schools, etc.
Hoxha eradicated numerous diseases such as syphilis.
Hoxha allowed the right to bear arms and trained many Albanians in combat.
Hoxha established womens rights.
Hoxha successfully defended against Greek, Italian, and other incoming fascists.
Hoxha recognized the revisionism of the Yugoslavs before Mao.
Hoxha successfully initiated his own cultural revolution, while understanding the reasoning behind Mao’s failures.
Hoxha helped reduce tribal warfare and feuds.
Hoxha abolished direct taxation.
Hoxha exposed revisionism wherever it existed [Mao, Tito, Khrushchev, etc].
Hoxha resisted the demands made by the post-Stalin revisionists of the Soviet Union, which would have essentially turned Albania into a neo-colony.
Hoxha left Albania with barely any foreign debt.
Hoxha established workers control of the means of production and workers democracy.
In conclusion, Hoxhaism is a real extension of Marxism-Leninism Stalinism and follows closely to the correct Marxist-Leninist line to achieve world communism and abolishment of world revisionist movement and remove the contradictions
[Contradictions between socialism and capitalism
between labour and capital
between oppressed peoples and Imperialism
between the imperialist powers] as analyzed by Lenin and Stalin. Despite his mistakes (how he handled religion toward the end, his ban on homosexuality as well as other minor mistakes) Enver Hoxha fought against revisionism in a scientific and concrete way, fought bureaucracy, defending Stalin, furthered Lenins theories on Imperialism, revolution, socialism in one country and others and should be held as nothing less then the 5th architect of Marxism-Leninism.
LONG LIVE HOXHA!
"Marxism-Leninism is the triumphant ideology.
He who embraces, defends and develops it, is a member of the glorious army of the revolution, of that great and invincible army of genuine communists, who are leading the proletariat and all the oppressed to transform the world, to destroy capitalism and to build the new world, the socialist world”
(Enver Hoxha, “Imperialism and Revolution”, Tirana 1979).
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