There is seldom, if ever, a ruling political party in the world being called by a simple, close name: our Party. That is not accidental, but represents our people’s appreciation for its contribution to Vietnamese revolution for 88 years. This is our Party’s great honour but heavy responsibility to the people and nation. In the context of integration and development with both opportunities and challenges, what the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) needs to do and how it continues to affirm its stature and deserve being called “our Party” – one thing that our people have confidence in our Party – are the Party’s vital matter.
In order to give some insights into this matter, the National Defence Journal honourably introduces a series of articles, titled “Our Party! Our Pride!” written by Nguyen Ha Anh.
I. The inception and historic mission of the Communist Party of Vietnam
 |
| Leader Nguyen Ai Quoc in 1930 (file photo) |
The CPV was founded on the 3rd of February, 1930 when our country was being invaded by the French colonialists and our people were under both feudalistic and colonial control. That was a special political event, which marked the onset of the Vietnamese revolution and an important milestone in the history of our people. The inception of the CPV was attributed to a combination of Marxism-Leninism, workers’ movement and patriotic movement. It was also attributed to great services rendered by a great man - Nguyen Ai Quoc (also known as Ho Chi Minh).
In early 20th century, Marxism-Leninism was spread throughout Vietnam by Nguyen Ai Quoc and other communist soldiers. The propagation of Marxism-Leninism in Vietnam, together with patriotism inherently existed in our people, and the workers’ “proletarianization” movement, enabled the revolutionary movements to vigorously develop both quantitatively and qualitatively, transforming from spontaneous struggle for economic interests to self-conscious organized, coordinated struggle. It was within this context that the vanguard of the national revolutionary movement perceived the situation and the need to have a new style political party. They, therefore, established the first communist organisations at the end of the year 1929, including the Communist Party of Indochina (in June 1929), the Communist Party of Annam (in August 1929) and the Federated Indochinese Communist Party (in September 1929). All of these communist organisations issued their declarations, political platforms and regulations and wished to be recognised by the Comintern. The coexistence of three separate communist organisations would lead to competition for influence and division of the revolutionary struggle. On clearly identifying this situation, on 27 October 1929, the Comintern issued a directive which read: “the most important and pressing mission of all the Indochinese communists is to establish a revolutionary party with proletariat base – a broad-based communist party in Indochina. That party has to be the only communist organisation in Indochina.”
At that time, Nguyen Ai Quoc was working in Thailand. Although he had known nothing about the directive of the Comintern, owing to being well aware of domestic situations and the risk of a damaging split, “as an envoy for the Comintern who had full decision-making power over every issue related to revolutionary movement in Indochina,” he hurriedly departed for Hong Kong and sent letters to Vietnam to invite representatives of all three communist organisations to Hong Kong to discuss about unification. This was thought to be a decision of historic significance, which reflected the sharpness, proactiveness and wide and deep vision of a brilliant leader: Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh. A conference on the unification of communist organisations was held under the chairmanship of Nguyen Ai Quoc on 6 January 1930, in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Representatives of the Communist Party of Indochina and the Communist Party of Annam participated in the conference except those of the Federated Indochinese Communist Party could not come because of failure to contact. The conference took place in a rapid, favourable manner and participants agreed to name the party the Communist Party of Vietnam. The conference adopted the Brief Political Platform, Brief Stratagem, Brief Regulations, and Brief Program drafted by Nguyen Ai Quoc. The Brief Political Platform and Brief Stratagem were later considered as the Party’s first political platform.
The Brief Political Platform of the CPV clearly outlined the nature, missions and adversaries of the Vietnamese revolution. It specified that the Party’s guideline was to conduct bourgeois democratic revolution and agrarian revolution to advance to the communist society. Missions of the Vietnamese revolution were to overthrow the French colonialists and feudalists; to make our country completely independent and our people free to assemble; to achieve gender equality; to popularize education in the interests of workers and peasants; to nationalize all of enterprises owned by capitalists and imperialists; to set up a government of workers, peasants and soldiers; to build an Army of workers and peasants; and so on. The Party’s Brief Stratagem specified that “the Party is the vanguard of the proletariat, must win the majority of their own class, and must empower their own class to lead the masses. The Party must win the majority of peasants and rely on them to conduct agrarian revolution to destroy big landlords and feudalists.” The Brief Stratagem also underscored the Party’s principle of cooperation, which required cautiousness when engaging in negotiations with other classes. The Party was not allowed to concede interests of workers and peasants. At the same time, it had to propagandize and contact oppressed peoples and proletariat in the world, especially the French proletariat. The Brief Regulations clearly pointed out the Party’s guidelines and goals, which sought to lead the masses to “destroy capitalism and imperialism and build a communist society”; and dictated regulations on joining in the Party, organisation system, responsibility of party members and organizations at all levels to abide by their commissioners, membership fees, and discipline. The Brief Program specified that the Party was the vanguard of the proletariat; was tasked with “assembling the majority of the masses and peasants, making preparations for agrarian revolution, and overthrowing the landlords and feudalists”; involving the petty bourgeoisie, intellects and middle peasant in the proletariat’s affairs; uniting the oppressed peoples and proletariat in the world; and so forth.
The conference on the unification of communist organisations also discussed and decided the guidelines and plans to unify the remaining communist organisation in Vietnam; established the Provisional Central Committee; and decided to publish a Theoretical Journal and three newspapers for the purpose of propaganda. Participants left Hong Kong for Vietnam on 8 February 1930. After this conference, on behalf of the Comintern and the CPV, Nguyen Ai Quoc sent the Appeal to oppressed workers, peasants, soldiers, the youth, and compatriots. He urged them to defeat French colonialism, feudalism and the counter-revolutionary bourgeois to gain independence. The Appeal was one of the most important documents of the conference for the unification of communist organisations. It outlined guidelines, goals and principles of the Vietnamese revolution in both short and long terms.
Consequently, the conference for the unification of communist organisations fulfilled its historic mission to merge three communist organisations in Vietnam to form a single political party – the Communist Party of Vietnam. The success of the conference and the foundation of the CPV closely associated with the name, intelligence, prestige, and revolutionary ethics of Nguyen Ai Quoc. Given his prestige and intelligence, Nguyen Ai Quoc completed his great responsibility and historic mission to become a founder of our Party – the Party of Vietnamese working class and people. At the end of September 1930, Nguyen Ai Quoc informed the Comintern about the arrangement of “a meeting at the central level to make decisions about everything.” By October 1930, he attended the 1st Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPV convened in Hong Kong. The conference adopted the Thesis on Bourgeois Civil Rights Revolution drafted by Tran Phu, renamed the party the Communist Party of Indochina, and elected Tran Phu as the General Secretary of the Party.
The birth of the CPV put an end to the crisis of leading role of the Vietnamese revolution and opened a new era in the revolutionary struggle of our people – a period of time when the working class, represented by its vanguard, assumed the leading role in the revolutionary movement. Henceforth, given its sound guidelines and methods and appropriate steps, the CPV involved our people in the struggle for independence, freedom and, together with oppressed peoples in the world, abolition of the colonial system, and carried out its lofty mission of emancipating the country, society and the humankind.
On assessing the success of the conference on the unification of communist organisations and the inception of the CPV – an event of significant importance in the history of the Vietnamese revolution, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed that the foundation of the Party marked an exceedingly important turning point in the history of the Vietnamese revolution. It proved that our proletariat became mature and competent to lead the revolution (to be continued).
Nguyen Ha Anh