by Eugene Walker
“What we want is a new Albania…
We’re saying enough is enough, our country isn’t for sale.”
—Justina Pregna, 34
Thousands protest in Albania against the planned coastal resort linked to Jared Kushner. Photo: Al Jazeera Facebook page.
Albania’s Flamingo Revolution started when a secret resort investment deal was revealed by Ivanka Trump together with her tycoon husband Jared Kushner. They plan to develop a huge resort on Sazan, Albania’s only sizable island, and on a wild beach area on the nearby mainland on Narta Lagoon, one of the most ecologically important wetlands in the Balkans.
While the real estate developers talk about the planned resort area as if it were a blank slate, in fact people have long ridden ferries to enjoy the island’s beach and natural habitats. Now the developers want to block them out so that only wealthy resort clientele could visit those areas.
Both the island and the lagoon area are designated protected nature areas and are nesting places for dozens of bird species, including flamingos. The Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park is classified as a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance.
As soon as the corrupt deal was discovered, outrage and protests began growing and growing. Demonstrators who crossed over to the island were assailed by guards. The guards were caught on a video, now viral, brutally dragging one protester away. Demonstrators returned in growing numbers and knocked down construction shacks, pushing them down a hill. They pulled down barriers constructed to keep them out. While the protests were initially against the Kushners, they quickly expanded to include the government and the opposition party as well, and the intertwining of the country’s leading political figures with multinational capital.
Throughout June the protests grew, with tens of thousands showing up at daily protests in Tirana, the capital. Over 100,000 protested on June 13, and 250,000 on June 20. What protesters are talking about encompasses not only environmental issues but the whole direction of Albanian society, a country of only three million people, as can be seen in some of their comments:
“This government no longer represents us. It has chosen to represent oligarch investors…These protests are not going to stop.” —Ina Shkurti, 32.
“It’s been more than 30 years and still our hospitals are terrible, our education is shit, there are no jobs and everyone is leaving.” —Lizander Saraci.
The “more than 30 years” refer to the time since the overthrow of Stalinist state-capitalist rule. With the collapse of the totalitarian Hoxha regime—which was worshipped by the same kinds of campists who today idolize North Korea’s “Communist” Dear Leader—neoliberalism was instituted, as if that would somehow result in freedom and prosperity for the working masses. But private capitalism has proven not only bankrupt but rife with corruption, while 800,000 Albanians have moved abroad to find jobs.
The Flamingo Revolution is against corruption, and against oligarchs selling the people’s land and heritage for personal riches. Extending that, it is raising questions about whether the people as a whole, and the working class in particular, can take control of their own destiny. Their anger and determination are something people worldwide can relate to, especially in the U.S. It reveals a hunger for new beginnings and self-determination and deserves our solidarity.