Building and preserving solidarity and unity within the Party has always been considered by President Ho Chi Minh as a top priority mission and the foundation of all success. Solidarity and unity are not only a matter of life and death for each Party organisation but also the lifeblood of the entire Party and the matter of survival for the revolution. As Vietnam enters a new era of national rise, strengthening solidarity and unity, innovating leadership and governance methods to enable the Party to fulfill its mission of leading the country, as entrusted by the people, is more urgent than ever. 

As the founder, leader, educator, and trainer of our Party, President Ho Chi Minh paid special attention to the work of building the Party. Within this critical task, he identified: unity within the Party is one of the most fundamental principles. Solidarity and unity within the Party are the foundation to foster the great national unity bloc. A ruling, leading Party that lacks internal unity and solidarity cannot lead the nation to revolutionary success. In his Testament, he wrote: “Thanks to close unity and wholehearted dedication to serving the working class, the people, and the nation, our Party has, since its establishment, united, organised, and led our people to enthusiastically fight, achieving victories by victories. Unity is an extremely valuable tradition of our Party and our people. All comrades, from the Central Committee to Party cells, must preserve the unity and solidarity of the Party as they preserve the apple of their eye”. Thus, it can be seen that solidarity and unity within the Party is not only President Ho Chi Minh’s top concern but also his deep-seated concern when thinking about the future.

He not only emphasised the need for unity within the Party but also clarified that this unity must be truly unanimous, solidarity, and reflected in both thought and action. It cannot appear united outside but when it is necessary to make a decision or a policy, there is no unity or where members ally when necessary, when it is not, they find ways to obstruct each other’s work. In his thought, unity must be solidarity and consistent, grounded in the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints, and dedicated to the interests of the revolution and the people. Upholding and strictly adhering to the Party’s principles is the responsibility of every Party member. He considered democratic centralism as a fundamental and crucial principle, emphasising that within each Party organisation, democracy must be practiced and expanded, “Democracy must be truly expanded so that all Party members can freely express their opinions”, every opinion and perspective of each Party member must be heard and considered; all major decisions of the organisation must be discussed and deliberated democratically. Achieving solidarity and unity within the Party requires cadres and members to be honest in self-criticism and criticism, as this serves as a means to train Party members, strengthening and rectifying the Party to become increasingly pure and strong. As he stated, “Only a truly revolutionary Party and a truly democratic government dare to engage in self-criticism, welcome criticism, and resolutely correct mistakes. Through self-criticism and criticism, especially criticism from the bottom up, our unity becomes even stronger”. This is also a fundamental rule of development for Communist Parties in general, following the principles of Marxism-Leninism.

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For genuine unity to exist, it is not only necessary to uphold the principles of Party activities but also to cultivate love, empathy, and mutual support among members. In practice, unity is not merely about setting expectations for task completion; it also requires understanding, sharing, and assisting one another in fulfilling responsibilities. Therefore, to maintain and strengthen unity, each Party organisation must not only focus on educating members about their responsibilities but also regularly foster comradeship, compassion, empathy, and solidarity. 

In order to have true unity, it is not only necessary to uphold the principles of Party activities but also to cultivate love, empathy, and sharing with each other. In practice, unity is not merely about setting expectations for task completion; it also requires empathy, sharing, and assisting one another in fulfilling missions. Therefore, to maintain and strengthen solidarity and unity, each Party organisation must not only focus on educating members about their responsibilities but also regularly foster compassion, empathy, sharing and comradeship.

Under the conditions of a ruling Party, President Ho Chi Minh placed great emphasis on moral integrity within the Party and strongly opposed “bureaucratic tendencies”, “corruption, wastefulness”, and “detachment from the people”. According to him, a ruling Party has the enormous responsibility of leading the people in building a new society, waging a “great battle” to eliminate outdated and corrupt practices while fostering new and positive developments. In his Testament, President Ho Chi Minh left behind four essential words “true”: “Ours Party is a ruling Party. Each Party member and official must truly embody revolutionary ethics, be truly diligent, thrifty, honest, and selfless. We must keep our Party truly clean and worthy of being the leader and the servant that is truly loyal to the people”. Each Party member, especially those in leadership positions, must resolutely combat individualism and opportunism within themselves, as these are the root causes of disunity within the Party.

From the realities of the global revolutionary movement, the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong also pointed out: the failure in establishing the Party’s leadership correctly, neglecting Party building; rejecting Marxism-Leninism as the Party’s ideological foundation; disregarding or denying democratic centralism as the Party’s fundamental organisational principle; becoming detached from the people, losing credibility, and failing to secure public support; abandoning proletarian internationalism and fueling ethnic nationalism and narrow-minded patriotism further contributed to the disintegration and collapse of the Soviet Communist Party, once a strong and resilient Marxist-Leninist Party, and the downfall of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union. For this reason, throughout its leadership of the Vietnamese revolution, our Party has always placed special emphasis on Party building in terms of politics, ideology, ethics, organisation, and personnel to strengthen the Party’s leadership capacity, governance ability, and combat strength; identifying this as an essential, vital, and regular mission directly tied to preserving the socialist nature of the Party and ensuring the survival of both the Party and the socialist regime. The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam continued to reaffirm this mission:“...paying special attention to and further promote the comprehensive building and rectification of the Party in terms of politics, ideology, ethics, organisation, and personnel” so that the Party remains truly clean and strong, embodying “morality and civilisation”.

In recent years, our Party has always valued, preserved, and promoted unity and solidarity. As a result, the Party has successfully gathered and harnessed the collective strength of the entire nation, creating a synergistic power to fulfill its leadership role entrusted by the people. Across multiple Party Congresses, the issue of unity and solidarity has been seriously addressed, comprehensively evaluated, and deeply analysed. While we take pride in our achievements and cherish our accomplishments, we cannot ignore the shortcomings, limitations, and negative phenomena still present in society. Within the Party, there remain manifestations of political, ideological, and moral degradation, as well as signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among a part of cadres and Party members; a growing trend of individualism and group interests; some Party organisations show signs of internal division, failing to respect and fully implement the principle of democratic centralism; self-criticism and criticism remain superficial; while some leaders, who bear responsibility for internal unity before their higher and lower Party committees, have not truly exemplary. 

Today, our country is entering a new era - an era of Vietnam’s rise on the global stage. In this context, we face both opportunities and challenges arising from reality that demand effective solutions. The achievements that the entire Party, people, and military achieved through nearly 40 years of renovation are a testament to the unity and solidarity of the entire Party, people, and military, affirming the Party’s maturity and strength. However, given the increasingly complex and unpredictable global and regional landscape, alongside our accomplishments, our country still faces numerous difficulties, particularly in addressing both traditional and non-traditional security threats. Hostile forces are constantly seeking ways, through sinister and cunning plots, to incite internal divisions and cause disunity within the Party. Therefore, strengthening unity and solidarity within the Party, from the Central Committee to the grassroots level, is an objective and urgent necessity in this new revolutionary phase. To achieve this, we must thoroughly understand and rigorously implement the resolutions and directives of the Central Committee, the Political Bureau, and the Secretariat regarding the work of Party building and rectification, particularly the key directives outlined in the article “Continuing to strongly innovate the Party’s leadership and governance methods, an urgent requirement of the new revolutionary stage” by General Secretary To Lam. In this effort, we must focus on the following key areas:

Firstly, ensuring unified awareness and strict implementation of the Party’s leadership and governance methods, absolutely avoiding shields, do for others, or lax leadership. The Party leads through the political system, with itself as the core; it exercises leadership through ideology, policies, guidelines, and exemplary role, along with regular self-criticism and criticism of its cadres and members; by institutionalising Party’s policies and guidelines into government laws; by mobilising and persuading the people to implement these policies, recommending outstanding representatives to government institutions, and through inspection and supervision. The Party rules by law, leads the establishment of the Constitution and laws while also operating within the framework of the Constitution and laws. Party members and cadres must comply with and “respect” the law. The ruling Party leads the government, with its power being political, by focusing on setting policies and guidelines, whereas government power is the authority to govern society based on the law. The Party’s leadership must ensure that power truly belongs to the people and that the government is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. The Party exercises comprehensive leadership over the country and is responsible for both successes and shortcomings in the nation’s development and defence.

Secondly, focus on streamlining and optimising the organisational structure of Party agencies to ensure they truly serve as the Party’s intellectual nucleus, the “general staff”, and the vanguard leading government institutions. Develop lean and efficient advisory bodies within Party committees; ensuring that advisory cadres possess strong political integrity, competence, high professional qualifications, expertise, responsibility, and thorough knowledge of their work. Conduct research and promote the consolidation of a number of advisory and support agencies of the Party; promptly and comprehensively assess the concurrent holding of positions of the Party and the political system to have appropriate decisions. Ensure that the Party’s leadership functions do not overlap with administrative management tasks; clearly differentiate and define the specific responsibilities of leadership levels within various Party organisations, avoiding do for others, redundancy, or formalism. Strongly reform working styles and practices towards a more scientific and professional approach, adhering to the principle of “know the role, know the responsibility”.

Thirdly, strongly reform the issuance, thorough understanding, and implementation of the Party’s resolutions; build grassroots Party organisations and Party members to truly serve as the “cells” of the Party. Resolutions of Party committees and organisations must be concise, clear, easy to understand, remember, absorb, and implement; must accurately identify the requirements, tasks, paths, and methods for the development of the country, the nation, each locality, ministry, and sector; must have vision, scientific nature, practicality, applicability and feasibility; creating enthusiasm, trust, expectation, and motivation to urge the actions of Party members, cadres, economic sectors, businesses, and the people to take action in implementing Party’s resolutions. The process of thorough understanding and implementing resolutions must foster self-awareness and deep internalisation, especially regarding new viewpoints, policies, and solutions. Focus on building strong grassroots Party cells and exemplary Party members; enhance the quality of Party cell activities and bring the Party’s policies and guidelines into real-life practice.

Fourthly, continue to renew inspection and supervision work; accelerate the application of information technology and digital transformation in the Party’s activities. The Party conducts inspections and supervision to ensure tasks are carried out effectively, resolutions are implemented efficiently; the Party and government apparatus operate with authority, efficiency, and in accordance with Party guidelines, policies, the right people to the right tasks; timely identifying new factors, good and creative practices; correcting deviations and preventing violations of Party regulations and government laws. Promote the inspection and supervision role of Party committees and inspection committees at all levels. Issue regulations on the decentralisation of inspection and supervision authority, ensuring strict handling of any abuse of these processes for corrupt or negative purposes. Focus on digital transformation in Party work; building a database of grassroots Party organisations, Party members, and Party documents, connecting from the central to grassroots levels, integrating with the national population database and other relevant databases, effectively supporting the work of internal political protection and building a clean and strong Party.

On the eve of the 14th National Congress of the Party, at a time when we must select truly deserving cadres, those with talent, virtue, dedication, and vision, to assume the nation’s leadership responsibilities, it is more important than ever to uphold the tradition of unity and solidarity. This is a great responsibility, first and foremost, of the leadership collectives and individuals from the Central level down to the grassroots. Each cadre and Party member, especially those in leadership positions from high to low levels, must earnestly adhere to President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching: “All comrades, from the Central Committee to Party cells, must preserve the unity and solidarity of the Party as they preserve the apple of their eye”.

Assoc. Prof., Dr. VU VAN PHUC, Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council of Central Party Agencies, Former Editorial Director of the Communist Review