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- X WORLD, Page 45World NotesALBANIAGoodbye, Stalinism
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- That thud heard last week was the sound of Europe's last
- Marxist dictatorship landing on the trash heap of history.
- Following three days of student riots in Tirana, Albanian
- President Ramiz Alia summoned leaders of the demonstrations to
- his palace. Alia then abruptly canceled the Communists' 44-year
- monopoly on politics. He announced that henceforth rival
- parties will be permitted in the interest of "further
- democratization."
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- One day later, at a mass rally, a brand-new Democratic Party
- was formed. Its program, organizers said, would call for basic
- human rights, a mixed-market economy and parliamentary
- democracy. The fledgling party will now try to sell that
- program to voters unaccustomed to choice, in time for national
- elections scheduled for next February.
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