The revolution can only succeed if the Party leads it.

Việt Nam•16/11/2023

One of the important topics addressed by President Ho Chi Minh in his works "The Revolutionary Path" and " Political Common Sense" is the Party and Party building. In fact, his specific guidance in these two works remains highly relevant; not only contributing to meeting the requirements of the revolutionary cause under the Party's leadership, but also having immense significance for Party building and rectification, ensuring the Party remains clean, strong, and worthy of its pioneering role.

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One of the important topics addressed by President Ho Chi Minh in his works "The Revolutionary Path" and "Political Common Sense" is the Party and Party building. In fact, his specific guidance in these two works remains highly relevant; not only contributing to meeting the requirements of the revolutionary cause under the Party's leadership, but also having immense significance for Party building and rectification, ensuring the Party remains clean, strong, and worthy of its pioneering role.

THE PARTY'S LEADERSHIP IN THE REVOLUTIONARY CAUSE IS UNDENIABLE.

The history of the Vietnamese revolution over the past 93 years has proven that the decisive factor in all the victories of the Vietnamese revolution is "first of all, there must be a revolutionary party, to mobilize and organize the people internally, and to connect with oppressed nations and the proletariat everywhere externally. Only with a strong party can the revolution succeed, just as only with a steady helmsman can the ship sail" (1) as affirmed by President Ho Chi Minh in his work The Revolutionary Path in 1927. At the same time, practice has also confirmed President Ho Chi Minh's words: "To achieve victory, the revolution must have a leading party" as he wrote in section 31 of the work Common Political Knowledge.

Because, according to him, "revolution is destroying the old and replacing it with the new, destroying the bad and replacing it with the good" and "reforming the old society that has existed for thousands of years into a new society is very difficult (The Revolutionary Path), therefore, "revolution is a very complex struggle. To avoid going astray, the masses must have the Party's leadership to clearly understand the situation, the path and determine the correct strategy" (section 31, Political Common Sense). Furthermore, "revolution must first make the people enlightened" (2) (The Revolutionary Path). Therefore, to successfully carry out the revolutionary cause, "the Party must make the masses enlightened about why they are oppressed and exploited; must teach the masses to understand the laws of social development, so that they understand the purpose of the struggle; clearly show the path of liberation for the masses, and encourage the masses to resolutely make revolution; "To make the masses confident that the revolution will definitely win" (section 31, Political Common Sense). At the same time, the reality of the Vietnamese revolution also shows that "even after the revolution wins, the masses still need the Party's leadership, because: Although the people have taken power, class struggle in the country and imperialist schemes of aggression still exist. Because it is necessary to build the economy , national defense, culture, and society, the Party still has to organize, lead, and educate the masses to bring the working people to complete victory" and so that "the revolution and resistance will be victorious, and national construction will be successful" (3) (section 31, Political Common Sense)...

It can be said that these common but important and necessary pieces of knowledge were presented very simply, specifically, and clearly by President Ho Chi Minh in Section 31 of his work "Common Political Knowledge." This not only helps each cadre, party member, and all strata of the people to understand correctly the Communist Party and its leadership role, but also affirms that the Party is the vanguard of the class and the nation.

The most vivid evidence is that from its very inception, with its correct policies and guidelines, the Communist Party of Vietnam affirmed its role; it led the people to successfully carry out the August 1945 General Uprising, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, faced with the French colonialists' ambition to invade Vietnam once again, and to protect the newly gained independence as well as to steadfastly pursue the goals of national independence and socialism, under the leadership of the Party, the people and soldiers throughout the country continued the long march of simultaneously resisting the French colonial invaders and building the economy, national defense, culture, and society... This is the implementation of the cause of both resistance and nation-building, simultaneously building, protecting, and developing the country along the chosen path.

Therefore, in order for the Party to always maintain its position and fulfill its responsibilities to the Fatherland and the people, under all circumstances and at all times, the Vietnamese Communist Party must be an organization of outstanding individuals. These are: 1) “The Party is the vanguard of the working people (workers, farmers, and intellectuals)”; 2) “All Party members must uphold Party discipline, obey the leadership, and comply with the Party's resolutions”; 3) “The Party must lead all other organizations of the working people”; 4) “The Party must maintain close contact with the masses”; 5) “The Party must organize according to the principle of democratic centralism”; 6) In the Party, any superior or subordinate, old or new Party member, must definitely maintain the discipline of the proletariat"... These are the six basic principles, the organizational foundation of the Party so that the Party is "truly strong, clean, wise, and unified" (item 32, Common sense of politics)(4).

In particular, not only did he emphasize that “If the Party wants to be strong, it must have an ideology as its core, everyone in the Party must understand and follow that ideology. A Party without an ideology is like a person without intelligence, a ship without a compass. Now there are many doctrines and ideologies, but the most genuine, most certain, and most revolutionary ideology is Leninism” (5) and “the Russian Revolution teaches us that if the revolution is to succeed, the people (workers and peasants) must be the foundation, there must be a strong and stable Party, there must be perseverance, sacrifice, and unity. In short, we must follow Marxism and Leninism” (The Revolutionary Path), but in section 32 of the work Common Political Knowledge, President Ho Chi Minh also affirmed: “The ideology of the Party is Marxism-Leninism, every Party member must study it. Every Party member must honestly self-criticize and criticize to make continuous progress”; At the same time, it is required that "party members must wholeheartedly and fully serve the interests of the people, and must set an example in all resistance and national construction work" (6).

Furthermore, to ensure the Party lives up to its vanguard role, President Ho Chi Minh not only emphasized that "the Party combines the Vietnamese revolutionary movement with Marxism-Leninism. The Party clearly enlightens the working class, has a decisive class stance, and a correct class style," but also affirmed: "The Party's ideology is the ideology of the working class; it fights for the interests of the entire people. Therefore, within the Party, there cannot be any ideology, stance, or style contrary to the ideology, stance, and style of the working class" (section 33, Political Common Sense). To lead the Vietnamese revolutionary cause, "the Party has a clear Political Platform: Currently, the working class leads the entire people in fighting against imperialism and feudalism to liberate the nation and realize new democracy. In the future, we will advance towards socialism and communism." At the same time, “The Party has very strict discipline, all Party members must obey it. The Party's ideology, politics and organization must be unified. There cannot be backward and opportunistic elements in the Party… There cannot be cowardly and wavering elements in the Party” and “The Party must always educate Party members on revolutionary theory” as well as “The Party must strive to reform the ideology” of Party members from intellectual, petty bourgeois, and peasant backgrounds so that these comrades “become fighters of the working class” (section 33, Political Common Sense)(7).

The valuable thoughts and guidance of President Ho Chi Minh on the Party and its leadership role in the Vietnamese revolutionary cause, from the work "The Revolutionary Path" (1927) to "Political Common Sense" (1953), have been thoroughly understood and seriously implemented, ensuring that the Party remains a unified organization in thought and action from the Central Committee to the local level, from the Central Executive Committee to each grassroots Party organization throughout the country; ensuring that the Party remains healthy, clean, and strong, worthy of its "dual" responsibility - both as a leader and as a truly loyal servant of the people.

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary of the Central Military Commission, met with outstanding delegates from across the country who have made significant contributions to building a strong national defense system during the period 2009-2019 at the Party Central Headquarters on December 19, 2019. Photo: qdnd.vn

THE PARTY MUST CONSTANTLY REFORM AND INNOVATE TO LIVE UP TO ITS LEADING ROLE.

Built, organized, and operating according to the principles of a new type of Marxist-Leninist party, as President Ho Chi Minh stated, building and reforming the Party is not only a need but also an important task for the Party and for each cadre and Party member so that the Party can increasingly perfect itself. In reality, from a clandestine party to a ruling party, the Party not only faced new demands of the situation and revolutionary tasks, especially when the resistance war against French colonialism (1945-1954) was entering the stage of preparing for a general counter-offensive to "bring the resistance war to victory," but also had to reform and renew itself so that the Party would be "strong and solid," meeting the demands of reality.

During this period, along with the spiritual and physical (economic, military, political, cadre, etc.) forces for the general counter-offensive, the issue of "considering the rectification of the Party and the army as the central task in building the Party and building the army" aimed at strengthening the fighting strength of the people's armed forces and the Party's leadership role in the resistance war in accordance with the spirit of Resolution of the 3rd Central Committee Conference of the 2nd term (April 22-28, 1952) was implemented. Through this, "raising the level of ideology and political consciousness of Party members, making the whole Party unified in thought and action. Enhancing organizational discipline, making the Party's organization clean, the Party's style correct, making the Party strong enough to lead the whole people to achieve final victory" (8). In fact, the Party has “propagated Marxist-Leninist theory among the people” because “theory is very important. Without understanding theory, one is like a blind person walking in the dark. Theory enlightens the masses, guides them in organizing, and motivates them to fight correctly. Thanks to theory, the masses understand the reasons for their suffering, see the path of struggle to liberate themselves, and understand the methods of fighting the enemy…” and in practical leadership and guidance, “it has combined theory with the experience and practice of the Vietnamese revolution,” and “has applied the Marxist-Leninist stance, viewpoints, and methods to solve the practical problems of the Vietnamese revolution” (section 34, Political Common Sense).

However, because "the Party has an immense responsibility," it must base its actions on the domestic and international situation to not only flexibly and proactively "formulate slogans, objectives, and plans for struggle," but also simultaneously "determine which forces to rely on, which forces to unite, and which forces to isolate and divide, in order to eliminate the enemies of the class and the people." This also means that by formulating "correct political slogans, the entire people will clearly see the direction, recognize who is a friend and who is an enemy, and unite closely around the Party to defeat the enemies of the revolution." However, according to the guidance of President Ho Chi Minh, "having a general slogan is not enough; the Party must also base its actions on the interests of the people in that period, formulating new slogans to mobilize the masses, to set objectives and outline the path for the masses' struggle; and at the same time to train and educate the masses" (section 35, Political Common Sense). At the same time, to make the Party worthy of its position, President Ho Chi Minh not only affirmed that "building the Party is an important task," but he also emphasized the task of Party members and cadres: "They must definitely make the masses imbued with revolutionary thought... They must definitely set an example in all the work of resistance and national construction. They must definitely go deep into the masses, wholeheartedly and diligently serve the masses, make the masses love the Party, trust the Party, strongly support the Party and voluntarily submit to the Party's leadership" (section 35, Political Common Sense). According to President Ho Chi Minh, in the process of leading and directing in practice, "Party members and cadres must make the people trust, respect, and love them" and "must firmly grasp the Party's and Government's policies, follow the correct mass line" only then "will they be worthy of being Party members and cadres of the Party, only then can they lead the masses" (section 35, Political Common Sense)(9).

As a leading party, the Party must be strong, clean, and exemplary. The entire Party must have ideological unity, unified action, and unified solidarity to fulfill its mission. A clear and correct understanding of the Party, and the purpose of building and "rectifying the Party," is aimed at raising the ideological level, political understanding, and revolutionary ethics of Party members and cadres, ensuring they adhere to the proletarian viewpoint and stance. Therefore, in section 36, President Ho Chi Minh emphasized the requirement of "building the Party in three aspects: ideology, politics, and organization," so the Party "must raise the theoretical and political level of its members. It must strengthen the organizational and disciplinary capabilities of its members. It must develop the enthusiasm and political activity of its members" (section 38). Specifically, “The Party needs to develop and strengthen. It needs to develop more workers. It needs to educate new Party members. It needs to reform the ideology of peasant and petty bourgeois Party members”; in which, “in terms of ideology, it is absolutely necessary to study Marxist-Leninist theory” because “it is not enough to just memorize a few books on Marxism-Leninism.” According to him, the work of “ideological education and ideological leadership is the most important task of the Party, and we must resolutely fight against the habit of underestimating ideology” and “the Party must fight against the habit of underestimating the study of theory. Because without studying theory, the spirit is less resolute, one cannot see far ahead, and during the struggle, it is easy to lose direction, resulting in ‘political blindness,’ even corruption and alienation from the revolution” (10). At the same time, "every party member must always practice honest self-criticism and criticism. The Party uses Party rectification and training to educate party members" because "raising the level of political theory and self-improvement is a long and arduous task" (Section 37, Political Common Sense).

Also in the work "Political Common Sense," President Ho Chi Minh concluded: "The Party is composed of Party members. All work is done by Party members. All resolutions are implemented by Party members. All policies are conveyed to the masses by Party members. All slogans and plans of the Party are diligently implemented by Party members." Therefore, "the Party needs to ensure the purity of its membership, to cultivate and recruit good people from the working class into the Party"/it must "select Party members" according to the correct standards, because that is "the foundation of the Party organization" (section 38). At the same time, the Party's principle is that all Party committees at all levels and all Party members must organize and operate according to a unified principle - which is "democratic centralism" - "centralization on the foundation of democracy" and "democracy under centralized leadership" and "to make the Party strong, it is necessary to expand democracy (honest self-criticism and criticism), practice centralized leadership, and improve organization and discipline" (section 42)(11). This also means that, in order to bring the revolutionary cause to success, the Party must not only "have very strict discipline. Resolutely combat phenomena of disregard for discipline and organization," but also always "maintain the democratic centralism system. Always rectify the organization, remove bad elements from the Party. Properly cultivate, select and use cadres"...

Furthermore, cadres and Party members not only need to: “Be thrifty and diligent. Be harmonious and selfless. Be resolute in correcting their mistakes. Be careful but not timid. Be inquisitive. Be patient (hardworking). Be diligent in research and examination. Be selfless and selfless. Not be fame-seeking or arrogant. Keep their word. Uphold principles firmly. Be self-sacrificing. Have little desire for material possessions. Be secretive. In dealing with people, they must: Be forgiving towards individuals. Be strict with the organization. Be willing to guide others. Be straightforward but not reckless. Be obedient to people. In their work, they must: Carefully consider the circumstances. Be decisive. Be courageous. Be obedient to the organization,” as required in the work "The Revolutionary Path," but also implement “strict discipline, honest self-criticism and criticism”; At the same time, “closely contact the people and never leave the people for a single moment, unite with the people as one. Combat impulsiveness, impatience, bureaucracy, and authoritarianism” as He clearly pointed out in section 37(12) and must “strive to serve the people, strengthen the relationship between the people and the Party, promptly inform the Party of the people's needs, explain to the people so that they understand and implement the Party's policies” (section 40, Political Common Sense)(13) in order to gain the people's trust, support, and support, and to receive their opinions...

The ideas and guidance in President Ho Chi Minh's works "The Revolutionary Path" and "Political Common Sense" are fundamental to the Party, its leadership role, and the building of the Party in terms of politics, ideology, organization, and ethics. Following his guidance, the Communist Party has not only focused on building the Party in all aspects but has also regularly rectified its shortcomings, "correcting weaknesses and developing strengths. It is determined to overcome difficulties and hardships, and fulfill its duties" to be worthy of being a genuine revolutionary Party, "ethical and civilized"; the leading force of the State and society as stipulated in Article 4 of the 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam!

(1) (2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 2, pp. 289, 288

(3) (4) (6) (7) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 8, pp. 273, 274-275, 275, 275-276, 279, 279, 287, 281, 284
(5) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, vol. 2, p. 2895
(8) Communist Party of Vietnam: Complete Party Documents, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2001, vol. 13, p. 70

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