BY BOBBIS MISAILIDES
ATHENS, Greece - Clashes between police forces loyal to Albanian president Sali Berisha and armed workers who have rebelled against his "market reforms" and demand his ousting are becoming widespread in Albania. The pro-capitalist president -encouraged by the deployment of 6,500 troops from Italy, Greece, France, and other countries in Albania - has unleashed heavily armed cop units and paramilitary goon squads in southern Albania, the hotbed of the revolt, to terrorize the population and press for the dissolution of rebel councils. But the pro-Berisha thugs are meeting resistance and their actions raise the specter of a larger explosion.

On May 22, working people in Cerrik protested the decision of the town's mayor to appoint a new chief of police who is loyal to Berisha. The previous day in that small city 50 kilometers south of Tirana, the country's capital, armed rebels prevented Berisha from holding an election rally there.

Unable to stop the protests by using the outnumbered cops, Berisha sent to Cerrik a heavily armed police unit from Tirana on May 23. Working people successfully defended themselves. In the armed clashes that ensued, five cops were killed and many others wounded. The police were forced to flee back to Tirana. Prime Minister Bashkim Fino of the opposition Socialist Party (SP) warned that "criminal acts will be severely dealt with no matter which side commits them." The armed rebels continue to guard the streets and have set up barricades in all of the town's entrances expecting another cop assault.

The attack on Cerrik was part of the efforts of the government of "national reconciliation" - which includes Berisha's Democratic Party, the SP, and other smaller opposition groups - to quell the armed popular rebellion that erupted in February.

Working people took up arms, forcing the army to dissolve, after "pyramid schemes" collapsed in January financially ruining hundreds of thousands of workers who had been lured by the regime to deposit their life savings in these fraudulent investment funds. Berisha tried to crush the protests by force, sparking the armed rebellion and losing control of half the country within weeks. To save his skin, Berisha then dissolved the cabinet and invited the SP to join a new coalition government. Fino, the new premier and a Socialist Party leader, subsequently collaborated with the president in opening the door to the imperialist powers to invade and deploy their forces in several cities throughout the country. The imperialist troops, especially those from Italy, are now aiding Berisha to engineer a political comeback.

The Democratic Party and the SP represent competing layers of the bureaucratic caste that has ruled Albania for decades.

The Committees for the Salvation of the People, born in the heat of the rebellion, remain in control of many cities in southern Albania and continue to present a major obstacle to the imperialist forces - whose goal is to restore capitalist property relations in Albania - and to the government in Tirana. The foreign occupation forces have orders to shoot "if they face dangerous situations," which include "clashes between government forces and the rebels." But so far, the imperialist units have refrained from intervening in the escalating clashes between the pro- Berisha police and the rebels.

On May 22 Berisha was able to hold a poorly attended election rally in a closed gymnasium in Elbasan, a city close to Cerrik. Two days earlier he also visited Fier, which is 34 kilometers north of Vlore, the center of the working-class revolt. On his way to Fier, while passing through the town of Lushnje, Berisha and his entourage were greeted with stones and rifle shots by rebels. In Vlore, the local rebel council has been organizing defense guards, strikes, and demonstrations warning the president not to try to step foot in the city.

As part of stepping up his terrorist assaults, Berisha has deployed two battalions of his presidential guard in the area with tanks and other modern weaponry. One of these units is now stationed in Fier. On May 21, a special commando unit from this battalion was beat back by armed rebels in Tepelene and chased back to Fier. Berisha's commandos had been deployed to aid a vigilante gang that abducted Gioleka Malai, leader of the Committee for the Salvation of the People in Tepelene. Armed workers defeated the thugs and forced them to free Malai. In a similar situation, working people in the town of Premete beat back two efforts by police units with tanks to take over the town. The cops were sent there by the Ministry of Public Order in Tirana. These police units are now stationed in the nearby city of Korce.

Under pressure from European Union envoy Franz Vranitzky, the SP and other opposition parties called off their threat to boycott the elections scheduled for June 29. These parties had earlier protested because the current election law favors Berisha's Democratic Party. As part of a deal the SP struck with Berisha on May 21, the president appointed Arben Rakepe from the Socialist Party to head the hated SHIK, the secret police. Fino called on the imperialist troops in Albania to guard election posts and prepare the list of voters. He also asked that these forces be deployed throughout Albania - beyond the cities of Tirana, Durres, Fier, Vlore, Gjirokaster and Elbasan where they are stationed now. Fino warned that the ballot law "will not guarantee that the elections will bring political and social stability in the country."

Speaking in Rome, Vranitzky stated, "We must move toward the elections and the formation of a new government." The new authorities, he said, will then attempt to restore order.

Meanwhile, conflicts among the intervening imperialist powers especially Italy and Greece, are deepening. On May 22 Tirana's daily Independent published the transcript of taped telephone discussions between Italian ambassador Paolo Foresti and Democratic Party chairman Tristan Sehou. In the conversations, Foresti expressed open support for Berisha.

Fino then called on Rome to recall its ambassador back to Italy, a demand also raised by Italy's opposition Communist Refoundation Party in a discussion in the Italian parliament. Foresti claimed that the tapes were fabricated by "extremist groups from Greece and Serbia that want Italy to withdraw its efforts to bring Albania into Europe."

Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos responded that "there are certain people in Greece" who desire the annexation of southern Albania to Greece. But "these are not serious views," he stated. "These views are expressed by a limited circle of people in a moderate and up to a point a justified manner."

The demand by Athens to deploy its forces deeper into southern Albania, especially in regions bordering Greece and the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, has been met by fierce opposition from Rome. Italian general Luciano Forlani, who heads the intervention force, denied the request from the Greek social democratic government of Premier Konstantinos Simitis to deploy its troops from Elbasan to Pogradec. With such a move, Greek troops would effectively take control of one of the main roads leading to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.

The revolt in Albania has given impetus to the struggle for national rights of the Albanian minority in Macedonia. Albanians there, comprising 23 percent of the republic's 2.2 million population, have stepped up demands for autonomy in the municipalities in western Macedonia near the Albanian border. Parties that support recognition of national rights for Albanians in Macedonia control city councils in 24 out of the republic's 124 municipalities.

On May 25 thousands of Albanians participated in a demonstration called by the municipal council of Gostivar. According to the organizers, the rally swelled to 20,000. It was called to protest a law passed by the government in Skopje that bars the Albanian flag from being hoisted on public buildings along with the flag of Macedonia. The majority Albanian municipal councils have decided not to comply with the law. U.S. and other imperialist troops, which have been deployed in Macedonia since 1992, are now patrolling the Macedonia-Albania border.  
 
 
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