The Dictatorship of the Proletariat in Albania

2023 Update

The following article, originally published in 2018, contained some remarks deviating from the foundations of historical materialism and scientific socialist construction. While unions indeed play a major role in the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party plays the bigger role. The 2018 version of this article did account for the importance of the role of the Party but did not give it sufficient weight.

The article was not well-sourced. Rather than use confessions from anti-socialist sources to support pro-socialist conclusions, the article contained citations of William Bland and William Ash, two known supporters of People's Democratic Albania.

The article also used the phrase "Albania under Enver Halil Hoxha" rather than the "Albania under the Hoxha faction"; the former could imply one-man rule, whereas the latter implies a collective rule arising from a certain class alliance, in this case the alliance of the proletarians and kolkhozniks.

Most of the erroneous parts of the article have been taken out in this update.

Saed T.

August 10, 2023

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In Albania, the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), the party of the proletariat held firm control over the state. Albania, unlike other non-Soviet Eastern European states was a single-party state, with only the Party of Labour being in power in the government. One key method of entrenching the dictatorship of the proletariat is the rise of the working class in terms of the composition of the Party. As clearly shown in this article, the working class made up the largest portion of the Party. In addition, the Party held a proletarian, anti-revisionist line, and built Albania upon the principles of scientific socialism.

Composition of the Party of Labour of Albania

The Albanian Communist Party, later renamed as the Party of Labour of Albania, led the guerrilla war against the Fascist occupation of Albania by the Axis Powers during World War II.

In 1941, the Party membership was only about 200 people. By the 1980s, it would reach 122,600 members.

By 1952, 74.1% of the members came from the "poorer" strata of society, many of whom were from the peasant class. The Party of Labour of Albania was described as "fundamentally a party of poor peasants."

However, the Party's emphasis on rapid industrialization through prioritizing the investments in heavy industry caused the rise of the population of the industrial working class. As such, the number of the workers in the Party increased as well.

By the 1981, the population of industrial workers in the Party had increased to 38%, the cooperativist peasants to 29.4% and the rest were such figures as government officials, intelligentsia, and the armed forces. The fact that the industrial workers formed the largest class in the Party was one mechanism through which the workers held control over the Party, and therefore the state.

There was also a greater effort to incorporate women into the Party. In 1971, only 22% of the members were women. In 1976, they made up 27%. In 1981, they made up 30% of the Party. The overwhelming majority of those admitted to the party during 1971-1976 were below 30 years old.

(...). According to the US Library of Congress:

"Founded in 1945, the United Trade Unions of Albania had tasks that were similar to those of the Democratic Front, but on a more limited scale. The organization's main goal was to carry out political and ideological education of the work force and to mobilize support for the implementation of the party line. The United Trade Unions of Albania consisted of three general unions: the Union of Workers of Industry and Construction; the Union of Education and Trade Workers; and the Union of Agriculture and Procurements Workers. The unions operated according to the principle that the interests of the workers and the state were one and the same. But toward the end of the 1980s, it became increasingly clear that workers no longer identified with the state. Growing disillusionment with social values was reflected in the significant increase in theft of socialist property, corruption, and violation of labor discipline."

References

Ash, W. (n.d.). Pickaxe and Rifle: The Story of the Albanian People : William Ash : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. Retrieved October 5, 2018, from https://archive.org/details/PickaxeRifle/page/n87

Bland, W. B. (n.d.). The Trade Unions of Albania. Retrieved October 5, 2018, from http://ciml.250x.com/archive/albania/albanian_trade_unions.html

Schnytzer, A. (1982). Stalinist economic strategy in practice: The case of Albania. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Staar, R. (n.d.). Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe: Fourth Edition. Retrieved August 19, 2018, from https://books.google.ca/books?id=ugeMgomY7hAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onephttps://books.google.ca/books?id=ugeMgomY7hAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=falseage&q&f=false

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