When the Party Was Born

When the Party Was BornOn November 8, 1941, Comrade Enver Hoxha convened a meeting of three disunited Albanian communist groups which up to that point were all pursuing their own separate work and aims the Shkodra, Kora and "Youth" groups. Though the de jure leader of the Kora group was the academic hide bound Koo Tashko, its de facto leader in action was Comrade Enver Hoxha, who organized a mass protest on October 28 in Tirana in defiance of the occupier. The Shkodra group

On November 8, 1941, Comrade Enver Hoxha convened a meeting of three disunited Albanian communist groups which up to that point were all pursuing their own separate work and aims -- the Shkodra, Kor�a and "Youth" groups. Though the de jure leader of the Kor�a group was the academic hide-bound Ko�o Tashko, its de facto leader in action was Comrade Enver Hoxha, who organized a mass protest on October 28 in Tirana in defiance of the occupier. The Shkodra group was led at the meeting by Qemal Stafa and Vasil Shanto, while the "Youth" group was led by Anastas Lula and Sadik Premte, the latter of whom were deeply affected by Trotskyite and anarchist illusions. On that evening in a small house in Tirana, their room only illuminated by a kerosene lamp, they founded the historic Communist Party of Albania (later the Party of Labour of Albania). The struggle for this moment, the most important moment in the history of the Albanian people, was long and hard fought. Comrade Enver Hoxha had been preparing the subjective factor to put aside their differences and rise against the fascist occupiers for years at his "Flora" shop, a front for communist organizing. The deep-seated hatred for the Albanian people was bubbling up, and on November 8, 1941 the communists ensured that they would be at the forefront of that struggle, at the head of the glorious Anti-fascist National Liberation War.