ere
succinctly phrased by Hoxha in his address to the Democratic Front
Congress in September 1967. Declaring that the social problems in the
country were complex in the towns and more so in the countryside, he
lamented the fact that the rural areas:

have their own written and especially unwritten laws, which
are often expressed in various regressive and harmful
customs, in norms that are alien to our Communist morals.
These are very dangerous and obstinate; they insistently
resist the new and are liquidated with difficulty. These
customs and norms have their own economic, ideological,
religious, and ethical basis; they have their own class
roots from capitalism to feudalism, indeed from the _bajrak_
and the tribe.

In an obvious effort to root out some of the old prevailing customs and
traditions, the Party inaugurated in 1967 a movement aimed at
revolutionizing the family and, in Party jargon, liberating it from the
remnants of bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology. The targets have
been directed toward the youth, both boys and girls. In resolutions
adopted by the Party's Central Committee it was charged that in some
families, because of the conservative and patriarchal mentality of the
parents, the children were still not allowed to participate in parental
conversations, especially the girls, on the pretext that they were too
young and immature.

Discussions on morals, such as relations between boys and girls, love,
and the creation of a socialist family, were particularly limited. It
was the parents' view that they should not discuss such things with
their children since this would undermine the traditional respect and
authority of the parents. As stated in the January 30, 1970, issue of
_Zeri i Popullit_, the need to strengthen the struggle against alien
concepts that still plagued families became clearer when one considered
some negative concepts that were evident in young people. Families of
intellectuals were particularly singled out for criticism because,
according to the Party journal, they manifested liberal attitudes in
their attempts to satisfy every petty bourgeois craving and desire of
their children; they instilled in them their own intellectual tendencies
and fed and dressed them beyond their means.

Evidence of the Party's failure to detach the people completely from
their traditional habits and customs was forcefully presented by the
Party i