
By Adrian Thano
A woman from the suburbs takes to the streets to protest, holding a photograph of her husband who died in a mine. She doesn't look like the signature ladies of parliament, government, opposition who talk about women's empowerment from air-conditioned halls. Her eyes are tired, her fingers wrinkled, her hair unkempt, like the words she says. But her appearance speaks louder than any speech or press conference.
She is the face of social injustice in a country governed by socialists.
For several weeks, the miners of Spaç in the north have been demanding union legitimacy and job security; while the oil workers of Marinza in the south are demanding a salary that will keep them alive amidst the smoke and poisons of oil.
Two realities, two ends of the country, but the same language: the language of the unrepresented, left behind, who demands little attention from a Tirana where every day the brazen luxury of those who run it is displayed: Wiretaps where millions of euros disappear like five leks, cars that cost as much as an entire chrome gallery, watches that glitter on the wrists of corruption, dinners where those who sign concessions paid for with the sweat of those who don't even have oxygen grumble with complacency.
The irony is sharp: Albania has been governed for years by a party that calls itself left-wing. Eighty-three MPs are labeled “socialists.” None of them, apart from some unofficial posts, care about Spaçi and Marinza. They have forgotten the essence of the left: the protection of the working class, social equality, the dignity of work. Instead, we have special laws that serve capital.
The worker, once the moral pillar of the left, has become a pejorative word that is no longer even used in speeches. Our new rich are embarrassed by misery. But real misery is not those who struggle to breathe. Misery is to bask in luxury and call yourself a socialist. There is no misery more tragic and ridiculous than falsehood.
Unfortunately, the rest of our society, obsessed with money, has also chosen not to look where life is shortened by a few euros a day. There is a lack of sensitivity and solidarity. A society that does not protect the dignity of those who work is not only not left or right, but is no longer a society at all.
It is a dirty market, where everything is sold and bought. Even the soul. / Dita