Currently, some people says that “the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) is just an organisation of its own, or of the working class, it is not a Party of the labouring people and entire nation of Viet Nam; therefore, it is not a worthy leader of the country”. In fact, this trick is aimed at distorting our Party’s working-class nature, demeaning and removing our Party’s leading and ruling roles; thus, it should be unmasked and neutralised.

Over the past 93 years of leading the Vietnamese revolution, the CPV has interpreted the issue of “whose the party is” by various ways in each historical period. In the Documents of the Conference to found the CPV, our Party affirmed: “the Party is the vanguard of the proletariat”, and “the Party is the vanguard of the proletarian army”. Thereafter, the question “whose the CPV is” was mentioned in a larger scale: the CPV is the Party of the working class, of the labouring people, and of the entire Vietnamese people. That affirmation derives from the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the CPV’s process of leading the Vietnamese revolution.

In late 1945, when the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam was just established, it was confronted with numerous difficulties, such as hunger, illiteracy, foreign invasion, and the country was “hung by a thread”. Consequently, hostile forces both at home and abroad sought every way to speak ill of and take actions  against our Party, undermine our Party’s leadership over the new regime, and destroy our national great unity block. Oppositional parties, such as Viet Nam Revolutionary League and Viet Nam Nationalist Party revealed their treasonous nature when relying on foreign forces to tear our country apart and bring down our Party’s leadership and ruling role. That necessitated our Party further developing revolutionary forces and taking advantage of the international community’s support in the new period. It should be noted, at that time, under Chiang Kai-shek Army’s support, many oppositional parties in our country enhanced their operations; therefore, our Party had to adopt measures to gather forces more extensively. To that end, on November 11^th, 1945, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Indochina issued the Communiqué titled “voluntarily disbanding”. Not only a measure to settle the situation and “clear up all understandings both at home and abroad”, the Communique proved that “communist party members are vanguard soldiers of the nation, always dedicate themselves to the entire people’s national liberation cause, readily put national benefits above the benefits of their class, sacrifice their party’s interests for the country’s general interests”. Doing so contributed to fighting against hostile forces’ distortions that the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam was just a Government of the Communist Party, and the CPV “usurped” other political forces’ leadership over the country. In January 1946, answering questions from foreign journalists, President Ho Chi Minh said: “in a democratic nation, all people have freedom of confidence and freedom of organisation. However, under this circumstance and due to my duty, I have to stay out of all parties. Now I believe in national independence only. If a party should be established, it will be the National Party of Viet Nam. That party will have only one goal of completely liberating our nation, members of that party will be all Vietnamese citizens, excluding traitors and corrupted persons”. Following that viewpoint, the 2^nd National Party Congress (February 1951) emphasised: “the Vietnamese Workers’ Party must be a clear-sighted, resolute, loyal leader of the working class, of the labouring people, and of the Vietnamese people to unite and lead the nation in the resistance war to complete victory and exercise new democracy. In this period, the working class, labouring people, and nation of Viet Nam share the same interests. As the Vietnamese Workers’ Party is the Party of the working class and labouring people, it must be the Party of the Vietnamese people”.

An illustrative photo (source: lyluanchinhtri.vn)

According to the CPV’s current Charter, “the CPV is the vanguard of the working class and at the same time the vanguard of the labouring people and nation of Viet Nam, acting as a loyal representative of the interests of the working class, labouring people, and nation”. Calling the CPV the vanguard of the proletariat or of the working class and then describing the CPV as the Party of the working class, labouring people, and nation of Viet Nam reflect the new thinking of President Ho Chi Minh and our Party under the specific situation of Viet Nam which was a semi-feudal, backward agricultural country, where the number of workers, particularly large-scale industrial workers was much smaller than its population. Creatively applying and developing Marxist-Leninist theories to the Vietnamese revolution’s practical conditions, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh believe that the CPV and the working class share the same nature. For that reason, it is necessary to distinguish between the class nature and social foundation of the Party; it is vital to avoid equating the CPV’s class nature with the issue of “whose the CPV is”.

Clearly mentioning the class nature and social basis of the CPV constitutes the creative development of Marxism-Leninism into Viet Nam’s practical conditions. In addition to asserting the working-class nature, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh always attached importance to the “labouring people” and the “entire nation” as the foundation. Too much emphasis or absolutism placed on the Party of the nation will distort the working-class nature of the Party; on the contrary, lacking the factors of people and nation will not be in accordance with our Party and President Ho Chi Minh’s viewpoints on the Party’s social foundation. Approaches to the absolutisation of each aspect separately are contrary to dialects and our Party’s viewpoints. Those who deliberately take advantage of this issue to create distortions go against national interests. That our Party cleverly combined or underlined different aspects with one another was aimed at bringing into play and integrating the country’s synergy into the strength of the times to lead the Vietnamese revolution to the ultimate victory. In fact, the degree of gathering revolutionary forces   under our Party and President Ho Chi Minh’s viewpoints is very great, including all patriots; the solid foundation of force gathering is the leadership of the working class with the CPV acting as its vanguard.

In each revolutionary period, regardless of different names, the CPV always adheres to basic rules of a new-style party of the working class; the Party shares the same interests with the Fatherland, nation, and people of Viet Nam. More specifically, (1) the CPV is the vanguard of the working class and simultaneously the vanguard of the labouring people and nation of Viet Nam; (2) the CPV considers Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought as the ideological foundation and lodestar for all operations; (3) the CPV is built on Marxist-Leninist rules of party building, with democratic centralism serving as one of the fundamentals; (4) the CPV’s goals are to liberate the country, the working class, and the society and move our country towards socialism which is the first phase of a communist society. Nevertheless, some people deliberately say that the CPV is just an organisation of its own or of the working class, it is not a Party of the labouring people and entire nation of Viet Nam.

We are no stranger to the trick of calling for the building of a “non-class state” or an “all-people state” used by hostile forces and political opportunists; their trick is aimed at denying the Party’s achievements in leadership over our country’s revolution and removing the CPV’s leadership and ruling role over the State and society. The more frenzied their sabotage strategy is, the greater our Party’s leadership and ruling role in the Vietnamese revolution becomes. In the current process of building “the socialist rule-of-law State of the people, by the people, for the people led by the CPV”, the Party has no interests for itself. The CPV represents the interests of the whole nation under the spirit of Marxism-Leninism: in the revolutionary process, in order to liberate itself and build a new society, the working class “must seize power, rise to become a national class by itself, and turn itself into a nation”. Therefore, “special importance should be attached to stepping up the building and rectification of the Party comprehensively in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel” as a key task.

The over-90-year historical course of the nation of Viet Nam proves that the CPV is a political organisation which is the vanguard of not only the working class, but also the labouring people and entire nation of Viet Nam. It is a loyal representative of the interests of the Fatherland, the people, and the whole nation. The CPV’s leadership acts as a determinant to all victories of the Vietnamese revolution, which is acknowledged by the majority of our people; thus, the people call the CPV “our Party” and the loyal representative of their interests.

The CPV always accompanies the nation and has the nature of the working class no matter how it is called or whose it is. For that reason, we could be certain that the CPV deserves to be the leader of the working class, the labouring people, and the entire nation in the cause of constructing and protecting the Vietnam Socialist Fatherland, “for the sake of a prosperous and happy Viet Nam comparable to major powers across the five continents”. Distortions of that truth and our Party’s working-class nature are all unscientific, impractical and should be unmasked and disproved.

Prof. MACH QUANG THANG, Ph.D.