Today, December 8 is National Youth Day in Albania. A special day that has its roots in the student demonstrations in 1990 which led to the end of the Communist regime.
Albania was in the grips of a brutal communist dictatorship for almost 50 years. During this time, thousands were killed, many disappeared, and many more were imprisoned in gulags and forced labour camps. An endless number were tortured and persecuted by the communists. Today, there has been no official apology, there is no memorial, and many of those who went missing have still not been found.
By 1990, Dictator Enver Hoxha was a few years dead and Ramiz Alia was the First Secretary of the communists. During his rule, he had gradually introduced some economic reforms and reopened diplomatic ties with Western Europe.
In January 1990, protests started in Shkodra when citizens moved to demolish Stalin’s statue. These protests spread gradually throughout the country and the regime responded by lessening restrictions further.
Then on December 8 1990, a number of demonstrations had happened in various towns in Albania. This culminated in a student-led protest in the capital of Tirana that evening. The actual reason for the protest was due to a powercut and absence of electricity. But their requests which started as a request for electricity quickly evolved into demands for political and multi-party pluralism. Thousands of students were psychologically and spiritually liberated and became the instigators of the movement that would free the Albanian people.
The protest, while referred to as the December Movement, in fact only lasted three days from December 8 until December 11. It started spontaneously and continued with a minimal amount of self-organization and was never an organized movement. It was a group of courageous students with several strong characters that became guides and de facto leaders. These included Azem Hajdari, Shenasi Rama and Tegalin Malshyti. They gave speeches and behaved in a way that inspired, gave courage, and killed the fear that was present among the students.
Initially, the protests were confined to the Student City are and the now-called Democracy Square. They tried to enter the streets of Tirana but were stopped by the police. They erected a stage in the square and played music, gave speeches, and spoke freely for the first time in public. The Communists allowed this and did not once try to enter Student City.
During those days of protests, police did not use violence against students with the exception of light rubber battens when students tried to leave Student City. A few arrests were made but they were soon released and returned to the dormitories.
On day three of the protests, before meeting with the students, Ramiz Alia announced permission for multi-party pluralism. Following Albania’s liberation from communism, many of the students emigrated out of the country. Azem Hajdari was the only student who was still a member of the PD when they took power in 1992.
While the student protests of 1990 were not the end of the communist regime, they were one of the final pushes towards its downfall. The regime was already economically and politically bankrupt and could not be sustained for much longer. December was about aspiration- the aspiration for freedom and wellbeing which was summed up in several now-famous slogans; “Freedom and democracy” and “we want Albania like all of Europe”.
Current Prime Minister Edi Rama was not involved in any way in the protests. As a privileged son of a communist, he was in Greece at the time on a private visit. Rama published a photo today on his Facebook where he claimed he was proud to be involved. In fact, he arrived back in Tirana after the initial three days of protest.
