A new year – but nothing has changed

Posted on by
Reply

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

A new year – but nothing has changed

2021 was barely a day old before we were forced to realise that the new year would be no better than the old. Yet another U-turn by the Buffoon’s Government – this time on schools re-opening after the holiday – more confusion and the almost certainty of lock down number 3.

If people were expecting a new start then they were disappointed. The same inept, confused and bewildered politicians are still in ‘control’.

For some 2020 has been a disastrous year (loss of jobs, loss of income, loss of life) and we have been told innumerable times that we were living through ‘unprecedented’ times. That’s not really true, there are epidemics raging throughout the world all the time – it’s just that the latest one has had a severe impact upon the more wealthy countries in the world (and they can’t cope with it).

In many ways Britain (as have so many countries in Europe) has gotten off relatively lightly. Yes, the heaviest burden has fallen on those in the country who are less able to bear the strain (the sick, the elderly, the poor) but they’re the ones who, historically, have always suffered most when the norms of society break down (be it economic crashes or war).

For those the temptation is to forget what has happened in the last nine, going on ten, months. To think of the future – which may not be so bad – rather than remember the past – which we know was.

However that would be a mistake. The pandemic has not caused many of the problems that exist in British society but it has definitely highlighted many of the disparities, inequities and downright criminal situation in which far too many of the population live. But that is capitalism.

In good times the problems can get easily swept under the carpet and forgotten by the majority who are managing, more or less well, but at least able to exist in a reasonable manner. Throwing a few pence in a charity tin, buying a copy of the Big Issue or putting a few groceries in the collecting bins for food banks after a supermarket shop enables people to think they are doing some good and helping those more in need, ‘less fortunate’.

The pandemic, or more importantly, the manner in which it has been mismanaged has shown that there are huge numbers of working people who are on a knife edge when it comes to a crisis. The increased use of food banks is a clear example of that.

So people shouldn’t forget 2020. Quite the opposite. If they wish to have long term security they should remember the lessons of how they have been treated by a system that exists for no other reason than to make profit from the labour of others.

Capitalism’s representatives throughout the world have proven themselves incapable of dealing with extreme circumstances. They have wandered from one inept and poorly thought through action to another and we are no closer to living virus free now than we were just short of a year ago.

Their ineptness in the past has reduced the number of ways forward. They have created such a chaotic situation that it is luck which is going to get us back to some semblance of normality, not any strategic thinking.

At the moment, on the eve of the announcement of a further lock down in England, we should remember who brought us to this state of affairs. If we forget (just to make ourselves feel better) then we will be facing the same situation in the not too distant future.

Like the many natural occurrences that will be catastrophic to humanity (for example, the earthquake that will be caused by the San Andreas Fault in California) it’s not a matter of if, it’s when.

How prepared was Britain for the pandemic?

An update following a report produced years ago (2009) by its author on BBC Radio 4’s the World at One on the 29th December.

What is the risk of infection?

An analysis of this issue was discussed on Radio 4’s World at One on 29th December.

Vaccines and vaccination programme

As virtually all the governments of the world were totally inept and unable to come up with a strategy to defeat the covid virus they all put their faith in a vaccine that would take the responsibility away form themselves. That being the case, and placing all their eggs in one basket, why wasn’t there a ‘task force’ given the job of working out all the potential problems and pit-falls that would accompany a nationwide vaccination programme?

There were months when all these details could have been worked out; who would get the vaccine first and in what order would the rest of the population follow; how would the vaccines be distributed; who would be needed to administer the injections and the establishment of a resister of those who could assist in this process, i.e. retired NHS staff; what sort of campaign would be launched to ensure the greatest possible take up; what sort of documentation could be provided to help people return to a ‘normal’ life when aspects of society start to demand proof of vaccination before people could take part in certain activities (this is being denied now but it will almost certainly creep into all societies worldwide as the year goes on); establishing the policy of vaccinating the greatest number or ensuring those in the highest risk bracket get the highest level of protection first; and understanding and managing the general logistical problems associated with vaccinating a population of 60 million plus people in the shortest time possible.

So there is little reason to be confident that the magic solution to the pandemic will be introduced smoothly.

A couple of other points on the vaccination programme.

When the Buffoon makes wild promises we should remember what happened about those in the past. Have people already forgotten the ‘world beating’ testing system that would be testing tens of thousands way back in May. Those really insignificant figures weren’t met – apart from magically on the date ‘promised’. So his claim of 2 million vaccinations per week have to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Also, the idea of postponing the second vaccination for those who had already been given the very first vaccines in the country might well have a lot of validity. (Is not a vaccine that ‘needs’ two shots just another scam by the pharmaceutical companies to increase their profits anyway?) However this news is being delivered to people who had already been made frightened of their own shadow by the fear campaign of the Government over the last ten months to obtain compliance of their knee jerk policies. It just demonstrates, yet again, no strategic thinking and a contempt for people in general.

Mistakes sometimes lead to positive outcomes. Oxford vaccine mix up came from scientists misreading the strength of Italian manufacturers’ supply.

If a cure isn’t enough try prevention. Antibody therapy could confer instant immunity to Covid-19 on at-risk groups.

Or use what’s already been around for a long time. Dexamethasone demonstrates power of large-scale, randomised trials in finding effective medicines

But it’s not all good news. Many medics ‘frustrated’ about low priority given to front line staff at high risk of infection.

Will it happen here? Spain to keep register of those who refuse Covid vaccine.

Israel vaccinates half a million in nine days – but how many were Palestinian?

The question most people are asking – when will you be eligible for the covid vaccine?

There was no doubt that it would have been approved, but it was left to virtually the end of 2020 before the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine approved for use in UK.

Race to roll out Oxford covid vaccine to stave off third lock down – although it’s now looking like the English variant is winning that particular race.

Tesco offers to help with roll-out of Oxford vaccine.

Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine roll out plan changed following approval. But that’s all right, the approval was only a formality. So the vaccine is approved with the proviso that the second injection is within three weeks. Then the Government decides (‘following the scientific advice’) that it’s Ok to delay the second jab until 12 weeks after the first. So is it approved or not?

12-week vaccine gap defended by UK medical chiefs.

Doctors call for rapid roll out of vaccines – which makes sense but has the infrastructure been put in place?

Medics complain of ‘bureaucracy’ in bid to join covid vaccine effort.

Chris Whitty moves to head off General Practitioners’ (GP’s) rebellion over Pfizer covid vaccine doses

Retired medics trying to help covid vaccination drive say offers being ignored.

The Liverpool ‘pilot’

‘We are now in the Systematic Meaningful Asymptomatic Repeated Testing or ‘Smart’ phase of our testing pilot. This is phase 2 and picks up from the successful mass testing pilot in November 2020 that helped Liverpool City Region secure Tier 2 status.’ (Liverpool City Council website, accessed 31st December 2020)

From about the middle of December the various sites were NOT open weekends and Bank Holidays. We are supposed to be in a war yet the centres take a day off – does the virus? Most centres were busy in the days leading up to the 25th and 31st December – due to people wanting to see if they were infected before meeting up with family, This provides no useful information about the efficacy of testing asymptomatic people. Other than that the centres are all very quiet and their continued value is questionable.

From 31st December, Liverpool is in the higher Tier 3 – so what’s the reason for the testing? It’s considered to be flawed due to false negatives, it’s not really getting the numbers that it should, and it hasn’t kept Liverpool out of the higher Tier. Just seems, now, to be throwing good money after bad.

Not sure where the so-called ‘pilot’ fits into a locked down future as Liverpool’s acting mayor calls for yet another one.

Nightingale Hospitals and systemic failings in the NHS

At some time in the future there should be a review of the whole concept of these ‘Nightingale Hospitals’. Were they just another knee jerk response to show that the Government was doing something – whilst at the same time throwing millions of pounds of public money into the bank accounts of their friends? Could/can they ever have been used to the full? Wasn’t it realised that there might be a problem of staffing given the shortages of experienced staff existing in the National Health Service (NHS) long before anyone thought of a pandemic? As it stands at the moment they seem to be just a herd of white elephants.

In the meantime, London’s NHS Nightingale ‘on standby’ – but not the other seven in England?

Being prepared in London – but not being used. Critically ill patients ‘evacuated’ hundreds of miles as fears grow London could run out of beds – being taken as far as Plymouth and Leeds.

Nightingale hospitals stand empty despite surging covid cases as medics warn of staff shortages.

Key London hospital preparing for covid-only care as cases surge.

London’s Nightingale hospital expected to take patients as NHS struggles with number of severely ill people.

NHS staff fear speaking out over crisis in English hospitals.

A nurse speaks about failings in the NHS and why the Nightingale Hospitals will never realise their ‘potential’ on the BBC Radio 4’s World at One on 29th December.

Lorry drivers at ports

The lack of forethought meant thousands of lorry drivers, most of them from other European countries, were stuck in limbo with poor living conditions due to the closure of the links between Britain and France just before the December holiday. No wonder they were angry.

As a consequence of this lack of understanding the Army was brought in to take over covid testing for hauliers trapped near Dover – being joined by 30 or so French firefighters!

The value of statistics

The country (world?) has been awash with statistics since the beginning of the pandemic but of what use are they – if they don’t paint the full picture? The more infectious ‘variant’ hits London and the South East, the inept Government of the Buffoon wants to keep Cockneys at home so raise the fear level as rational argument may not work – people don’t trust them because they have told so many lies and have carried out so many U-turns in the last nine months or so people don’t know if they are coming or going. Then they panic. Call 999 – perhaps when there was no need – so the numbers shoot up. Such figures have to be unpicked before they are used to justify further draconian restrictions at the beginning of 2021.

London Ambulance Service receives as many 999 calls as first wave – just before the December holiday.

One law for the rich – another for the rest of us. Or on the road to forget?

In May last year the writer Neil Gaiman broke lock down regulations on travel by journeying all the way from New Zealand to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. He boasted about this on social media and he was ‘spoken to’ by the police – as far as I know that’s about as far as it went.

Now we are constantly being told of fines being given to ordinary people who ‘break the rules’, such as those who have been partying over the last few months – and even the case recently of a group being fined for playing dominoes in a restaurant basement.

But for the rich and influential there seems to be no sanction whatsoever – even when it comes down to free publicity provided by the BBC. Gaiman was given a huge chunk of the BBC Radio 4 arts programme, Front Row, on 24th December – no mention there of his ‘rule breaking’.

Now I don’t consider all these rules to be useful in countering the pandemic but what we should expect is that the rules apply to all – but in capitalist societies it’s money that makes all the difference.

To lock down or not to lock down

Risk averse scientists still only have a lock down to offer – this time blaming the ‘mutated variant’.

Collateral damage

It goes on and on.

Covid poses ‘greatest threat to mental health since second world war’.

Parents warned of ‘sharp rise’ in eating disorders.

Hospital admissions for children with eating disorders rise by a fifth in England.

How covid lock downs are wiping out the gains made by ‘disadvantaged’ children.

UK high street lost 177,000 jobs in 2020.

Youth organisations in England face wholesale closure.

The use of fear or ….

Decisions about which patients receive life-saving treatment could be imminent, doctors warn.

Covid rule-breakers ‘have blood on their hands’.

… the use of patronage to get the desired result

Lots and lots of NHS staff in the New Year’s anachronistic Honours List

How many ‘tiers’ to go?

‘Tier 5’: England faces possible new Covid restrictions.

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Enver Hoxha – The need for a Cultural Revolution in Albania

Posted on by
2
Enver Hoxha

Enver Hoxha

More on Albania …..

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Enver Hoxha – The need for a Cultural Revolution in Albania

Introduction

The section below entitled ‘The further deepening of the ideological and cultural revolution’ comes from the Report of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania presented by Enver Hoxha at the Fifth Congress of the Party, held at the beginning of November 1966.

It’s presented here to remind people that the concept of an ‘ideological and cultural revolution’ had existed since (and even before) the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. The works of both VI Lenin and JV Stalin make reference to the need to change the way people think and act as an integral component in the construction of Socialism. The development of the economy to suit the needs of the vast majority of the population, the taking of the means of production by the people from private owners with the collectivisation (and nationalisation when collectives were further developed to the situation of State owned farms) of agriculture and the building of a modern industry would not automatically lead to Socialism. What needed to change were people’s ideas.

This was the role of the development of the Socialist Realist movement in the arts and was demonstrated in an Albanian context with the construction of the lapidars (which commemorated the past victories and sacrifices of the working people of the country against foreign invaders for national liberation as well as the achievements in the construction of Socialism).

Although the thinking in the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania was the same as that in the People’s Republic of China the way the cultural revolution manifested itself in the late 1960s was not the same – due to the different experiences in both countries.

Many people will be aware of The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (under the leadership of Chairman Mao) and the mass demonstrations and movements that took place in China from 1966 but that doesn’t mean to say the struggle didn’t exist in Albania. The same enemies, both internal and external, had to be confronted in both countries. Those countries, and parties worldwide, that aligned themselves with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union – after the success of Revisionism following the death of Comrade Stalin in 1953 – had failed to initiate this ‘cultural revolution’ and therefore started to follow the capitalist road. They had failed to learn from what Lenin and Stalin had taught.

All Marxist-Leninists who are seeking to established a Socialist state (under the dictatorship of the proletariat) need to study the writings of all the great Marxist theoreticians to ensure that any gains they might make in the future don’t get squandered amongst the euphoria that accompanies the success of the revolution. Capitalism never will rest to regain what it might have lost.

You might also be intested in The Socialist Cultural Revolution and the People’s National Culture.

Report to the Fifth Congress – 1st November 1966

THE FURTHER DEEPENING OF THE IDEOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL REVOLUTION

The further revolutionisation of life in our country is inconceivable without the further development and deepening of the ideological and cultural revolution. It is accomplished precisely on the basis of this revolution, the fundamental aim of which is to instil and ensure the complete triumph of the proletarian socialist ideology in the consciousness of all the working people, while thoroughly eradicating the bourgeois ideology, to ensure the all-round revolutionary, communist education and tempering of the new man – the decisive factor in solving all the big, complicated problems of the construction of socialism and the defence of the Homeland.

Throughout its whole existence, our Party has devoted special care and attention to the all-round revolutionary education of the communists and all the working people. Especially since the 4th Congress [Report delivered on 13th February 1961, Enver Hoxha, Selected Works, Volume 3, pp192-283] and on the basis of its directives, our Party has done more persistent work in this direction.

1 – THE STRUGGLE FOR THE TRIUMPH OF THE SOCIALIST IDEOLOGY IS A STRUGGLE FOR THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM

In our country the proletarian socialist ideology is the ideology in power which sets the general tone for all the life and activity of our working people. Despite the successes achieved, however, we are conscious that the struggle in this field is protracted and difficult. V.I. Lenin said;

‘Our task is to overcome all the resistance of the capitalists, not only their military and political resistance but also their ideological resistance, which is the strongest and most deeply entrenched.’ VI Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 29.

The old idealist ideology of the exploiting society still has deep roots and exerts a powerful and continuous influence. When we speak of this influence, it is not just a matter of ‘a few remnants and alien manifestations that appear here and there’, as it is often wrongly described in our propaganda, but the influence of a whole alien ideology which is expressed in all sorts of alien concepts, customs and attitudes, which are retained for a long time as a heritage from the past, have social support in the former exploiting classes and their remnants, in the tendencies to petty-bourgeois spontaneity, and are nurtured in various forms by the capitalist and revisionist world which surrounds us.

As long as the complete victory of the socialist revolution in the field of ideology and culture has not been ensured, the achievements of the socialist revolution in the political and economic fields cannot be secure and guaranteed, either. Therefore, in the final analysis, the struggle on the ideological front for the complete defeat of bourgeois and revisionist ideology has to do with the question: will socialism and communism be built and the restoration of capitalism be avoided, or will the door be opened to the spread of bourgeois and revisionist ideology and the return to capitalism be permitted.

The ideological and cultural revolution is a part of the general class struggle to carry the socialist revolution through to the end in all fields. Contrary to the views of the modem revisionists, who have declared the class struggle in socialism outdated and a thing of the past, our Party holds that class struggle remains one of the main motive forces of society, even after the exploiting classes have been eliminated. This struggle includes all fields of life. It has its ebbs and flows and zigzags, sometimes it surges up, sometimes it falls back, sometimes becomes fierce, at other times more ‘mild’, but it never ceases and dies right away.

As the experience of our country shows, this struggle is an objective and inevitable phenomenon in socialism. It is waged against the remnants of the exploiting classes, overthrown and expropriated, but who continue to resist and exert pressure by every means, first and foremost, through their reactionary ideology, as well as against new bourgeois elements, degenerate revisionist and anti-Party elements, who inevitably emerge within our society. It is also waged against bourgeois and revisionist ideology which is retained and expressed in various forms and degrees of intensity, as well as against the external pressure of imperialism. Thus the internal and external fronts of class struggle are interconnected, now merging into one single front, now operating separately, but always linked by the same objective: to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat and restore capitalism.

Acceptance or non-acceptance of the class struggle in socialism is a question of principle, it is a line of demarcation between Marxist-Leninists and revisionists, between revolutionaries and betrayers of the revolution. Any deviation from the class struggle has fatal consequences for the future of socialism. Therefore, along with the struggle to increase production, to develop education and culture, along with the struggle against foreign enemies – the imperialists and revisionists, we must not neglect, must never overlook the class struggle within the country, for otherwise history will punish us severely.

The duty of the Party is not to shut its eyes to this necessity, not to benumb the revolutionary vigilance of the communists and masses, but to wage this class struggle vigorously and unwaveringly until final victory. The progress of our society and the revolutionary education of the working people are inconceivable and cannot be achieved outside the class struggle.

In practice we often come across a narrow concept on the class struggle and class enemy, which regards only the kulaks and other elements of the former exploiting classes, or the imperialists and Titoite and Khrushchevite revisionists abroad as class enemies, and only the struggle against their anti-socialist activities as class struggle. The struggle against these enemies remains, as always, a primary task for our Party, our state and our working people. But we should take a broader view of the class struggle. It is a many-sided struggle which is, first and foremost, an ideological struggle today, a struggle for the minds and hearts of people, a struggle against bourgeois and revisionist degeneration, against all alien remnants and phenomena which still exist and manifest themselves in various degrees among all our people – it is a struggle for the triumph of our communist ideology and morality.

The struggle against theft and misuse of socialist property, against parasitic and speculative tendencies to take as much as possible from society and to contribute to it as little as possible, against putting personal ease, the personal interest and glory above the general interest, against bureaucratic manifestations and distortions, religious ideology, prejudices, superstitions and backward customs, against underestimation of women and failure to respect their equal rights in society, against fashion and the bourgeois way of life, against idealism and metaphysics, against various ‘isms’ of the decadent bourgeois and revisionist art and culture, against the political and ideological influence of external enemies, etc., etc., all these things are parts of the class struggle.

Thus, the class struggle is not only directed against external and internal enemies, but is also waged within the ranks of the working people, against any alien manifestation observed in the consciousness, the thinking, the behaviour and the attitude of each individual. No one should think that he is proof against any evil and has nothing to fight against within himself. A stern struggle between socialist ideology and bourgeois ideology takes place in the consciousness of each person. Everybody ought to look at himself as though in a mirror and clean his consciousness every day, just as he washes his face every day, by taking a communist attitude towards himself.

Class struggle is reflected within the Party, too, because, on the one hand, people from different social strata come into the Party, bringing with them all kinds of alien remnants and manifestations, and on the other hand, the party members, like all the working people, encounter the pressure of the class enemy, especially of the enemy ideology, from inside and outside the country. Consequently, in the party ranks as well as in the ranks of the working people there may and do emerge people who degenerate and go over to alien anti-Party and anti-socialist positions. Moreover, in all their activities our enemies give particular importance to the degeneration of party members in order to bring about the degeneration of the Party as a whole, because only thus can the way be opened to the restoration of capitalism. It should be clear that without contradictions of various kinds and without a struggle to overcome them, the life and development of the Party would not be possible. This struggle should not he covered up under the pretext of preserving unity, but should be waged and carried through to the end, thus strengthening the true unity of the Party, its revolutionary spirit, its militancy and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

It is a primary task of all the ideological work of the Party to form a correct concept about class struggle in our country in all the communists and working people, to educate them in the spirit of irreconcilable class struggle, to instil in them the method of class analysis which is the only method by which to know and correctly solve all the problems, to teach them not only to accept the need for class struggle in words, but to wage it in all fields of life every day. This is not something new. Our Party has always stressed the need to wage the class struggle and carry out class education and has done a great deal of work in this direction.

We must fight indifference and formalism in our political work for the education of the Party and the masses and always link it properly with the active class struggle. We must resolutely combat alien concepts and manifestations opposed to the line of the Party and the interests of people and socialism, combat the tendency to avoid calling things by their true names, but to soften them and smooth them over, concealing their class essence and their social danger.

These shortcomings in the work of party organizations account for the fact that some cadres and party members do not always give priority to the common interests represented by the party policy, but often look at things from the angle of personal, local or departmental interest, look at various problems with the eye of a technocrat and bureaucrat, with the eye of a narrow-minded specialist and neglect the political and ideological aspects. They do not understand that there is politics everywhere, in every work and sector, because there are no cadres or economic, administrative, cultural or military work divorced from politics or outside the policy of the dictatorship of the proletariat. All things are interconnected and interdependent and in this unity politics occupies the main place, and likewise all our cadres, in every sector where they work, should be, first and foremost, political people, should put the policy of the Party first and always guide themselves by it.

Our Party has always been characterized by its stern irreconcilability with the enemies of the people, socialism and Marxism-Leninism and its love for and boundless loyalty to the working people and their revolutionary cause, its wisdom and patience with all those who commit mistakes but can be corrected. Narrow, sectarian attitudes have always been alien to it. Therefore, the party organizations must resolutely combat any manifestation of sectarianism in their work because this damages the links of the Party with the masses, confuses the dividing line between us and our enemies and leads to the use of wrong methods in resolving contradictions among the people, which affect the working people themselves.

The ideological work of the Party must make the nature of the contradictions in socialist society thoroughly clear, as well as the ways to resolve them correctly … Any mixing up of the two kinds of contradictions leads to opportunist and sectarian errors.

It must always be borne in mind that the carriers and spreaders of the bourgeois ideology are not only elements from former exploiting classes but also our own people who are working for the cause of socialism. In these cases, while fighting mercilessly against the disease, the alien ideology, we must strive with all our might to cure the patient, the carrier of that ideology. Only in the case when the carrier and spreader of the alien ideology is or becomes our conscious enemy, only then is the contradiction handled and resolved as an antagonistic contradiction and the method of persuasion replaced by that of compulsion. The Party must do a great prophylactic, educational and political work, patiently and systematically, to prevent anyone from falling into grave blunders, going from blunders to culpable faults and then to anti-state and anti-socialist crimes subject to severe punishment by the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Another very important direction of the ideological work of the Party is the inculcation of the new socialist attitude towards work, so that our people will work as revolutionaries and fight resolutely to put the revolutionary ideals into practice. Only in work and through work is the new man educated and tempered, because work is the greatest school of communist education.

In the atmosphere of great creative work full of selfless revolutionary enthusiasm, which is transforming nature and the consciousness of man, it becomes even more evident how alien and intolerable are the attitudes of those people who dodge work, who are afraid of difficulties and sacrifices, who do not want to disturb their personal ease and comfort, who try to occupy or hang on to some ‘soft spot’, who do their work carelessly and try to grab the maximum from society, who proceed in everything from their own personal interest and material benefit and, with a thousand pretexts and excuses, shirk the duty of working where the people and the country need them. All these are bourgeois attitudes.

The party organizations must carry on a resolute fight against such alien manifestations, incompatible with our communist morality. They must regard the struggle against such manifestations as an aspect of the class struggle, as a struggle against the seed of the bourgeois and revisionist degeneration of people. They must implant the revolutionary socialist concept and attitude towards work among all the working people of town and country, so that everybody regards work as a matter of honour and pride, as a lofty patriotic duty, without which life could not exist. Our people and, first and foremost, the cadres and party members must work with high consciousness and discipline, with military drive and tempo, boldly overcome every obstacle and difficulty, march steadily forward, place the interests of the people, the country and socialism above everything, spare nothing to promote these interests, and be ready even to lay down their lives for these interests. A modest son of our people, son of a family formerly oppressed and exploited by beys and landlords was Hekuran Zenuni, a soldier from the village of Tozhar in the Berat district. He made light of difficulties and sacrifices and went ahead to perform the duty with which he had been charged and, without hesitation, laid down his life in the flower of his youth, just as the 28,000 martyrs did to accomplish their tasks during the National Liberation War. Such are the new men which our Party has educated and tempered.

When we speak about the socialist attitude towards work, the correct understanding of physical work, work in production has first-rate importance. This is a great question of principle to which the organizations of the Party must give special attention in their educational work. The aristocratic concepts about work in production are completely alien to socialism and fraught with dangerous consequences. Any underestimation or deriding of physical work should be condemned as underestimation and deriding of the workers and peasants and the broad masses of the people – a thing that leads to isolation from the people and their work and life, and this isolation is the source of many evils. This should be taken into account especially by those engaged in mental work, the cadres, officials, the technical and artistic intelligentsia, the pupils and students. The overwhelming majority of them have been educated since the liberation of the country and have emerged from the ranks of the working masses, are closely linked with the people and the Party and have displayed and are demonstrating a high level of patriotic and socialist consciousness. Nevertheless, these features should not lead us to underestimate the danger of their becoming infected by bourgeois ideology and, especially, by revisionist views. This is not an imaginary danger, it has a real basis. It is connected with the very nature and conditions of the work and life of people engaged in mental work, and especially the creative, artistic and scientific intelligentsia, who are still very out of touch with physical work and, in many instances, with the working masses and their lives. Among the intelligentsia more favourable ground can be and is found for the spread of individualism and careerism, conceit and haughtiness, unjustified pretensions and an easy life, intellectualism and disdain for the masses.

Our people’s intelligentsia must link itself as closely as possible with the people, must work and live with the workers and peasants and blend themselves inseparably with them. They must reject the bourgeois idea inherited from the past which still has deep roots, that the intellectual knows everything and he alone is able to lead, to guide, to teach and instruct others – an idea which in fact expresses the negation of the role of the masses. It must be clear that the decisive role in all fields of life, including spiritual life, does not belong to particular individuals, no matter how outstanding they are, but to the broad masses of the people. Knowledge does not fall from heaven. All knowledge derives from life and practice and is a product of the struggle of the masses to transform nature and society. Therefore, the men of science, art and culture must listen with attention and deep respect to the opinions of the masses, sum up their experience, always be modest and humble pupils of the great and unmistakable teacher, the people, and make the judgement of the people the fundamental criterion in all their creative work. Some cadres in our scientific institutions are conceited and think that what they say is the last word of science, that any opinion opposed to theirs is worthless; incorrect, and must be rejected, No! Such concepts among the ranks of our scientists must be stigmatized. There is no advance in science or anywhere else without struggle, without clashes of opinions, without class struggle, without debate guided by the Marxist-Leninist principles, by the proletarian ideology, to discover the truth. The idea of the development and progress of science, and not personal glory, must guide each of our scientists in his own work.

The people of the intelligentsia must link their mental work as closely as possible with the physical work of workers and peasants and take part continually, in the proportions laid down, in work directly in production. This duty which has been put into practice widely for all the cadres, intelligentsia, pupils and students, has great theoretical and practical importance. It will help them to become better acquainted with life, to rid themselves of many alien remnants and manifestations and to temper themselves as genuine revolutionaries. This is an important step towards reducing the distinctions between mental and physical work, which, together with the reduction of distinctions between town and country and between the working class and the peasantry, constitutes a major problem which is closely linked with the prospects of our development towards communism. If we do not take measures now to narrow these differences and, willingly or not, allow them to deepen, then our country will not develop towards our final objective and these differences will also become the cause of many evils, of unfair relations between people of mental and physical work, between town and country and between the working class and the peasantry.

Our Party has big tasks to perform also in connection with the inculcation of correct concepts about life so that the moral figure of the communists and all the working people will be the same, not only at work and in society, but also in personal and family life. The cadres, the communists and every worker should live like revolutionaries, lead a modest life of real struggle, they should be the first in sacrifices and the last in pretensions. As the Open Letter reads:

‘… not empty idleness and concern only for oneself, but the ideal of socialism, the struggle to build our socialist Homeland and make it flower with our own hands, the joy of creative work for the good of the people and in their service and the continuous raising of the standard of living of the working masses must be the main objective of their life and struggle, their main preoccupation.’ Principal Documents of the Party of Labour of Albania, Volume 5, p. 38 (Albanian Edition).

The bourgeois and revisionist concept of life, putting money, pleasure, luxury, comfort, personal ease and well being above everything, is alien to our people. The consequences of such a concept have become catastrophic in the countries ruled by the revisionists. Political degeneration, moral corruption, running after money and material gain, selfishness and frenzied individualism, the bourgeois way of life and fashion, and hooliganism are what characterize the life of these countries today, a life which is almost indistinguishable from that of western capitalist countries.

Such alien views on life may and, in fact, do take root in some of our people who are exposed to the strong influence of bourgeois ideology and morality. The party organizations must always be vigilant and carry out a great educational work and struggle to create in the Party, in the collective, in the family and everywhere such an atmosphere as to stifle decadent concepts about the way and purpose of life, sternly condemning all liberal attitudes and laxity in this direction. Through its work the Party must inculcate, especially in the younger generation, our new revolutionary concept of life that is inspired by the lofty ideals of socialism and communism.

All the ideological work of the Party its propaganda and agitation, must be directed first and foremost at ideological and political education, the formation and tempering of people as genuine revolutionaries and communists so that they understand and put into practice the great slogan of the Party: ‘Think, work and live like revolutionaries’ – which constitutes the essence of communist education, the fundamental content of the educational work of the Party.

2 – WE MUST RADICALLY IMPROVE THE METHOD AND STYLE OF THE EDUCATIONAL WORK

Our great objectives in the realm of the cultural and ideological revolution for the education of communists and all the working people in a high revolutionary spirit can not be achieved without further improving the entire content of our educational work and especially the method and style of this work.

It must be said that up to now this work has suffered and is still suffering from dogmatism and stereotypeism, from being out of touch with life, from verbosity, unexplained formulas and a heavy, boring style. Our workers of Marxist social sciences and propaganda have been trying to present our experience in the known terms of theory, reducing it, in the best instances, to examples for illustration, and not enough work has been done to make theoretical generalizations from the Albanian practice, to raise the wealth of factual material that the life of our country during all these years has provided, to the level of science. Therefore, the Party must make every effort to combat this serious shortcoming, and to enliven creative thinking in the field of Marxist social sciences, in our propaganda, and in all our ideological and cultural work.

In addition there are some other weaknesses that have been noticed in the organization and conduct of political and cultural educational activities. In many cases the forms of educational work are standardized and rigid, without spirit or life, little effort is made to adapt them to new conditions and circumstances and frequently nothing is altered until instructions come from above. The fact is that the revolutionary spirit of the Party and masses has far outstripped the propaganda and agitation of the Party. Communists and non-party workers, co-operativists, youth and women are making thousands of innovations and rationalizations which revolutionize their minds and production. However, the same cannot be said about the party workers engaged in propaganda and agitation, or about the workers of the ideological and cultural front, who should advance not alongside, but in the vanguard of all the other working people, to light the way for them, to organize and mobilize them for great deeds. What is the reason for this? Is it that the comrades of the ideological front are incapable, have no ideas and opinions? No. They are some of the best comrades, with a high ideological and political level and tireless workers. The trouble is that they find it difficult to break away from the old stereotyped forms of work and are not closely linked with the work and struggle of the masses.

In the field of ideology and propaganda the Party must struggle also against another serious shortcoming which is seen especially in the daily life of party organizations, as well as of state and economic organs. Here I am referring to the manifestations of empiricism and narrow practicism, the separation of practice from theory, becoming totally immersed in the swirl of daily life, facts and events, the failure to draw general conclusions from the experience of the masses, and the underestimation of theory, which leads to the loss of perspective and deviation from principles. It is regrettable, but a fact, that there are communists in the ranks of the Party who toil day and night but never open a book, that some leading cadres who have neglected their studies, have lagged behind and cannot respond to the great tasks with which life faces them. Some believe that since they have graduated from the University or the Party School they know everything and have nothing more to learn. Others are content with little and think that the study of theory is not necessary for the work they do. All these views must be condemned and sternly combated. The cadres, the communists and all the working people must learn all the time, must learn from life and from school, from practice and theory, from work and from books. This is a never-ending, unlimited job.

The Party has taken and will take measures to improve the work in this field of such importance, combating both dogmatism and empiricism, both lifeless theorizing and narrow practicism. However, these measures will never be sufficient and complete unless the organizations and committees of the Party and the workers on the ideological front use their brains, think and create with initiative, unless they elaborate and enrich the directives of the Party and apply them in a revolutionary way in conformity with the tasks and circumstances. The work of the Party and its ideological work, in particular, is a living and profoundly creative work, which does not tolerate ready-made schemes and stereotypes. The enlivenment of this work is one of the most important tasks of the Party today.

The revolutionizing of all the ideological work, of its content and style, linking it closely with life, must assist, first of all, the more profound and conscious assimilation of Marxism-Leninism by the communists and all the working people of our country. Such an assimilation of Marxist-Leninist ideas and their transformation into a weapon for our working people in their daily struggle is the fundamental distinguishing feature that marks the process of the further deepening of our ideological and cultural revolution. The Marxist-Leninist ideas are the red flag of our Party, its invincible and triumphant banner. They are the foundation of the general line of our Party, they are our guide to action, they light the way for our ideological and cultural revolution, of which they are the basis. Therefore, they must become, and are becoming more and more each day, the property and weapon of the working people.

In this connection we must strengthen and radically improve the study of Marxist-Leninist theory in the Party School, in all categories of our schools and especially in the University and other higher institutes, with the aim that the younger generation and our cadres are formed and tempered as genuine revolutionaries, with broad political and theoretical horizons, closely linked with life and practice. Our schools must give the youth and the cadres profound Marxist-Leninist theoretical knowledge, and give it to them not in a dogmatic way, but creatively, not as an ornament, but as a compass to guide them correctly in life and as a weapon for the revolutionary transformation of the world. The works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism and especially the documents, materials and experience of our Party, which are Marxism-Leninism in action in today’s national and international conditions, must be the basis for the study of our triumphant doctrine. At the same time, we must intensify and improve the propagation of Marxist-Leninist ideas through the press and publications, by printing and publishing more articles, books and pamphlets, works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, not only complete works but also selections on specific themes, dealing with particular problems on which the cadres and workers need direct help.

Our struggle for the assimilation of Marxist-Leninist ideas, for the deepening of the ideological and cultural revolution, cannot be waged successfully unless the whole Party, the communists and all working masses are drawn into it, unless the line of the masses, the line of thorough socialist democratization, is implemented boldly and in a revolutionary way here, as everywhere else. To put such a line into practice, a stern struggle must be waged against the reactionary bourgeois intellectualist concept that theory, philosophy, science and art are too difficult to be grasped by the masses, that they can be understood only by the cadres and intelligentsia, because the masses have not reached the level necessary to understand them! This means to make theory and science a bugbear for the masses. This means to make Marxism-Leninism a bugbear for the masses, too, because Marxism-Leninism is a theory and science. We must declare relentless war on this concept. Marxism-Leninism is not a monopoly of a privileged few who ‘have the brains to understand it’. It is the scientific ideology of the working class and the working masses, and only when its ideas are grasped by the broad working masses does it cease to be something abstract and is turned into a great material force for the revolutionary transformation of the world. The historic task of our Party is to continually deepen the ideological and cultural revolution and carry it through to the end by relying on the masses of workers, peasants, soldiers, cadres and the intelligentsia and drawing them actively into creative revolutionary activity.

Enver Hoxha, Selected Works, Volume 4, pp 163-180

More on Albania …..

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Nine months and a day since the beginning of the first lock down ….

Posted on by
Reply

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Nine months and a day since the beginning of the first lock down ….

…. and how long until the end of the last?

Coincidentally the first deaths attributed to the bubonic plague reported in London, in what came to be known as the Great Plague, were in March 1665, more or less at the time of the first deaths in the UK during the covid-19 pandemic. In the seventeenth century, by the end of February, it was considered safe for ‘the King to return to the capital’. Just under a year.

If we compare the two outbreaks what do we find.

London in 1665; a filthy city with poor sanitation; a population with poor ideas of hygiene; over-crowding in the areas of the poor (i.e., virtually all the working class); huge disparities of wealth; a wastrel as a monarch, constantly demanding (and getting) money from a sycophantic and grovelling parliament; inept Buffoons in government; corruption running rife; charlatans posing as ‘experts’; fear and superstition dominating people’s thoughts; false news; no strategy to deal with the problem; a lock down of most of the workings of society; ignorance of the cause of the disease; hoarding of necessities (though not toilet paper); mountebanks and fraudsters taking advantage of the gullible; unemployment and other consequences of a closed down society; a failure to use known technology to combat the silent killer; and xenophobia, all looking for someone to blame, as long as it wasn’t themselves.

London in 2020; more or less the same.

So 365 years of ‘progress’ has done us no good at all!

In fact it’s worse than that. Life was starting to get back to normal by the spring of 1666. Who is courageous (or stupid) enough to bet that life will be back to normal in any country in the world – let alone Britain – by the spring of 2021?

When I started with these posts I (as did, I believe, the vast majority of the population) thought that a modern, sophisticated, technologically advanced society would have been on top of this pandemic within a mater of a few months, three with luck – at the very outside six. But it was soon clear that that was not to be the case.

Leaders of the capitalist world in 2020 were no more capable of coming up with innovative and imaginative ways to deal with this virus than their predecessors in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

The closer we get to a resolution of the issue something comes up to push the end date further into the future.

These blog posts are collected together in a page entitled ‘Journal of the Plague Year 2020’. By the time the next post appears the title of that page will have been changed to ‘Journal of the Plague Years 2020-202?. And that’s being optimistic, especially if we take into account the huge amount of public debt that’s been incurred by our incompetent ‘leaders’.

But then people get the leaders they deserve!

Vaccines and the vaccination programme

A ‘logistical nightmare’? Perhaps. So how will the UK jab millions of people?

Will a vaccine cocktail be better than a single malt? Trials to test combination of Oxford and Sputnik vaccines.

Pfizer vaccine final results: it’s highly protective – but how long for?

Vaccines are here – but how long will it take to get to everyone? Vaccinating entire UK population could take a year, scientists warn.

UK citizens get less legal protection for covid jabs than other vaccines – and that could undermine confidence.

With overall costs for vaccinating the UK population at £12 billion, the public accounts committee flags ‘highly unusual’ arrangements.

Belgian minister tweets EU’s covid vaccine price list to anger of manufacturers. In all stages of a ‘war’ there will those who will make a fortune. Why isn’t it called what it is – profiteering?

Another example of lack of thinking about the programme before the first needle entered the first arm. And then realising the mistake. NHS scraps order to ‘waste one in six’ vaccine doses.

There needs to be a proper strategy for the vaccination programme yet even at the start there is confusion as doctors and nurses at one of London’s front line hospitals denied coronavirus vaccine.

B Liar weighs into the vaccination debate. I’m sure his suggestion that young people get the vaccine at an early stage (whatever merits the suggestion might have) will go down like a lead balloon. We are in a race against time, he says, we must change our vaccine policy now.

What’s it like working in a hospital during the pandemic?

Two doctors describe working on the front line of Liverpool’s second wave – from this page there’s a link to a podcast where their story is told.

Liverpool ‘pilot’ and non-symptomatic testing

This continues to be badly managed – and ceased to be (if it ever was) a real ‘pilot’ soon after it started at the beginning of November. The number of test sites continue to vary day by day; there’s no longer a running total of the numbers actually tested or found to be positive (figures rising so slowly it would be embarrassing); no lessons learnt (or if so, not published) to enable other cities to be part of the Buffoon’s £100 billion ‘Operation Moonshot’; doubts being cast on the efficacy of the tests anyway; and testing has fallen out of fashion as the vaccination programme starts to spread throughout the country.

However, there’s been a bit of a mad rush in the last few days – but hardly likely to be of any use statistically. People just want to know if they have the virus before visiting family and friends over the coming weekend.

Plans for 30-minute covid testing in England halted amid accuracy fears.

Origin of the virus – and its variants, or, more frighteningly ‘mutations’

Almost a year since the world became aware of a new virus. But are scientists more aware of where it started? What do we know now about where coronavirus came from?

Coronavirus mutation – not as scary as it sounds.

Test-track-trace

This issue is definitely taking a back seat – and the policy seems to be changing on a weekly basis.

Who’s really to blame for England not having a ‘world-beating’ system? Perhaps us. It’s probably a thankless task telling people what they should do when the national strategy is non-existent and confusion reigns but they don’t deserve to be abused. ‘People threaten us and block our calls‘ says a contact tracer.

11,000 coronavirus cases delayed from Wales figures after ‘system maintenance’.

Poverty in Britain

Pre-existing inequality led to record UK covid death rate – according to the Build back fairer – The covid-19 Marmot Review.

Another study, this time in Scotland, found similar results. Poverty linked to higher risk of covid-19 death.

Even the suggestion of this is a disgrace – Unicef to feed hungry children in UK for first time in 70-year history. According to a YouGov poll, 2.4 million children in the UK were living in households facing food insecurity as of May this year. Unicef said a grant of £25,000 would be provided to School Food Matters. The charity will use the money to supply (not that many!) thousands of breakfast boxes to vulnerable children in south London over the Christmas school holidays.

But instead of making sure no child should need to take handouts of food what do the privileged and entitled (in the form of the living anachronism that is Jacob Rees-Mogg) of the sceptred isle say – they attack Unicef for pointing out that policies to alleviate poverty are a sham.

But then – Jacob Rees-Mogg under fire for dismissing Unicef’s UK grants as stunt.

I don’t agree with it but here for information. Feeding Britain’s Children – inside Marcus Rashford’s campaign to tackle child hunger. (Interesting that this article appeared on the Sports pages of the BBC’s website.)

Immunity Passport

Digital covid-19 health passes are coming for travellers.

Britain – the pariah of Europe (and the world?)

Nobody wants to have any contact with the ‘infectious’ British – and do so without thinking and cause huge amounts of chaos that has a greater effect on their own citizens than it does the British – by many nations imposing UK travel bans over new variant. Then they realise the ‘new variant’ is probably all over Europe anyway – and then comes along another ‘new’ variant, this time from South Africa. Every reaction is just a knee jerk (in virtually all countries) – not thought out and not part of any long-term strategy.

UK food producers face ‘black Christmas’ as goods perish amid border gridlock.

Why the decision of the French Government to bar access should have caused such a problem so quickly is a mystery. (Well not, we’ve come to expect that no one considers potential problems in the UK, that would suggest a strategy, suggest planning.) It’s December, it’s winter, many circumstances (weather related) could have closed down the ports. Added to that the British have had to suffer four and a half years of interminable wrangling on the country getting out of the European Union and that would have effected the smooth running of the ports. Why weren’t there contingencies for what they knew was coming up – which would have made the country more able to to deal with the unexpected. Why did covid testing kits have to be brought in? Why was everything last minute? Isn’t there a committee somewhere which tries to foresee the unforeseen?

At least by the late afternoon of 24th December Europe was free of the British. The problem is that the British aren’t.

‘First world’ problems?

Britain might be facing a ‘salad crisis’ – with a shortage of that important food, lettuce. With all the problems in the world (most of which have been around long before anyone heard of covid-19) is this really something we should worry about?

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

It starts to get difficult of how to classify these types of news items. Do they go under ‘Ineptitude’ or do they belong under ‘State Corruption’?

Hospital gowns that cost £122 million never been used – and will probably be allowed to go out of date and then get thrown away.

Not only has Britain been paying over the odds for PPE – we’ve been getting defective shipments. One of the most important tasks for James Bond.

And the corruption continues. Government’s PPE ‘tsar’ linked to companies awarded state coronavirus contracts.

How consultants, airlines and China cashed in on PPE scramble – I like the idea of blaming China because they can actually produce PPE, whereas Britain couldn’t at the beginning and I’m not so sure now. Xenophobia lives in (soon to be) post-EU Britain

The Swedish ‘experiment’

All the countries which have been following the same policies of lock down followed by lock down have been hoping for vindication of their actions as opposed to the line followed by the Swedes. It’s taken almost ten months, and it’s only a small concession, but probably the least effective policy adopted worldwide is being taken up in Sweden with face coverings being used on public transport.

A further report tries to shame both Sweden and Japan for not abiding by the World Health Organisation (WHO) norms. However, I would have thought we are still far too close to the pandemic to be able to make any meaningful comparisons of the different tactics. And probably won’t be able to do so with any accuracy for a considerable time to come.

The wearing of masks

I’m not a supporter of face coverings/masks. The information (now conveniently dropped from the media) that was being published at the beginning of the varieties of lock down indicated that they had little use – other than possibly psychological. However, I don’t then stand in front of the press and make high sounding moral statements about their efficacy. Those who do – and then don’t abide by their own recommendations/strictures only deserve our contempt. The latest to demonstrate their ‘exceptionalism’ is the nationalist leader in Scotland

Nightingale Hospitals

I don’t understand why these were set up. Why not use these temporary hospitals to separate the covid from the rest of the other reasons people go to hospital? Then you wouldn’t have a situation where NHS hospitals are running out of beds as Covid cases continue to surge. The use of the temporary hospitals would be creating something similar to ‘fever hospitals’ of the past – something which some virologists have been suggesting since the early part of the year.

It would also give the staff and general organisation established (or let us hope such a structure has been set up) to run these Nightingale Hospitals to work through any teething problems when the numbers were relatively low.

As the number of infections is supposedly going up at the end of the year these new places could be flooded – whilst not fully prepared. There might be even more of a case for opening these locations with the ‘new variant/s’ on their way.

But, it appears, the London Nightingale Hospital (the cost of which must have been astronomical) isn’t even ready for any influx. Staff shortages leave London’s Nightingale hospital without intensive care beds.

Care home visits

The ‘vulnerable’ in care homes still being badly treated – by failed Government promises as commitments of UK care home visits is not being realised.

‘Collateral damage’

The treatment of the elderly in British care homes has been a disgrace for the best part of two decades, the pandemic has only made a bad situation worse. So finds a report produced by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, entitled ‘Covid-19 and disruptions to the health and social care of older people in England’.

UK loses 819,000 paid jobs since start of pandemic.

UN says the pandemic has turned the clock back decades on gender equality.

NHS facing prospect of having to cancel thousands of operations – because Christmas hasn’t been totally cancelled.

Cancer scan backlog raises late detection fears.

Child abuse referrals up nearly 80%, says National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Homeless people in temporary housing at highest level since 2006.

Covid anxiety: Child ‘asking if he’s going to die’. Seems some lack of communication here between parents and child – but, perhaps, not really a surprise when the only way the Government has been able to get away with many of its policies over the last nine months has been by establishing a climate of fear.

Who will pay for the pandemic?

That’s a silly question, really. Obviously it will be the working people of Britain. But there are other possible alternatives.

Footing the covid-19 bill: economic case for tax hike on wealthy. The argument being that -surprise, surprise – tax cuts over the last 50 years has increased inequality.

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told