Enver Hoxha: Letters from the people - The fresh breeze of our socialist democracy

Speech delivered at the meeting of the Secretariat of the CC of the PLA

April 11, 1975

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     The letters which the common people send me are invaluable to me. Not only do I read them with great care, but I reflect on them deeply to make a preliminary analysis of the character of the problem, whether personal or of general interest, of the character of the person who writes it, as far as I can gather from the letter, and from this to consider to what extent the things written there are really true. This is the preparatory work I do and, in general, I point out to those who are going to verify the content of the letter, which points they must check up on for me.

     To receive and read the letters of the people is fascinating to me. It would be physically impossible for me to meet and talk face to face with as many people as I would like, and the people would not be able to tell me orally as much as they raise in their letters. What broad horizons the letters from the people open, what interesting things they reveal about people, about their character, their work, the justice and injustice, the favouritism and underhand dealings of some of them, What valuable thing they make known, intentionally or unintentionally, about the social situation, the spirit which prevails, the good and weak aspects of the organs of the state and the Party in the places where the authors live and from which they write these letters.

     It sometimes happens that a simple letter provokes such an impulse in me that it helps me to understand a situation in a district that no report of the party committee has presented previously. An ordinary peasant from Zalldardha, Dibra district, in a short letter he sent me recently, said that «on the orders of the chairman of the cooperative, the brigade-leader with several agricultural workers went to my house and seized the manure from my personal plot,» and he demanded justice.

     You see how simple this letter is, but the injustice and the crime committed against this person are very clear.

     In the margin of this letter I wrote to the first secretary of the Party Committee of the Dibra district, «Is this true and why are things like this permitted? Are measures taken against such crimes? Are the things the peasant says about the chairman of the cooperative true? If so, what class struggle are you waging? Please, reply to all these questions, giving me your opinion on what measures you will take.»

     The first secretary of the district answered in detail, making an analysis of the situation of the Party in the district, and told me, of the measures he thought we at the centre and they at the level of their district should take. These measures are important not only for the life of the Party in the Dibra district, but for the entire Party. And. just the simple letter of a cooperativist brought this about.

     Listen: the event the peasant described turned out to be true and the culprit was handed over to the court.

     All the things he wrote about the chairman of the cooperative turned out to be true. Who was this chairman of the cooperative? A person who had three kulak uncles, a cousin executed, a nephew an agent of the Yugoslav UDB, and his wife's uncle a condemned political criminal. And such a person goes from one function to the other and not only is he a party member, but for four years he has been chairman of the agricultural cooperative. This is scandalous.

     Why has this occurred? The answer given is that he has concealed all these things in his biography, as if he had not come from the village, but from South Africa, so nobody knew his biography!

     The stands of those comrades of the Party and state who pay very little, or no attention at all, to the letters of the people are to be totally condemned. Apart from those letters which are sent to us and over which the comrades in the districts make efforts for better verification and more rapid and just measures, at the base letters are not given the proper attention, serious investigation is not carried out, but they are given a superficial solution. There are cases of favouritism, injustice and arrogance in solving problems, and all these things create discontent which is expressed in the anonymous letters which I receive. These anonymous letters are not all sent by enemies. No, it is very rare for bad elements to send me anonymous letters. The writer of the anonymous letter is not always an enemy simply because he sends an anonymous letter. Mostly these letters are written to explain an unhealthy situation, an injustice committed by someone in power who acts badly against the law, and since he violates the law, the writer of the anony mous letter is afraid to reveal his name lest the person against whom he complains takes revenge against him. It would be better for the author to sign his name, but we must realize that there are people in responsible posts who act badly and take revenge in violation of the law, norms, etc. In connection with many anonymous letters which I send to the base for verification, I notice something characteristic: in their replies, the comrades of the districts write that this, that and the other are true, but not completely, because it occurred like this or like that, etc. Since the letter is anonymous, this is a tendency to make things easier for the accused and thus avoid a confrontation.

     To my mind, and I recommend this to the comrades as well, a letter from the people is one of the frankest, most valuable and most beneficial talks, which makes things clear to us, reveals things to us, criticizes us, advises us and strengthens the Party and the state, denounces enemies, swindlers and liars. Therefore, he who underrates these letters, underrates the directive of the Party and the role of the masses who are building socialism. To underrate the directive of the Party means to leave the field to bureaucracy, despotism, arrogance, to the creation of the new bourgeoisie which wants to dominate the class and the Party. To underrate the letters of the people means to underrate the voice of the masses.

     I would like to receive more letters, not only those arising from a personal problem, discontent, or injustice done to a particular person, but letters in which the person who writes takes the trouble to give me his critical opinion about a problem which he considers important and necessary, to make a good or bad analysis of a situation just as he sees it, to tell me what he thinks should be done, what measures should be taken for the improvement of work, etc. What great benefit the Party and the state will have from these letters!

     I ask: have the possibility to make contact with all these people who have something to say to the Party through me? No, I do not have the possibility! But I have the possibility to study, and I do study, all the letters of the people; and I do not read them to while away the time, because I have no time to waste, but I am, and always will be, very happy to spend a good part of my working day talking to the people, consulting the people, learning from the people through the letters they send me.

     I receive many reports on affairs and I judge from them, the comrades and I consult together, hold discussions, draw conclusions and take decisions. But when I read a letter from five cooperativists of Gjergjevica, Korça district, frankly, I was much clearer about the situation of the united cooperative of Gjergjevica, Voskopoja, Krushova and Shipska than I had been from what I had read in the reports of the Party Committee of the Korça district. I know those villages and the peasants there, because I have been there and fought with them during the war. I know they live better now, but still not as they should. «Oh, that's the mountains,» is what is always said, and then the talk goes on about the plain of Korça. But the mountainous regions must be given more help. These highlanders are forced to go elsewhere to work as bricklayers and then the officials impose fines on them thinking that through administrative measures they can solve these problems of the political economy of socialism. But what is the Party Committee of the Korça district doing? Nothing, it just looks on. For two years on end they have been saying, «we shall annul the fines», and still they have not done so...

     I want these opinions to reach the ears of the people. Some say, and this I have heard, «We can write to Comrade Enver, but the letters don't reach him, they don't give them to him.» There is not a shred of truth in this. I receive all the letters. I have comrades especially to handle them, who prepare them for me and I read them all, take notes on them, send people to investigate, because it is necessary to verify many things on the spot, since often there are subjective things, and exaggerations and sometimes it turns out that some people who write to me do not tell the truth. Therefore, attention must be paid at the base to the implementation of instructions.

     Perhaps sometimes there may be gaps in my judgments and in the investigation that I order, the party committees of the districts may not be objective in all cases in the replies they send me or may not carry out the correct instructions and decisions which are recommended to them in the proper way. What should be done in these cases? The person interested should write to me again, but objectively, correctly, to inform me how the question was solved, what he was and what he was not told, otherwise a vicious circle will be created and the P problems will never be solved. The writer of the letter must be objective, therefore, when he writes the letter he himself must think how to facilitate the proper solution of the problem, be it personal or of a general character.

     It is very important not only to study and solve correctly the problems which are raised in the letters of the people, but also to preserve and classify the letters, because they are invaluable to the sociologists, economists, historians, scholars and specialists in party affairs, because from them conclusions can be drawn about the development of the class struggle, of antagonistic and non-antagonistic contradictions, about the progress as well as about the undesirable acts and methods which hinder this progress.

     The letters of the people show the level of participation of the people in party and state affairs, they reflect the level of development of the proletarian people's democracy in our country, they show the people in action and activity, their close, intimate and sincere contacts with their elected leaders. Whoever, hinders such an activity, whoever disparages or smothers it must be severely punished. This must be understood and openly denounced as an evil. If it occurs, it does so only because there are people who direct badly. Then, what should be done against those who lead badly, who underrate, disparage or stifle this source of popular strength, this strong fresh breeze of the people's democracy? They must be removed from the leading positions and be replaced by honest, simple, diligent persons who care for the people.

     Our people understand that the state power is theirs, that all laws and rules operate and must operate for their benefit. Faced with an injustice done by someone in power, the common man, who has justice on his side in our country, must never feel isolated and think that he is in a position of inequality: «on the one side the official vested with power which he misuses, and on the other side he who is not power, but has justice on his side.» No! The man who has justice on his side is a colossus, because he has the entire people, the Party, the state power of the proletarians with him, while he who has got into power dishonestly, or has degenerated, amounts to no more than a fly, a maggot which must be got rid of.

     The Party should work to erase from the people's mentality the bourgeois ideology about state power and the omnipotence of those in power. The people must learn, understand and apply in practice the Marxist-Leninist theory on the state power of the proletarians. No one should think that we know, understand and implement this properly. We must be realistic. All of us are elected. But, by whom? By the people among whom we work. Irrespective of our rank the people elect and approve of us, therefore, they should also dismiss us when we do not work well. But is this procedure carried out properly? No! Why? Because bureaucracy does not permit it. There must be the directory and the cadres office to propose the cadre, to draw up his biography, but then when it comes to accepting him or not, let the masses thrash the question out thoroughly and the decision to appoint him must not be taken simply because this is what the director, the committee, or the minister want. All these instructions and directives, this correct line, the Party has made clear. Then why is it not carried out properly? Because people do not have sufficient understanding of the philosophy, the ideology, the policy and the organizational forms of the Party. Therefore, all of us must understand them and all must fight hard to see that they are applied.

«Reports and Speeches 1974-1975»

https://www.marxists.org/.../hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol4.pdf