BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS AND JACK WILLEY
TETOVO, Macedonia-"We have held mass demonstrations in Skopje and Tetovo to support our Albanian brothers and sisters in Kosovo who are struggling for their freedom," said Basri Saliu, a student leader at the Albanian-language University of Tetovo. "The fight for independence of Kosovo is tied directly to the struggle for our national rights in Macedonia." This view was shared by several other students who participated in the 30,000-strong action here March 4, protesting the recent assault in the Drenica region of Kosovo by Serbian police forces that resulted in killing more than 85 Albanians.

About 60,000 people, overwhelmingly Albanian, demonstrated March 6 in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. The actions were called by several political parties that are predominant among Albanians in collaboration with student leaders, the League of Albanian Women, and other organizations. The march in Skopje was met by a provocative counterdemonstration by dozens of Macedonians.

Slogans at the rallies included: "Brothers in Drenica, we are with you"; "The terrorists are the Serbian police"; "End the occupation"; and "All the people of Kosovo are UCK!", the Albanian-language initials for the Kosovo Liberation Army. Echoing calls initiated by procapitalist forces among Albanians here and in Kosovo for what amounts to direct military intervention by imperialist powers, a few demonstrators carried signs reading, "Where is Europe?"

These recent protests follow a wave of actions by Albanians last July in Gostivar, Tetovo, and elsewhere in the predominantly Albanian western Macedonia for recognition of their national rights. Those previous mobilizations were sparked by a ban on flying the Albanian flag in public by the procapitalist government in Skopje.

Albanians: an oppressed nationality
According to government figures, 23 percent of the 1.9 million people living in Macedonia are Albanian. Most Albanians interviewed by Militant reporters put the figure closer to 35 percent. Despite important gains registered through the Yugoslav revolution in the 1940s, Albanians remain an oppressed nationality in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which was declared independent in 1992. Among all the regions of the formerly federated Yugoslavia, the economic and social conditions in Macedonia are the lowest, except for in neighboring Kosovo. Albanians have been hit the hardest as the regime of Kiro Gligorov in Skopje has shut down factories, slashed jobs in state-owned industries, and attempted to sell off nationalized enterprises to investors from abroad.

Tetex, a state-owned textile mill in Tetovo, is indicative of the discrimination in employment that exists here against Albanians. Tetovo is a city of 65,000. With its suburbs, the population of the metropolitan area is 180,000 - 80 percent of whom are Albanian. Yet, only 10-20 percent of the 4,000 Tetex workers are of Albanian origin.

At the largest shoe factory here, only 10 percent of the workforce of 400 are Albanian, said Fodyl, a worker at that plant who asked to be identified only by his first name. The composition of the workforce is similar at Yugochrom, a nickel and chrome manufacturing mill in the suburbs of Tetovo. "Albanians hold disproportionately the most physically demanding jobs and those that pay the least," Fodyl added.

"Everyone has friends or relatives who live abroad, especially in Germany and Switzerland," said Isamet Bakiu, a leader of the Students Union at the Albanian-language University of Tetovo. "They go looking for work because it's very difficult for young people to find a job here." Unemployment benefits average $70 a month, which does not come close to covering monthly living expenses.

The official unemployment rate is 30 percent. For Albanians it is at least 40 percent. "It is probably higher, since these are our own rough estimates," said Xhevair Memedi, a professor of English-language literature at the University of Tetovo. "The government does not provide accurate statistics for ethnic Albanians as part of its refusal to recognize we are a distinct nationality." Bakiu said unemployment is especially high among Albanian youth, most of whom never finished high school, if they ever attended.

Housing, roads, and services such as water, sewage, and electricity are in much worse shape in areas that are predominantly Albanian. This was obvious driving from the more mixed and well-off downtown Tetovo and surrounding residential areas toward the old city that is inhabited overwhelmingly by Albanians. "Often water is running here only in the morning," said Hiureme Gura, an English-language teacher who is Albanian. "Sometimes we wish some Macedonians would move to this part of town. It would be the only way to get government funds to fix the infrastructure."

The majority Albanian neighborhoods on the outskirts of Skopje, which many refer to as slums, face similar deprivations. Tensions between police and Albanian youth are often high. About a year ago, disturbances broke out in those areas of the Macedonian capital when police fired on Albanians who the cops alleged carried explosives.

Struggle over education in Albanian
Many of the gains stemming from the socialist revolution in Yugoslavia have eroded at an accelerating pace under the current Skopje regime. After the 1945 revolution that brought into being the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, a parallel school structure was set up for Macedonians and Albanians to be taught in their own language. It was then that Macedonian became a written language and, along with Albanian, was recognized as one of the official Yugoslav languages.

According to Xhevair Memedi, many Albanian-language high schools were shut down in Macedonia just before the shattering of the Titoist regime in Belgrade in 1991. Unlike in Kosovo, however, Albanian-language elementary schools, and to some degree high schools, still exist here. Memedi said that before 1991, about half of Albanian students went on to high school from elementary school, while almost all students who are Macedonian did so. The tremendous efforts by the Albanian people to establish independent schools over the last seven years have helped maintain this previous percentage.

At the college level, until 1990 most Albanian students in Macedonia who passed qualification exams went to the University of Pristina in Kosovo. It was the main Albanian- language university in Yugoslavia. After the Serbian regime banned Albanian-language education in 1991, the number of Albanians in Macedonia who continued on to college fell dramatically.

The University of Skopje, where instruction is almost entirely in Macedonian, allows only a token number of Albanians to study - 2-3 percent, according to Hiureme Gura, who also teaches at the University of Tetovo. One of the reasons is that after the breakup of Yugoslavia tuition was instituted in Macedonia for the first time, with fees at the University of Skopje ranging from $1,000 to $1,500 a year, reinforcing class biases in education. The average yearly wage of an industrial worker is about $2,200 throughout the republic. The wages of Albanian workers average 20-30 percent less than those of Macedonians.

"We were better off in old Yugoslavia, before they put up borders between Macedonia and Serbia," said Gura. "We could use the Albanian flag publicly by the constitution, we could use our language in schools, including through the university level, we had more programs on radio and TV in Albanian." Such programs now amount to about one hour a day on state broadcasting, she said.

The University of Tetovo was established in 1994 in defiance of government attempts to deny Albanians the right to study in their own language through college. It is not recognized by Skopje. About 4,000 students take classes there today. Many Albanians across the city have opened up part of their homes to be turned into classrooms. An Albanian hotel owner, for example, donated a four-story apartment building that serves as the liberal arts college, which Militant reporters visited. All the supplies and books are donated. Professors are paid about $100 a month and most work a second job to make ends meet. Tuition is based on what each student can afford to pay.

The deterioration of these social and economic conditions is behind the confrontations that erupted here last summer. The armed rebellion in Albania that brought down the openly pro-imperialist regime of Sali Berisha there last year also had an impact. "We watched that revolt closely," said Fodyl. "Berisha promised capitalism and democracy and he brought disaster. Good riddance."

July 1997: The battle in Gostivar
As the protests in solidarity with the struggle for self- determination of Albanians in Kosovo were being organized in early March, Alaidin Demiri and Rufi Osmani, the mayors of Tetovo and Gostivar, received two-year and seven-and-half year prison sentences respectively. They had been convicted of defying a law passed by the Macedonian parliament last July that prohibited flying the Albanian flag publicly. The two city officials, along with the mayor of Debar, another predominantly Albanian city in western Macedonia, were arrested for refusing to take down the Albanian flag they had hoisted outside the city halls, alongside the Macedonian flag. Albanians see the flag as a symbol of their national identity and dignity. The passage of this law and a subsequent police crackdown spawned protests last July. More than 10,000 demonstrated in Gostivar and thousands more in Tetovo.

"The parliament in Skopje passed that law at 3:00 a.m. on July 9," said Fodyl, the worker at the shoe factory. "By 7:00 a.m. heavy police forces had descended into Gostivar, where the mayor was the most intransigent on flying the Albanian flag. The cops put the mayor under arrest, took down the flag by force, and refused to let Rufi Osmani address the people who gathered in front of city hall." As word got out in Gostivar, thousands of Albanians converged at the city center, with the crowds soon exceeding 10,000, said Fodyl and a number of students interviewed by the Militant. The police quickly charged the protesters, who were demanding the mayor speak, with clubs and tear gas. As demonstrators fought back, the cops opened fire, killing three people and wounding several others.

The police then began a sweep of many homes in the area, arresting and beating people indiscriminately, Fodyl said. "It was a day that won't be forgotten by Albanians," he added. "The government's aim was to frighten and intimidate the Albanian population. But they accomplished just the opposite."

Xhevair Memedi said the government in Skopje often uses the conflict with the Albanians to justify nationalist demagogy and paper over disgruntlement by Macedonian working people with government austerity policies. "At the same time that parliament banned the use of our flag, the government devalued the denar [the Macedonian currency] by 20 percent," Memedi said. "Under other circumstances, this devaluation would have stirred protests throughout Macedonia." He later described the regime's attempts to sell-off state industries to foreign investors as "the biggest robbery in our history."

Imperialist intervention
Meanwhile, Washington and other imperialist governments are using the current situation to further their military intervention in the Balkans. This includes U.S. plans to convert the Krivolac army base in southern Macedonia into a NATO training center, which could be used for deployment of NATO troops into Kosovo. During a March 15 visit to Skopje, U.S. undersecretary of state Strobe Talbott praised the Gligorov regime for its collaboration with Washington. This was "an example to be followed in the Balkans," Talbott said. Washington has maintained over 500 troops in Macedonia since 1992, as part of a 1,000-strong United Nations "peacekeeping force" there. It has recently pledged U.S. troops will stay in Macedonia, even if the UN force withdraws. This is part of Washington's strategy for the last half decade of building a military "ring" around Yugoslavia.

Reliance on Washington to support the fight for national rights of Albanians finds an echo among many middle-class layers and others they influence. "In the context of the Balkan situation, the United States could be the only factor to save people from the atrocities of the Serbian regime and provide a measure of stability in Macedonia," said Qumal Marate, a professor at the University of Tetovo.

Imperialist powers and their hangers-on in Skopje and elsewhere in this republic, however, face a confident and fighting Albanian people and many Macedonians who do not want to be under the thumb of imperialism.

In a discussion with student leaders at the University of Tetovo, several said they distrust the U.S. government and NATO. According to Arburim Iseni, this stems in part from the Dayton accord - the pact Washington forced the warring regimes in former Yugoslavia to sign in 1995, setting the stage for the partition of Bosnia and its occupation by NATO troops. "Under Dayton, the U.S. legitimized the Milosevic regime and the repression it carries out against Albanians," Iseni said. "If the interests of the West are to find a peaceful solution, then that would be good. But this problem cannot be solved peacefully. First and foremost, we Albanians must stand up and fight for our rights."

"Rugova's policy of waiting must end," said Hiureme Gura, referring to Democratic League of Kosovo leader Ibrahim Rugova. "I don't have faith in the so-called international community. Every foreign power has their own interests in mind. We can only trust our own forces."

Several people interviewed said they identified with the Kosovo Liberation Army and saw armed struggle as the only way for Albanians in Kosovo to win self-determination.

Some student leaders described their distrust of Washington as dovetailing with their misgivings about the leaderships of the main political parties among Albanians, in Macedonia and Kosovo. They said these leaderships do not champion an uncompromising struggle for the national rights of the Albanian people. Isamet Bakiu, for example, said, "Rugova has talked about a `peaceful solution' to the crisis in Kosovo for a decade. We are tired of `peaceful solutions' that never happen. We only win our rights when we fight for them."

Among Macedonians, those who oppose the nationalism of the Gligorov regime and support ending discrimination against Albanians include many who also oppose the breakup of Yugoslavia. "We don't pay attention to their borders," said Natasha Todorovska, who works for the state radio in Skopje and volunteers at the Human Rights Center there. "We continue to travel to Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, even though these regimes have made it more difficult. I am a Yugoslav. I feel like belonging to that side of history. And the fight to end discrimination against Albanians is part of that."

Natasha Terlexis, a member of the Foreign Airlines Workers Union in Athens, Greece, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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