In order to sabotage the path of renovate, construction and development of the country in the direction of socialism initiated and led by our Party, hostile and reactionary forces continuously spread false and reactionary arguments, including the argument of “developing capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party”. This is a baseless distortion that needs to be exposed and resolutely fought to refute.

Since the collapse of real socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, hostile forces have gleefully claimed that socialism and communist ideals are “out-dated”, “dead”, or “a dead end”. However, the successful works of renovate, reform, and opening-up of socialist countries, under the leadership of genuine Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties - such as Vietnam, China, Cuba, and Laos - have poured “cold water” on their “joy and excitement”. Nevertheless, with their stubborn nature and plots to eliminate the leadership role of Communist Parties, abolishing the real socialism in the world and in Vietnam, hostile forces have recently “shifted” their focus on attacking against socialism in both theory and practice with many new tricks and “cunning” rhetoric such as: “developing capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party”, which they consider to be “the development doctrine for the new era”. To mislead public opinion and manipulate the awareness of people who lack understanding, weak-minded and gullible, they argue that: “Socialism is merely a transitional phase from poverty and backwardness toward capitalism, and that the dreams of socialism have been realised by capitalism itself”. More sophisticatedly, they misinterpret that “V.I. Lenin was the one who talked about using capitalism” to attribute to “developing capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party”. They exploit the viewpoint that the Communist Party of Vietnam currently uses the form of private ownership, identify that “developing the private economic sector to become an important driving force of the economy” to falsely claim that “the Communist Party of Vietnam leads the development of capitalism, not socialism”, etc. The above argument of hostile and reactionary forces is extremely malicious and dangerous; it seeks to negate the socialist ideal and purpose of a bright future of humanity, blurring the boundaries between the nature of socialist and capitalist systems, thereby denying the leadership role of Communist Parties in the socialist revolutionary cause in Vietnam and in the world. We can affirm that the above argument of hostile forces is completely illogical and baseless, both in theory and practice.

In terms of theory, the so-called “development of capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party” is an eclectic, confused, and baseless fallacy, aimed at blurring the boundaries between the nature of socialist and capitalist systems, denying the theory of scientific socialism in particular and Marxism-Leninism in general. That cannot and will never happen!

From the viewpoint of historical materialism, the classical theorists of Marxism-Leninism thoroughly studied the nature of capitalism in its various stages of development and affirmed that: the communist socio-economic formation is the highest form of socio-economic development in the history of human society, and will inevitably replace the capitalist socio-economic formation, this is a process of historical-natural development, in which capitalist society will be dialectically negated by communist society. This affirms that socialism and capitalism are two social systems that are fundamentally different in nature.

Overview of the 13th National Congress of the Party

Although when assessing capitalism, through a scientific, objective, comprehensive, historical dialectic method, the classical theorists of Marxism-Leninism admitted the historical role of capitalism; affirming that the emergence of capitalism as a replacement for feudal society was a historical inevitability and thanks to its effective application of the laws of the market economy, the bourgeoisie and capitalism, during less than a century of domination, “created more and mightier productive forces than all preceding generations combined”.  However, that development merely stemmed from replacing one mode of exploitation (feudalism) with another (capitalism), which was even more sophisticated, cunning, and brutal in many ways. Furthermore, when the bourgeoisie held a central position, it played a historical role in overthrowing the feudal class, leading to the birth of capitalism - a social regime more progressive than feudalism. Yet, when the bourgeoisie no longer occupied the central position of the era (as capitalism transitioned into imperialism, invading other nations around the world), the central position shifted to the working class, and capitalism became outdated and obsolete compared to the new, more civilised and progressive social regime - socialism.

In discussing the role and nature of the Communist Party, the classical theorists of Marxism-Leninism provided a scientific explanation of the historical mission of the working class - the only class with the mission to lead the global revolution to abolish capitalism and successfully build socialism and communism on a worldwide scale. This is an objective reality determined by the socio-economic position of the working class itself: “The fall of the bourgeoisie and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable”. However, for that great and glorious revolutionary cause to succeed, one of the prerequisites is that the working class must establish its own political party, the Communist Party. The Communist Party is the inevitable result of the close combination between Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement; it is the vanguard of the working class, leading the working class and the labouring people in carrying out the revolution to overthrow the capitalist regime and successfully build a new society - socialism and communism. V.I. Lenin affirmed: “The goal of the proletariat is to establish socialism, abolish the division of society into classes, turn all members of society into workers, and eliminate the foundations of all forms of exploitation of man by man”. Moreover, the revolution led by the Communist Party is consistently aimed at building the essential elements of socialism, not at “developing capitalism”. It is a revolutionary process of comprehensive renovation across all aspects of social life, it also involves an interweaving of elements from both the old society (capitalism) and the new society (socialism). At the same time, it always inherits the achievements that humanity has attained during the capitalist era - as V.I. Lenin pointed out: the attitude of true communists is to know how to build small bridges across state capitalism; to learn from capitalism in terms of technology, economic management experience, and educational standards, and to utilise bourgeois specialists in the construction of socialism. However, it is impossible and will never be possible to blur the boundaries or crudely and illogically combine “developing capitalism” with “the leadership of the Communist Party”, such a notion is merely a play on words trick used by hostile forces to mislead public opinion!

In terms of practice, the notion of “developing capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party” is a distortion of history and a denial of the achievements of real socialism.

In reality, under the correct leadership of the Russian Bolshevik Communist Party and leader V.I. Lenin, the Russian working class and labouring people achieved a great victory in the October Revolution of 1917, overthrowing the Tsarist autocracy and the bourgeois government, and establishing the Soviet government of the working class and labouring people, thereby embarking on the path of building socialism in Russia. Although in the cause of leading the socialist construction in Soviet Russia, the Bolshevik Communist Party and V.I. Lenin also referred to the use of state capitalism as a part of the process, but according to Lenin, this meant utilising capitalism in the form of transitional, intermediate economic models to build socialism, not “the Communist Party leading the development of capitalism” as the hostile forces are now propagating and promoting!

At present, an undeniable reality is that the adjustments and adaptations made for survival and development in capitalist countries are all carried out under the leadership of bourgeois parties (such as the Republican Party or Democratic Party in the U.S., or the Conservative Party or Labour Party in the U.K.,...), and certainly not under the leadership or rule of any Communist Party. This reality proves that the claim of “developing capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party” made by hostile forces is completely unrealistic and baseless!

In Vietnam, under the leadership of Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh, the Communist Party of Vietnam was founded on 3 February 1930, marking the political maturity of the Vietnamese working class, which rose to the political stage as the only leading force of the Vietnamese revolution, leading the country from victory to victory, successfully achieving national independence and guiding the entire nation toward socialism, bypassing the capitalist stage, in accordance with the laws of development and the aspirations of the Vietnamese people. The claim by hostile and reactionary forces that Vietnam’s use of private ownership, even the recognition of the private economic sector as a key driver of the economy, expected to contribute around 70% of GDP by 2030, equates to “the Communist Party of Vietnam leading the development of capitalism rather than socialism” is a blatant distortion of the nature of Vietnam’s socialist-oriented economy. The fact is, Vietnam’s economy is a socialist-oriented market economy that utilises multiple forms of ownership and multiple economic sectors; in which the state economy plays the leading role and, together with the collective economy, forms the foundation of the national economy. In other words, the state economic sector, based on public ownership of the principal means of production, plays both a guiding role and a decisive role in shaping the nature of Vietnam socialist’s economy. The policy of developing the private economy into an important driving force for economic development does not mean that Vietnam’s economy is a capitalist economy. Rather, this policy aims to promote economic growth, create job opportunities, and raise incomes for workers; all while remaining under the guidance and socialist orientation led by the state economic sector, it is absolutely not a capitalist economy as distorted by hostile forces! Moreover, in affirming the nature of the socialist system led by the Communist Party of Vietnam, the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasised: “We seek a society where development truly serves human beings, not one that exploits and tramples on human dignity for the sake of profit. We seek economic development hand in hand with social progress and social justice, not widening the gap between rich and poor and social inequality...”. The reality of Vietnam’s revolution, especially after nearly 40 years of comprehensive renovation under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, has gained great achievements in building socialism, which reaffirm that: “The leadership of the Party is the foremost factor determining every victory of the Vietnamese revolution”.

Thus, both in terms of theory and practice, the rhetoric of “developing capitalism under the leadership of the Communist Party”, propagated by hostile forces, not only attacks the ideological foundation of our revolution, but also seeks to deny the leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam and to redirect our revolutionary path toward capitalism. Therefore, more than ever, we must uphold a strong revolutionary vigilance, resolutely expose and confront the schemes and tactics of hostile and reactionary forces hidden behind such views and rhetoric, contributing to defending the ideological foundation and the sole leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, thereby ensuring that our revolution steadily advances into a new era - the era of national growth, and to build a prosperous, civilised, and happy society.

Senior Colonel, Assoc. Prof., PhD NGUYEN SY HOA  and Colonel MA LE VAN CAN