People's Democracy

Harkishan Singh Surjeet

HELD at Hanoi, capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, from April 19 to 22, the ninth national congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPVN) sought to give a new push to the process of taking the country ahead on the path to socialism. The congress deliberated about the ways in which the process of doi moi (renovation), started by the sixth CPVN congress in 1986, could be taken forward in the concrete national and international situations of today.

The congress was attended by 1,168 delegates representing about 2.5 million party members all over the country. Women delegates numbered 139 while 151 belonged to the armed forces and 152 represented the ethnic minorities. As many as 34 delegations from 30 countries abroad attended the congress as fraternal delegates, most of them being from the communist and workers parties. Those from India included A B Bardhan of the CPI, Baliram Bhagat of the Congress(I) and myself from the CPI(M). Having attended both the seventh and eighth congresses earlier, it was for the third time that I was attending a CPVN congress.

In this context, significant was the presence of a delegation from the Communist Party of China (CPC) that was led by Hu Jinato, executive member of the CPC Political Bureau and vice president of the People’s Republic of China. This once again underlined the fact that, leaving behind the unfortunate bitterness that crept into their relations some two decades back, China and Vietnam and the two parties (CPC and CPVN) are again marching ahead together on the basis of the principles of good-neighbourliness, comprehensive cooperation, durable stability and a future-oriented outlook. This bodes well not only for these two countries and their peoples but for the whole third world and for the peace loving people all over.

The Central Committee of the CPVN presented to the congress two documents for consideration, which the congress approved after a frank and thorough-going discussion. One of these documents was the "Political Report of the CPVN Central Committee" while the other was entitled "Socio-Economic Development Strategy For 2001-2010." Both these documents were quite comprehensive in nature and were already published in Vietnamese papers so that the party members and the wider public all over the country could discuss them at their respective levels. Thus, when the delegates came to the congress, they were already equipped with a significant amount of inputs from their respective areas or fields of work.

A significant aspect of the Central Committee’s Political Report was that it reviewed not only the experience of its struggles since the formation of the Communist Party of Indochina in 1930, but also the experience of the 20th century as a whole. This was considered essential to understand what prospects there are for the growth of the revolutionary movement in the 21st century and what challenges it is likely to face in the process.

According to the report, the significance of the 20th century lies in the fact that, with the success of the Great October Revolution, it opened a new era in the history of mankind, the era of socialism. Then, this was further consolidated with the victory over fascism and the sweep of national liberation movements in various parts of the world. Along with other revolutions, the Vietnamese revolution was an integral part of this process.

The process suffered a grave setback in the late 1980s, and more so after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and this has spelt a lot of additional suffering for the toiling masses all over the world. Imperialist camp, led by the USA, got a renewed strength and is out to establish its unchallenged hegemony over other nations. The correlation of class forces has, for the time being of course, shifted in favour of imperialism.

However, assessing the prospects and challenges in the 21st century, the report said this state of affairs is not going to last long. Forces of democracy and socialism have already started regrouping themselves; big battles are being fought, now in this, now in that country, against the designs of imperialist powers to run their writ unhindered. Popular resistance is mounting against the World Bank-IMF-WTO trio that serves the imperialist cause.

It is in the course of this assessment of the new century that the report made an in-depth analysis of the four fundamental contradictions that are obtaining in the world today, showing how they all are getting intensified in various degrees. [The CPI(M)’s own analysis tallies with that made by the CPVN.] The analysis does not gloss over the difficulties that the revolutionary forces are likely to face, and yet it does not leave any room for despondency. It concluded with an optimistic note that, after overcoming the present difficulties, the forces of democracy and socialism would certainly make headway and turn the 21st century into the century of socialism.

Coming to Vietnam itself, the report briefly reviewed the CPVN’s struggle against imperialist powers since 1930. Readers can well recall the heroic struggle which the Vietnamese freedom fighters waged first against the French and then against the Americans. They not only drove the French colonial power out of the country, but also faced the mighty US war machine for about two decades, and ultimately smashed the haughty arrogance of US imperialists. Needless to say, the Vietnamese struggle inspired the freedom fighters as well as progressive and democratic forces all over the world, including those in our own country. The slogan "Amaar Naam, Tomaar Naam, Vietnam, Vietnam!" (My Name is Vietnam, Your Name is Vietnam!) reverberated in all nooks and corners of this country, and so did the slogan "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, We Shall Fight, We Shall Win!" Kolkata and a number of other cities witnessed mighty campaigns to mobilise moral as well as material support for Vietnamese freedom fighters, underlining the fact that the struggle for freedom is indivisible. Big jubilant celebrations were organised all over India when the Vietnamese forced the US imperialists to quit their country in utmost ignominy.

But, heroic and inspiring as it might have been, the war against colonialism and imperialism left behind a trail of utter destruction, adding to the excruciating sufferings of the Vietnamese people. After the war, they found themselves utterly ruined. While colonial exploitation had already bled the country white, the anti-US war further compounded the misery. Schools and colleges, industries, services, agricultural and allied activities, oil wells, fishing harbours, and so on --- virtually nothing was left intact. As a result, the Vietnamese had had to start from the scratch, literally, and mere slogans could in no way help them to reconstruct their life. The post-war sanctions imposed by the US administration against Vietnam further added to their woes and miseries.

It was here that, fully grasping its historic responsibility, the Communist Party of Vietnam again stepped in and patiently guided the country through the labyrinth of all round destruction. Led by the party of late Comrade Ho Chi Minh, the country registered progress in various fields, more so since the sixth CPVN congress in 1986, testifying to the correctness of the vision which the party displayed in tackling the myriad problems the country was facing.

It is nobody’s contention here that the Vietnamese have solved all their basic problems. Far from it. The CPVN itself is not a bit inclined to gloss over these problems and paint a rosy picture before its own people and the world community. The second document about the strategy for socio-economic development in the next ten years, which is in fact based on the analyses presented in the political report, begins with a frank admission of these very problems.

Yet the fact remains that the process of doi moi, started by the sixth congress, has been instrumental in tackling to a large extent the various problems at hand. Remarkable progress has been made on the food front --- from being a rice-deficit country, Vietnam has become the second largest rice-exporting country; moreover, it does not export rice while forcing its own people to go hungry, as the BJP-led government of our country is doing. Progress has also been achieved in crude oil exploration and exploitation. Poverty and unemployment are not yet wiped out, but yet they have come down to a significant extent. Many new industries have been set up, several in collaboration with foreign capital but without sacrificing the interests of the Vietnamese working class. In sum, the economy has been put back on the track; from here it can only look forward to bigger achievements. (Many of these advances have been documented in these pages from time to time, including my own articles on the seventh and eighth CPVN congresses.) The USA has been compelled to revoke its sanctions against Vietnam.

These are no mean achievements for an utterly war-ravaged country, registered in so short a time. Yet the CPVN and the Vietnam government know that whatever has so far been achieved is not enough; much remains to be done in order to usher into socialism in which not poverty but prosperity will be equitably distributed. The second document of the ninth CPVN congress presents a blueprint for this very type of development.

It is with this very confidence that the CPVN congress is trying to take the country ahead in the direction of socialism. Of course the party and the country are experimenting with a market economy and with various forms of property relations --- this is inevitable and essential in the present stage of the country’s development and in the given international and national situations --- but their socialist orientation is unmistakable and beyond doubt.

The party is also seized with the various ideological and organisational problems, and the ninth congress did discuss them at length. It was here that the frankness and fearlessness displayed by the delegates was remarkable. This frankness and fearlessness on their part was indeed a product of their deep sense of commitment to the cause to which Comrade Ho Chi Minh and innumerable other freedom fighters had dedicated their whole lives. For example, some of the delegates questioned the record of the party leadership in tackling corruption, a vice openly admitted by the CPVN. Though the party has made vigorous attempts to wipe this vice out, the delegates found it still inadequate. They also said that the fight against corruption must start from the top leadership itself.

To sum up, the Vietnamese are today engaged in reconstructing their country as energetically as they fought against the French and American imperialists and their domestic lackeys.

Concluding on an optimistic note, the ninth congress recalled the advice given by late Comrade Ho Chi Minh in his Testament:

This is indeed the spirit with which every communist should act.