Communist Party of Vietnam
by Pham Van Chuong

Esteemed members of the Chair,
Dear Comrades,

Allow us, the delegation of the Communist Party of Vietnam,
to convey to you all, dear comrades attending this
International Meeting on �The Communists and the Trade
Union Movement�, our warmest greetings and best wishes.

We would like to express in particular our gratitude to the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece for the
comradely invitation extended to us, and for the heartfelt
hospitality and most appropriate arrangements reserved us
here n Athens.

As suggested in the letter of invitation, our Meeting is
expected to proceed to an exchange of views and experiences
on the actions of our Vietnamese experiences in broader
perspectives, wherein the workers constitute part of the
population masses and the trade unions part of the national
united front.

The Communist Party of Vietnam was founded on February 3,
1930, uniting the different communist groups that had been
operating scatteredly in the country. Mass organisations
had also been earlier, with communists playing the leading
role. (The first Vietnamese trade union organisation -
predecessor of the present Vietnam General Confederation of
Labour - came into being on July 28, 1929). Ever since its
founding, the Communist Party of Vietnam has constantly
attached great importance to mass mobilisation, forging
people's organisations, including trade unions, and
strengthening national unity and the national united front,
regarding this as a trategic policy, an inexhaustible
source of strength, and a powerful driving force.

In different historical periods, depending on the specific
revolutionary objectives and tasks, the names, structures,
mottoes and slogans of the national united front and its
affiliates may vary. But, a fundamental principle has
always been to find out a common denominator for uniting
the broadest possible sections of the population in the
common struggle for the highest interests of the country.
Launching the Vietnam Independence League (the Second World
War time national united front commonly known as the Viet
Minh) on May 19.1941, Ho Chi Minh wrote: � Now that the
interests of national liberation stand above anything else,
we should unite to overthrow the imperialists and their
local agents, thus saving our nation from blood and fire.�

Along that line, our Party has defined policies
commensurate with specific historic conditions and the
interests of various population strata, so that everybody
could se his or her own interests in the common interests
of a particular revolutionary movement or of the nation in
general, as well as his or her own role and position in the
common cause.

At the present stage of continuous renewal for national
industrialisation and modernisation, for building and
safeguarding the socialist Homeland our Party's policy, as
determined at its recent 9th National Congress, is as
follows: :The great national unity bloc should embrace
people of all ethnicities, religions, classes, strata,
economic sectors, genders, age groups, regions of the
country, all members of the great family of the Vietnamese
nation, be they residing at home or overseas ... To take
the goal of maintaining independence and national unity,
and striving for a prosperous people, a forceful country,
and an equitable, democratic and civilised society as the
common denominator; to respect those differences which are
not opposed to the nation's common interests, to get rid of
complexes, prejudices and discriminations based in one's
past class or category and cultivate a spirit of openness,
mutual trust and future-targeted vision�.

The Congress, on the other hand, emphasised: �The great
national unity bloc in the Vietnam Fatherland Front is to
be constantly consolidated and class with the peasantry and
the intelligentsia.� Thus as we often remark, the most
valuable feature of our national unity has been its
spreading country-wide yet channelling towards a single
focal point, relying on a single foundation, and wheeling
around a single axe. As we understand it, the focal point
is the national united front, the foundation the alliance
of the working class with the intelligentsia, and the axle
leadership of the Communist Party.

It is against the backdrop just described that the
relations between the communists and the trade unions are
to be seen. The Communist Party of Vietnam has always
acknowledge the historic mission of the Vietnamese working
class to exercise leadership over the Vietnamese revolution
through its vanguard political party. Our Party's Statutes
says in its Preamble: �The Party id the vanguard of the
Vietnamese working class, the loya 1representaitve of the
interests of the working class, the labouring people and
the entire nation ... The Party exercises leadership over
the State, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other
socio-political organisations, respects and promotes their
roles ...�

The position and role of the trade unions in society have
also been stipulated in the Statutes of the Vietnam General
Confederation of Labour and institutionalised in the
Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the
Trade Union Law, the Labour Code, says: �The Trade Union is
a large socio-political organisation of the working class
and labouring people established voluntarily under the
leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is a part
of the political system of Vietnam and a school of
socialism for employees�. Article 10 of the Constitution of
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam defines the rights and
obligations of the trade unions as follows: �Together with
State agencies, economic entities and social organisations,
the trade unions cater for the labouring people; take part
in the management of the State and the society, exercising
control and supervision over the performance of State
agencies and economic entities; and educate in the process
of national construction and defence�.

For their part, the trade unions have always asserted
adherence to the national united front and the Communist
Party. The Statutes of the Vietnam General Confederation of
Labour writes in its Preamble: �The Vietnam General
Confederation of Labour is a member of the Vietnam
Fatherland Front under the leadership of the Communist
Party of Vietnam�.

In the above-described spirit, our Party has over the past
seven decades paid great attention to motivating,
organising and forging the working class and trade unions.
For their part, under the Party's leadership, the
Vietnamese trade unions have made great contributions to
the nation's common endeavours, mobilising workers and
other employees for the fulfilment of the tasks assigned
them in national construction and defence in different
periods of time, while striving for the improvement of
their material and spiritual living conditions. They have
also developed relations of solidarity, friendship and
co-operation with many national, regional and international
trade union centres, for the interests of the working
people, for peace, national independence, democracy,
development and social progress, in keeping with the
Party's foreign policy.

At present, as our country through the period of transition
to socialism , which is perceived to be �a very difficult
and complicated undertaking that inevitably requires a long
period of transition with many transitional stages and
forms of socio-economic organisation�, our Party, at its
9th National Congress, pointed out: �In the period of
transition, there are many forms of ownership of the means
of production, many different economic sectors, social
classes and strata, but the structures, characters and
positions of the classes in our society have changed
markedly along with the great socio-economic changes. The
relationships among the social classes and strata are
relations of co-operation and struggle among the
population, characterised by a long-lasting unity and
co-operation in national construction and defence under the
Party's leadership. The interests of the working class are
identical with those of the entire nation in a common goal:
national independence closely linked to socialism, a
prosperous people, a forceful country, and an equitable and
civilised society. The main substance of class struggle at
the present stage consists in successfully carrying out
industrialisation along the socialist line and overcoming
poverty and underdevelopment lies in the great unity of the
entire people on the basis of the alliance of the
individual, the collective and the society, and bringing
into play all potentials and resources of the various
economic sectors and of society as a whole.�

Concerning the working class in particular, the Congress
laid for the Party the following tasks: �To attach
importance to its quantitative and qualitative development,
the improvement of its political consciousness and
willpower, its educational and work qualifications, the
intellectualisation of workers, and the improvement of the
capacity to apply and innovate new technologies; to work
with increasing productivity, quality and efficiency ... To
protect the interests, and improve the material and
spiritual living conditions of the working class in the
conditions of the market mechanism. To intensify the
training of leaders and managers, and promote the admission
of outstanding workers into the Party; to increase the
propotion of the workers in leading positions at all levels
and in all agencies�.

For its part, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour,
at its latest congress in November 1999, committed itself
to the following: �To continue renewing the motivation,
education and formation of a forceful working class
deserving its role as the class exercising leadership over
the revolution through its vanguard - the Communist Party
of Vietnam. To strengthen the alliance of the working class
with the peasantry and the intelligentsia as the foundation
for the great national unity bloc�, �to help respond to the
needs and interests of the nation, the working class and
the labouring people�, � to build a powerful working class
and trade union organisation, for national
industrialisation and modernisation for employment, a
better life, democracy and social equality�, and to take an
active part in building up the Party, the State
administration...�

Comrades, We have just outlined the inter-relationships and
inter-action between the communists and the trade unions in
Vietnam, in the context of Vietnamese realities. Allow us,
as a conclusion, to quote again from Ho Chi Minh: �Without
the leadership of the Communist Party, the working class
would be like a ship without a helmsman; without organic
ties with the working class, the Party would no longer be a
revolutionary vanguard�; and �Unity, unity, greater unity;
success, success, greater success.�

Thank you for your kind attention.