The Communist Party of Albania (PKSH) has expressed its full support for the ongoing student protests against the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, condemning police repression and calling on workers and the broader population to stand alongside the protesting youth.
In a statement published by party chairman Qemal Cicollari, the PKSH described the students’ demands as entirely just and legitimate, denouncing high education fees, deteriorating living conditions and the hardships faced by young people under capitalism.
The communists condemned police violence against demonstrators, while sharply criticizing both Rama’s ruling Socialist Party and Sali Berisha’s opposition Democratic Party. According to the PKSH, both represent bourgeois political interests and seek to exploit popular discontent for their own political purposes. The party also denounced anti-communist slogans heard during the demonstrations, stressing the historic role of Albanian communists in the struggle against fascism.
The PKSH’s intervention coincided with the 118th anniversary of Enver Hoxha’s birth on October 16. During a commemorative gathering at Hoxha’s grave, attended by communist activists from Tirana and surrounding districts, Cicollari and PKSH Central Committee Secretary Shahin Çaça laid a wreath in honor of the former Albanian leader. Addressing the gathering, Cicollari reaffirmed the communists’ solidarity with the protesting students. Contrasting the achievements of socialist Albania with the hardships facing young people today, he recalled that education was free and university graduates were guaranteed employment under socialism. He urged students to continue their struggle, reject manipulation by the country’s established bourgeois parties and draw lessons from Albania’s socialist past.
Linking the Albanian protests with the growing student mobilizations in France and elsewhere in Europe, the PKSH called on its members, sympathizers, the working class and all working people to support the demonstrations.
“The Communist Party of Albania calls on students to continue protesting until their just and legitimate demands are met”, the party declared.
From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.