Spoken:
Delivered at the enlarged session of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Federation of Trade-Unions, December, 28, 1966
Source:
Role of the Vietnamese Working Class and Tasks of the Trade-Unions
at the Present Time
Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House
Transcription/Markup: Christian Liebl
Online Version: Le Duan Internet Archive
(marxists.org) 2003
At the enlarged session of the Central Committee of the Viet Nam Federation of Trade-Unions on December 28, 1966, comrade Le Duan, First Secretary of the Viet Nam Workers’ Party Central Committee, delivered a speech on questions concerning the role of the Vietnamese working class and the tasks of our trade-unions at the present stage of the revolution.
This is the full translation of comrade Le Duan’s speech.
Dear comrades,
I am going to tell you some of my views on the Vietnamese working class and on trade-union work. This is an important subject related to theoretical knowledge, ideology, revolutionary feelings and various aspects of the work of male and female workers and trade-union cadres. As this is an extensive subject, I will deal only with a number of general matters, basing myself on the queries you have raised during the meeting.
At present the Vietnamese working class is shouldering a tremendous task toward the history of its country, toward their nation and the international workers’ movement as well. For over ten years, through its own Party, it has been leading the socialist revolution and socialist construction in North Viet Nam. Since the American imperialists started the war of aggression in the South and the war of destruction in the North, it has been conducting our people’s resistance against the invaders to defend the North, liberate the South and ultimately reunify the country, thus contributing to the safeguard of peace In Southeast Asia and the world.
This great historic mission requires that every Vietnamese worker thoroughly realize the historic role of his own class toward the revolutionary cause of his people and the development of world revolution. Without such a realization, though a worker, he lacks revolutionary consciousness, and though a Party member, he is not yet a true communist.
We often speak of socialism and of the working class, but it is not so easy to thoroughly understand what is meant , by working class and why the working class has the historic mission of transforming the old world and building a new one.
To have an accurate and scientific conception of these problems, we must possess a historical materialist standpoint and start from the economic basis of society, that is, from the productive forces, the relation of ownership of the means of production, and the mode of distribution of what is produced. Classes appear then disappear and so does class struggle; they all are linked to the existence and transformation of given economic bases.
Engels said: “The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in man’s brains, not in man’s better insight into eternal truth and justice, but in changes of the modes of production and exchange. They are to be sought, not in the philosophy, but in the economics of each particular epoch.”1
It is from an analysis of the capitalist economy that Marx studied the emergence, the growth and the inevitable liquidation of capitalism; it is also from this analysis that he drew the conclusion that the working class would be the grave-digger of capitalism and the organizer of a new society — the civilized communist society.
With the birth of large-scale industry the productive forces develop by leaps and bounds. Under the capitalist system, while these productive forces become more and more socialized the relations of production keep their capitalist, private character.
Inherent in capitalism, this fundamental contradiction — the source of all evils — takes on the form of an antagonistic contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie. To eliminate it and build the socialist society based on the collective ownership of the means of production is an urgent need, the satisfaction of which impels society forward.
Born of the capitalist society which is closely linked to the production of large-scale industry, and being itself the product of large-scale industry, the working class represents the new, socialized productive forces, and, consequently, forms the most advanced class capable of transforming the world and organizing the new social system, man’s future society — the communist society.
As the working class is devoid of means of production, and exploited and impoverished by the bourgeoisie, it constitutes the most thoroughly revolutionary class able to overthrow the capitalist regime, liquidate the system of private ownership of the means of production, make the relations of production accord with the productive forces, and create a new socialist mode of production, thus making it possible for social production to develop unceasingly. Under capitalism, as large-scale industry progresses the working class grows steadily stronger whereas all the other social classes decline. Being intermediate classes the latter have not a thoroughly revolutionary attitude toward the liquidation of private ownership of the means of production. “Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class.”2
We must not simplistically view the working class as the class of poor people, of have-nots, or of “proletarians” in the literal meaning of this word. Under the capitalist system, it must sell its labour power to the bourgeoisie which bleeds it white, and live a wretched life, and for this reason regards the latter as its enemy. However, it is not poverty which makes the working class the leader of the revolution. The ancient slaves as well as the labouring peasants under feudalism were exploited people. Considering their standard of living and their right to live, their wretchedness was even worse than that of the working class in the capitalist society, but they could not play the leading role in the revolution nor hold power because they did not represent any mode of production. As for the lumpen proletariat, it may be involved in the revolutionary movement but “its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue”.3
Human history ever since the emergence of antagonistic classes is that of class struggle. But classes themselves and class struggle, as Engels analysed above, are determined by the modes of production and distribution, and therefore human history is none other than the development of society from one mode of production to another. That’s why in a given society any class which represents the new, the most progressive, mode of production, is in a position to lead revolution, seize power, become the ruling class, and organize this new society.
This explains why class struggles have not always led to the seizure of power by the oppressed and exploited classes. Class struggle between the peasantry and feudalism has impelled to a certain extent the development of the feudal society; in essence, nevertheless, it has only resulted in a change of dynasties and after the capitalist mode of production came into being under the feudal system, class struggle led to the tranformation of this system into the capitalist one.
It is with the emergence and development of capitalism that class struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie inevitably leads to the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, because the former, oppressed and heavily exploited by the latter, is not only resolved to liquidate the capitalist system, but also represents an advanced mode of production whose basic prerequisites already exist under capitalism — the socialist mode of production. This inevitability springs from economic factors. Failing to realize that class struggle is linked to the evolution of society from one mode of production to another, we cannot possibly understand the historical role of the working class.
Engels said that communism is the reflexion of the workers’ movement. This assessment means that the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism, and of civilized communism, is the mission entrusted by history to the working class, that in human society, without the emergence of the working class there can be no revolutionary movement of the proletariat and, consequently, no socialism.
What we mean by socialism is scientific socialism founded by Marx and Engels — our great teachers — not utopian socialism built on charitable deeds or religious virtues.
Socialism could not exist centuries ago. It cannot be the offspring of a peasant movement, even in countries with an overwhelmingly peasant population; nor can it be the product of an intellectuals’ movement, because in history and in the evolution of society, the peasantry and intelligentsia have never represented any mode of production under any social regime.
The historical mission of the working class expounded by Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party and further enlightened by Lenin in his theses on proletarian revolution in the imperialist epoch, is a historical necessity. This is reasserted in the two statements issued by the Representatives of the Communist and Workers’ Parties meeting in Moscow in 1957 and 1960.
With the coming into existence of Marxism, class struggle as is waged by the working class has markedly developed as to its contents. In the Manifesto of the Communist Party Marx and Engels put forward the slogan “Proletarians of all lands, unite!” This slogan starts from Marx’s thesis that socialist revolution is the result of the class struggle opposing the working class and the bourgeoisie in developed capitalist countries where the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production has become acute and where economic development has brought to the fore class conflicts mainly between these two classes. The working class of all countries must unite to overthrow the capitalist system and embark upon proletarian revolution.
By the end of the 19th century capitalism has grown into imperialism. Since then the bourgeoisie in imperialist countries has been not only exploiting the working class at home, but also exploiting and oppressing the colonial and semi-colonial peoples all over the world. By their struggle for independence these peoples have become an ally of the working class in the world proletarian revolution, hence Lenin’s slogan “Proletarians of all lands and oppressed peoples, unite!” This is a new step forward made by the working class in its struggle against the bourgeoisie on a world-wide scale. For the proletarian revolution to succeed, the working class must join forces with the national-liberation movement, and consider it an integral part of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat. This thesis runs counter to the erroneous tendency according to which proletarian revolution can only break out in developed capitalist countries but not in economically backward ones.
Later on, at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, comrade Stalin called on the communists to march forward with the banner of national independence and democratic rights firm in their hands. Stalin did not merely make an appeal, but summed up the world revolutionary movement and showed that only by holding firm this banner can the working class bring proletarian revolution to success.
Why so? The world is a whole, and each country forms a society with its own development. More- over, the impact of the law of uneven development of capitalism leads to the uneven development of proletarian revolution on a worid-wide scale. Therefore, though the working class is internationalist in character, and its historic mission is to wage a world revolution, proletarian revolution has so far broken out mainly in separate countries. To bring this revolution to success, the working class in each country must hold firm and raise aloft the banner of national independence and democratic freedoms so as to unite the people and stir them up into struggle. Even during the ascending course of capitalism, Marx and Engels said: “Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.”4
In history, the class problem and the national question are linked to each other. During the ascending course of capitalism the bourgeoisie represents the nation to a certain extent.
Ours is a transition epoch from capitalism to socialism, the epoch of struggle between two opposing social systems, of socialist and national- liberation revolutions, of the collapse of imperialism and liquidation of the colonial system, of the advance of more peoples along the socialist path and of success for socialism and communism all over the world. To assess the contents of our epoch in this way is to assert that the world is in a proletarian revolutionary high tide, that the fundamental problem nowadays, on a world scale and in each country, is: which — socialism or capitalism — will win? that the class problem and the national question have close relations with each other, and consequently the working class’ leading role in the revolution must be enhanced. The history of human society has evolved to a stage when the working class is representative of the epoch, embodies the nation and democracy. The working class’ world-wide struggle against the bourgeoisie is unfolding under the slogan “Peace, national independence, democracy and socialism”.
Only by standing on the working class’ position can one fully grasp the thoroughly revolutionary contents of the above slogan and clearly realize the organic relations between its four aspects. To separate these aspects or to oppose one to another is to strip it of its revolutionary contents, and therefore weaken the revolutionary movement of the proletariat.
It is obvious that after proletarian revolution on a world-wide scale has triumphed in a number of countries and the mighty socialist camp has become a world system, the national independence movement has risen up like a maelstrom. However, until now the newly-won national independence of a number of countries is not yet fully attained. Unless the movement for national independence is linked to the movement for socialism and develops along the non-capitalist path it cannot grow into a truly revolutionary one. Should those countries be content with “national independence”, they could not avoid falling into dependence on one or another imperialist power, or, at best, following the bourgeois reformist path. The non-capitalist path alone can allow them to achieve complete and real independence. To this end, it is absolutely necessary that they establish the leadership of the working class and set up a truly national and democratic power.
To assert the leading role of the working class is a vital problem for revolution in the world and in each country. At present, not all our comrades hold the same view on this point: some speak of classes and class struggle but do not proceed from the economic basis of the society, others alienate the class problem from the national question, or, while dealing with the relationship between class and nation they over-emphasize or belittle one or the other concept.
Born and grown up in a colonial and semi- feudal country, our working class, though younger and smaller in size as compared with that of the developed capitalist countries, plays a decisive role in the Vietnamese revolution.
It has all the qualities of the international working class. Under the colonial and feudal regime, and like the latter, it constitutes the most resolute revolutionary class, possessed of the highest sense of organization and discipline, and of pecularities due to the process of their formation and development.
Our working class had come to maturity before the national bourgeoisie. It emerged not after the formation of the capitalist economic sector, but ever since foreign capitalists started exploring our country’s resources.
In developed capitalist countries, the trade- unions often come into being before the working class’ revolutionary party; there there exist trade- unions led by the bourgeoisie, which sow reformist tendencies among the workers. The monopolistic capitalists often use part of their sur-profit derived from their colonies to bribe or entertain a section of aristocratic workers that they have themselves created. Servants of the bourgeoisie, the latter are specialized in political activities among the workers to undermine their revolutionary movement.
In Viet Nam, soon after its emergence the working class had its own vanguard revolutionary party. The party founded trade-unions to organize, educate and carry out agitation among the workers who, therefore, have always been immune from political or organizational chasm.
Under the rule of colonial capitalists the workers’ struggles just for the satisfaction of their economic claims more often than not took on a political coloration because the colonial regime always ruthlessly opposed whatever reform. That’s why the trade- union organizations led by the imperialists’ lackeys could not cheat and win over our working class.
Our working class, which has just been recruited from the labouring peasantry has very close connections with it and clearly realizes its aspirations. The link between these two fraternal classes forms the basis for the building of a steady worker-peasant alliance as from the national-democratic revolution to the present day. The more the labouring peasantry is attached to the working class, the more the latter’s leading role is guaranteed because the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie for leadership over the revolution in our country consists essentially in winning over the peasantry; the class which succeeds in gaining over the labouring peasantry by satisfying its requirements and aspirations, will win in this contest.
The afore said characteristics account for the strength of the Vietnamese working class and make it possible for it to secure a dominant position and the undivided leadership over the Vietnamese revolution since the failure of the Yen Bai insurrection5 led by petty bourgeois elements holding bourgeois tendencies.
Moreover, the Vietnamese working class stepped into the political arena after the October Revolution had brilliantly triumphed, and the Russian working class had become the master of the Soviet State; the millenary dream of the suffering toiling classes had thus come true. On the other hand, in neighbouring China, the bourgeoisie had betrayed the national interests; the Chinese Communist Party — the party of the Chinese working class — had grasped the banner of national independence and democratic rights. This historical situation had further raised the political credit of the Vietnamese working class in the eyes of the entire Vietnamese people.
When we say that the working class leads the revolution in Viet Nam we mean that Viet Nam’s revolutionary line is the political line of its working class and not of any another one. Since the founding of our Party, our working class has been leading the revolution through its own vanguard party. It is obvious that this leadership is not exercised exclusively in the organizational field; what is of a decisive importance is that the Party’s political line must be the revolutionary line of the working class, one which embodies the latter’s stand and viewpoint. If the Party deviates from this political stand and viewpoint the revolution is bound to fail.
Our Party — the former Indochinese Communist Party, the Viet Nam Workers’ Party today — has soon assimilated Marxism-Leninism and applied it in our country in a creative fashion. It has realized that the Vietnamese revolution must go through two stages: first, to carry on the national-democratic revolution under the leadership of the working class in order to overthrow imperialism acting in collusion with feudalism — our two enemies, the two principal reactionary forces hindering the development of the Vietnamese society; then, after this task has been in the main fulfilled, to shift to the socialist revolution, more radical and profound in contents, so as to completely liberate the toilers, root out class oppression and exploitation, and build socialism and communism.
Since its birth our Party has been resolutely holding aloft the anti-imperialist banner and adequately solved the national question and the problem of democratic rights in a colony.
Our Party is fully aware that the class problem, and the problems of national independence and democratic rights cannot be separated from one another. In a colony with an overwhelmingly peasant population the problem of democratic rights is, in essence, the land problem. Failing to solve it, we could not mobilize the labouring peasantry in the struggle against imperialism, for national independence. ”National independence“, and ”land to the tillers“ are two closely related mottos and the fundamental contents of the national-democratic revolution.
The national question encompasses not only the “land to the tillers” problem but also the vital one confronting the whole nation in the face of the imperialists’ cruel domination, a life-and-death problem concerning every Vietnamese. Therefore, our Party has advocated the setting up of a National United Front to bring together the entire people against the imperialists. Without the leadership of the working class we would not be in a position to rally the labouring peasants, and achieve the worker-peasant alliance as the main force of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist revolution, and as the basis of the National United Front.
Speaking of the national question one must also mention the development of national economy, and the restoration and promotion of national culture. In our time, to impel forward the national economy and culture after gaining independence, there is no other alternative than to engage in the socialist path, and without proceeding toward socialism one cannot steadily make this independence genuine and complete. The leadership of the working class alone can secure a fine prospect for the development of national economy and culture.
The successes achieved by the Vietnamese revolution over the last thirty seven years have proved the soundness of our Party’s line. This is the political line of the working class, the only class capable of leading the Vietnamese revolution, of which our Party is the staff, the brain-trust and the vanguard detachment. The Party owes its sound political line essentially to the fact that it proceeds from the stand and viewpoint of the working class, and to its loyalty to Marxism- Leninism, which is the working class’ theory on class struggle and socialist construction. The said line reflects the objective law of development of the Vietnamese society.
In our national-democratic revolution, the working class in not only the leading class but also, together with the labouring peasantry, the main force.
Before our Party came into being the workers’ struggles broke out in French colonialists’ mines, factories and plantations. From then on, these drives were better and better organized and ceaselessly developed both in depth and in scope.
In 1930, the Nghe-Tinh Soviet movement burst out first in the Truong Thi locomotive repairing workshop (Vinh) to spread all over the countryside of Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. When the Front Populaire came to power in France our Party timely agitated the broad masses of the working class and the labouring peasantry to stir them up against the colonial reactionaries, turning their struggle and that of the labouring population in the towns and cities into a multiform upsurge for democratic rights.
At the start of the Second World War, in order to oppose the Japanese fascists and the French colonialists, our Party, on the one hand, actively set up bases in rural, and hill-forest areas, and built up armed forces; on the other, it maintained and developed the workers’ and townspeople’s movement so that when the opportunity occurred, it timely mobilized the masses for the insurrection and the seizure of power both in urban and rural areas, rapidly bringing the August Revolution to success throughout the country. The August Revolution is none other than an insurrection combining the workers’ movement in towns with that of the peasants in the countryside, and the action of the political forces of the worker and peasant masses with that of the armed forces. Beginning with partial insurrections in the countryside in which the labouring peasantry acted as the main political force the current revolution in South Viet Nam led by the National Front for Liberation, which is simultaneously coordinating political with armed struggle in the three strategic areas — rural, urban and hill-forest — is the application and development of the experiences gained in the Vietnamese revolution. The successes achieved since 1960 show once again that the workers and labouring peasants constitute the main forces of the national-democratic revolution in our country.
In our socialist revolution and socialist construction, it is natural that the working class forms the leading class; at the same time it is playing the role of the main force in the revolution.
Lenin said: “Socialism can only be built on the basis of large-scale industry.”6 Indeed, without large-scale industry we cannot possibly bring to completion the transformation of the other economic sectors, more particularly agricultural transformation along socialist lines. The working class is the main force directly involved in the building of the material and technical bases of socialism, and in the laying of the foundation of the socialist national economy; it also plays the preponderant role in the management of this economy.
While asserting the decisive role of the working class in our revolution, our Party has very highly rated the revolutionary part played by the labouring peasantry, the working class’ natural and trustworthy ally. Its impoverishment by the French policy of colonial exploitation and the landlords’ ruthless oppression and exploitation that it had undergone, made the peasantry boil with utmost indignation and hatred. Our ancestors glorious traditions further reinforced its indomitable will. When the working class’ party came into being and set forward the slogans “National independence” and “Land to the tillers” which accorded with its aspirations, the labouring peasantry has risen up with more impetus and sided with the working class to put up a resolute struggle for the overthrow of the imperialists and feudalists.
Though a very large revolutionary force, a component of the main force in the national- democratic revolution in Viet Nam, it cannot lead it. In the socialist revolution as well as in socialist construction at present, the peasantry is unable to assume the leading role: closely linked to the individual small-scale economy, the labouring peasantry, given its economic position, can only advance toward socialism under the leadership of the working class. In history, it has never been able to set up a social system of its own and even under the feudal regime when natural economy was essentially peasant in character, social relations remained feudal relations of production. Nguyen Hue himself, a hero of peasant stock, chose to ascend the throne and maintained the feudal system after staging a successful insurrection.
However, we must assert that our toiling peasantry constitutes an important motive force in socialist construction owing to its very high revolutionary spirit and to the fact that it followed the working class in the national-democratic revolution during almost twenty-five years; when we shifted to socialist revolution, it embarked, of its own free will and with enthusiasm, upon the path of socialist cooperativization, regarding this as the only way to make it free from social injustice, poverty and misery. Moreover, to advance to socialism from a backward agriculture we have no other alternative than to start agricultural co-operativization and develop agriculture all-sidedly on which basis to boost industry, taking socialist industrialization as a lever to transform and impel forward the whole national economy.
It is, after completing socialist industrialization that we can have a modern industry, a modern agriculture and an advanced culture and science, that we can proceed toward a classless society. toward the satisfaction of everybody’s material and cultural needs, and toward the achievement of a really civilized life.
Socialist co-operativization of agriculture and socialist industrialization constitute two processes of transformation and construction, which are linked to and support each other, and embody the worker-peasant alliance in our socialist revolution and socialist construction. Socialist co-operativization of agriculture is not to be achieved by the peasants alone, but also by the working class. And likewise socialist industrialization is the doing of the working class and the collective peasantry as well.
In brief, though young and small in size the Vietnamese working class commands tremendous revolutionary capabilities. Being the leading class, it formed, together with the labouring peasantry, the main force in our national-democratic revolution; now together with the collective peasantry it forms the main force in our socialist revolution.
This is born out by the process of our, struggle and the successes we achieved in our revolution since the emergence of the working class’ party.
Patriotism and national spirit is the most valuable assets and also the characteristic feature of the Vietnamese people all through the several thousand years of their history. They have taken shape ever since the founding of the country, and developed throughout the process of their protracted struggle against foreign invasion. Our ancestors knew how to avail themselves of and promote them for the defence of national independence. This explains why our people’s recorded resounding feats of arms in the course of their history.
Imbued with class consciousness and aware of its historical role, the Vietnamese working class is now the most resolute standard bearer of national independence. President Ho Chi Minh has said, “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.” This resounding appeal is the crystallization of our people’s tradition of struggle against foreign invasion and of their will over the centuries to live in independence; this is their unshakable stand in the current life-and-death resistance to American aggression. This is also the stand of the Vietnamese working class at the present revolutionary stage. Let our working class do its utmost to be worthy of its leading role in the Vietnamese revolution, of being the continuator of the Vietnamese people’s tradition of heroism, the vanguard detachment in the struggle for the achievement of the national-democratic revolution all over the country and in socialist construction in North Viet Nam, of being an integral part of the world revolutionary working class.
Formerly, the working class of our country being exploited and opressed, trade-unions served as a means of struggle for the workers’ economic and political rights against the capitalists and rulers. But now that in North Viet Nam the working class is in power, the trade-unions have become an organization of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a school for the management of socialist industry and of the state, a school for socialist and communist education.
The tasks and powers of the trade-unions have been legally recorded and guaranteed by our Constitution. The resolution of the Third Congress of the Viet Nam Workers’ Party and that of the Seventh Session of the Party Central Committee have defined the role of the trade-unions in the socialist revolution and in socialist construction.
As ours is a backward agricultural country advancing toward socialism bypassing the stage of capitalist development, the socialist revolution and socialist construction in the North is a revolutionary process of all-sided transformation. This transformation consists in shifting the North from an economy mainly based on the private ownership of the means of production to a socialist economy based on ownership by the entire people and collective ownership, from small production to large-scale socialist production, from a backward and scattered economy to a well-balanced and modern economy, so as to turn our country into a socialist one with an up-to-date industry and agriculture, and an advanced culture and science.
This process of revolutionary transformation is a development process encompassing three revolutions; revolution in relations of production, technological revolution, and ideological and cultural revolution. It will last throughout the transition period in which socialist industrialization is the central task. Our working class acts as the leader and the main force in these three revolutions. Trade-union organizations at all levels and in all branches must make every worker and labourer thoroughly understand the role and task of his class in the three revolutions, and devote all his revolutionary ardour to the realization of the Party’s program. The activities of all trade-unions must focus on the above-mentioned revolutions and particularly on socialist industrialization.
The revolution in relations of production constitutes the essential content of all socialist revolution. In developed capitalist countries, class struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie is extremely arduous and sharp in this domain. Such, however, was not the case in our country. Owing to the fact that the working class led the national-democratic revolution and has established the people’s democratic dictatorship the state apparatus of violence is wielded by the working class through the instrumentality of its vanguard Party; on the other hand, as the private capitalist economy was very weak the revolution in relations of production did not unfold in a sharp manner. After the confiscation and nationalization of factories and mines belonging to the imperialists our tasks in the revolution in relations of production was to transform the capitalist economy of the national bourgeoisie, and at the same time to undertake the socialist transformation of small production, the main link of which being agricultural co-operativization.
The socialist transformation of small production aims at converting the individual ownership of the means of production into socialist collective ownership in order to emancipate the productive forces, impel production and turn small production into a large-scale socialist one parallel to the building of large-scale production bases in industry, cardinal construction, communications and transport, etc.
The fundamental and immediate target of the revolution in relations of production is to establish the collective ownership of the means of production by the toiling people, that is, to make them masters in labour, production and distribution. Thus a matter of paramount importance is how to ensure the role as real masters for the workers in factories, and the peasants in co-operatives so that they can bend all their strength and intelligence on increasing labour productivity and on economic management in every production unit.
The trade-unions must, on an ever-larger scale enlist workers and working people from all branches of the national economy. They must make an ever-greater contribution to the drafting and implementation of economic plans, production and distribution plans; economic and technical norms. In factories and other enterprises, the trade-unions must bring the workers to realize their responsibilities in the raising of labour productivity and machinery output, and to care for the use of raw materials, for production cost and rentability; in sum, they must familiarize the workers with all the activities of their enterprises and with all aspects of the country’s economic life. Only by so doing can the working class heighten its role as masters in taking part in the management of factories.
Said Lenin on this problem:
“The trade-unions must take a far greater part in the activities of all the planning bodies of the proletarian state, in drawing up economic plans and also programmes of production and expenditure of stocks of material supplies for the workers, they must make them familiar with all aspects of economic life and with all details of industrial operations, from the procurement of raw materials to the makeing of the product, give them a more and more concrete understanding of the single state plan of socialist economy and the worker’s and peasant’s practical interest in its implementation.”
However, the trade-unions, while performing their function, take part in factory management as a workers’ mass organization, that of toiling people masters of their enterprises. They must see to it that the congresses of workers and employes start effective activities, thereby enhancing the role of the workers in all the activities of their factories. The trade-unions must direct their activities toward resolving difficulties in production and business, consolidating and intensifying labour discipline, heightening the workers’ cultural and technical standards and guaranteeing adequate working and and living conditions to the workers and employés.
The trade-unions do not replace directors and managing bodies of factories in economic management. Nevertheless, their motions must be taken into good account by the latter as they emanate from an organization set up in the framework of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of factory management.
The regime of management elaborated by our Party and Government has defined the functions and powers of each organization in a factory. A good review of the campaign to improve factory management and technical innovations is needed in order to make Party Committees, managing committees and trade-unions fully realize their respective responsibilities and better grasp, the principle of democratic centralism in the management of factories, construction sites and mines. The problem is to further enhance the spirit of socialist co-operation for the interest of socialism with a view to unceasingly consolidating the workers’ role as masters of their enterprises.
Patriotic emulation and socialist emulation constitutes an important medium to bring into full play the workers’ role as collective masters by encouraging them to an active part in the economic life of our country. Emulation is linked to the law of socialist economy; it must act as a lever to boost production and the amelioration of factory management. The trade-unions must help the workers grasp the economic and technical targets, to the best of their ability surpass the established norms and step by step set up ever-higher targets. Unless the workers act as collective masters and the activities of every production team, every labour team, every workshop and every factory are brought into full play, emulation cannot achieve good success. For it is on the basis of furthering the efforts and encouraging and promoting the initiatives of everybody that we can lift up the technical and production standard of our country as a whole. Hence the necessity of following closely the activities of the trade-union organizations in each production team and each workshop, of relying on each production team in order to constantly reinforce their political and ideological unity, and stimulate the spirit of collective emulation and socialist co-operation that must be regapded as our objective in the building of the trade-unions from the ideological and organizational points of view.
The role of the labouring people as collective masters must, in the end, be concretely translated in the distribution of the fruits of labour. That is why the Party and the State must carry into effect an appropriate policy of distribution to meet the requirement of economic development and to ensure the right of the working people. All problems concerning prices, wages, allowances, public welfare, social insurance, labour protection, etc. are not only tightly related to the workers and employés’ livelihood but also materialize the said role of the labouring people to which the trade-unions must pay adequate attention. It is the obligation of the State and all organs of economic management to take care of the workers’ and employes’ life; nevertheless, the trade-unions also bear responsibility for it.
In this urgent situation of the fighting and production the trade-unions must, on the one hand, impart to the workers and employes the spirit of self-reliance, of overcoming all hardships and difficulties in the struggle against U.S. aggression, for national salvation, and on the other hand adequately care for their living and working conditions, while paying particular attention to air defence in order to safeguard their lives and carry out prophylactic hygiene and treatment of diseases. We are not allowed to allege difficulties for overlooking all this. Many factories are credited with experiences on how to organize for improving the employes’ living conditions. They encourage them to grow vegetables and practise animal husbandry to meet part of their needs in foodstuff, they ameliorate board and lodging and study for them and, to a certain extent, for their children. These experiences should be propagated to other factories and enterprises.
In addition to distribution according to the work done, the children and old-aged and disabled people must be adequately cared for by society in our socialist regime. In the present conditions of economic development, however, we cannot afford to apply such a distribution. Yet, an urgent problem to which the trade-unions and co-operatives must pay attention is to give help to large families and war victims, not to let children lack food and warm clothes in winter, not to let the war victims and disabled and old-aged people live in too straitened circumstances. Provincial and town Party committees must see to it that each inhabitant has a job to live on. They must be well aware of the situation in each street, in each family and provide a job to all those who, though fit for work, cannot find employment. Party committees and governmental bodies must seek every way and means to solve these problems. The trade-unions in particular must pay constant attention to the employment problem and help tide over difficulties encountered in their everyday life by the labouring people, including non-union members.
For the trade-unions neither of the two tasks — economic management and caring for the workers’ and employés’ livelihood — is of greater consequence than the other. They must do their best on the one hand to improve their work and accomplish their functions as regards economic management and state management, and on the other help so organize as to raise the living conditions of the workers and employés. For, taking care of their material and cultural needs is part and parcel of economic management, one of the conditions for them to work better; all the more so as not a few shortcomings are to be remedied in this respect.
To take an active part in factory and economic management the trade-unions must make their members fully realize the importance of, grasp the Party’s line on, and thoroughly understand their class’ position in, the technological revolution, so that they can act as shock detachments on this front.
Of the three afore-said revolutions, at present the technological revolution is playing the key role since it aims at laying the material and technical bases of socialism and organizing productive forces compatible with the socialist relations of production. Without these bases we could not build a new economy, a new regime and a new culture, and form new men. The technological revolution sets our country a tremendous and extremely difficult and arduous task. For, bypassing the stage of capitalist development, and modern industry being almost non-existent, we have to build the material and technical bases of socialism from scrap.
Our technological revolution evolves in two ways: gradually to advance from handicraft work to semi-mechanization then to mechanization; and directly to embark upon up-to-date technique, including the latest world technique. Our technological revolution is a process of all-round technical development in industry, agriculture and the other branches of the national economy.
The essential contents of the technological revolution consist in transforming the whole of our social production at present from handicraft production into a large-scale mechanized one, in re-equipping all the branches of the national economy with new technique. The rate of development of this process depends upon the determination with which our working class, our cadres and technical personel carry out the technological revolution.
Science and technology have now reached a very high level, become a direct productive force, penetrated and tied itself to man’s daily life. To change our economy rapidly it is necessary to achieve socialist industrialization, i.e., in essence to carry out the technological revolution far and-wide, in all the branches of the national economy. This great revolutionary task requires deep socialist consciousness from our people so that they may thoroughly perceive the importance of science and technology and vigorously and rapidly march forward along the path of socialist construction.
To achieve good production, the workers must master technique. To the workers really masters of their factories, political and socialist consciousness means determination to study technique with perseverance and to unceasingly heighten their technical standard; they must grasp the technological process and the process of production to best use the machines assigned to them, raise labour productivity and obtain the highest output from each machine and from the factory as a whole.
To push up the technological revolution, to build socialism, we need millions of skilled workers, dozens of thousands of engineers and scientific workers of a high professional standard. Our Party and State must work out policies for the rapid and all-sided training and fostering of workers and scientific and technical cadres. Our Party and State encourage every worker to study technique, improve his professional standard, develop his ability and make innovations.
To assimilate modern technology and science, one has to unceasingly raise one’s cultural standard. Our workers, therefore, must, in a definite length of time, strive to go through the second and third degrees of general education. Those who are gifted and enjoy favourable conditions should continue their study to attain the summit of science and technology.
Trade-union committees must combine with the bodies in charge of economic management, with factory directors to look after the technical study and general education of workers. Plans must be worked out to this effect to provide guidance in every production team. One must adequately organize various forms of technical study outside production hours, improve and closely direct professional courses for young workers, technical refresher and on-the-job courses and correspondence courses for complementary general education. Importance must be attached to the propagation and application of vanguard experiences in production, rationalization of production and technical innovations. Club activities in factories must be made better, libraries set up, and books and periodicals placed at the disposal of the workers so that they may acquire more knowledge.
Il a word, the trade-unions must tide over all difficulties in order to turn every factory, every enterprise into a school, and bring about the most favourable conditions to the workers in general education, in studying science and technology, under any circumstances. They must pay more attention to the above, they must raise an ebullient revolutionary movement for the conquest of science and technology.
We are presently giving a strong fillip to the development of regional industry, and transport and communications to meet the needs of-production and combat, and, through the medium of regional industry, gradually place technique at the service of agricultural production and step by step achieve a new division of labour. Centrally-run industry, including both light and heavy industries, must make an effective contribution to the building of regional industry and the development of transport and communications.
The satisfaction of our needs in intensive cultivation, in raising output in cultivation and animal husbandry, in carrying out in good time agricultural seasonal work, in increasing labour productivity in agriculture, in freeing labour in the countryside, in transforming the farm products, in repairing small machines, etc. requires that industry give more active technical help to agriculture. In a comparatively short time we must do away with the shortage of common farming implements and introduce into the countryside a large number of improved ones, of small machines, coal and electric power. If we could attain the above targets we would give a sensible impetus to our co-operative agriculture, and on this basis impel industrial development forward.
Trade-union committees at all levels and in all branches must bring the workers to a clear realization of our requirements in the development of regional industry and transport and communications, and especially of our urgent needs in agriculture; they must encourage the workers to emulate one another as best they can in production and building with a view to accelerating the tempo of technical equipment of farming co-operatives.
After establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, namely after becoming masters politically, the workers and labouring people must strive to be masters of society, of nature and of their own self. Therefore, parallel to the revolution in relations of production and the technological revolution, we must carry out the cultural and ideological revolution.
This revolution aims at forming new men, men of the socialist society, masters of their own self, of society and nature, men who, with zest, take part in production, in scientific and technological work, in literary and artistic activities, so as to bring about a new relationship between man and man in accordance with the principle “each for all and all for each”, and to infuse into them the world outlook of scientific socialism, of Marxism- Leninism, and the communist outlook on life. For the working class, to carry out the ideological and cultural revolution is, at present, to remould itself into a truly revolutionary, really advanced army from the ideological, political and organizational as well as from the technological and professional points of view, so that it proves worthy of its role as leader of the revolution and collective master, master of the socialist society.
The capitalist system comes into being and develops spontaneously. On the contrary, the building of the socialist system springs from the aspiration of the toiling people to be collective masters, and from their understanding and application of objective economic laws. That is why we pay particular attention to enhancing man’s dynamism, and unceasingly strengthen the class stand and socialist consciousness of the labourers.
The stand of the working class is always tied to the political task at each revolutionary stage. While the workers were wage-earners living under foreign domination, their stand consisted in struggling against capitalist exploitation and oppression, in fighting resolutely to overthrow their rulers and seize power; now that they wield power and are building socialism, their stand is to acquire the sense of being collective masters, to raise their political, cultural and technical standards, and to foster their capabilities in factory and economic management so that they may bring into full play their role as collective masters.
Moreover, at present, this stand requires that the working class resolutely fight to the end, fearless of the heaviest sacrifices, for victory over U.S. aggression, for safeguarding the fruits of our socialist revolution in the North, preserving the independence and freedom of our country, and achieving its reunification, thereby making its contribution to the defence of the socialist camp and of peace, and giving a strong fillip to the revolutionary movement of the working class and the oppressed peoples all over the world. More than ever our working class must be fully aware that it is living in a period of utmost revolutionary effervescence, that it is performing the greatest mission in our history. It is necessary to convert its love for the homeland and socialism, its national spirit and proletarian internationalism into revolutionary heroism in production.
To elevate socialist consciousness among the working class is to make the workers clearly realize its vanguard role in socialist construction, its role as collective masters in the management of factories, of economy and of the state.
There is complete unity between the working class and the state. The working class and the toiling peoples must, by the agency of, and together with, the state apparatus, undertake the management of society and economy. Inversely, the state, which under the dictatorship of the proletariat truly embodies the will and aspirations of the working class and the other segments of the labouring people, constitutes an instrument to materialize this will and these aspirations. The similarity of interests between the working class and the state reflects the similarity of interests of the working class and the working people on the one hand, and of the nation on the other, as well as the similarity of stand of the working class and of the nation.
To be master of the state, the working class must, first and foremost, be master of each factory, each enterprise. The trade-unions must make the workers fully aware not only of the general political task of their class in the socialist revolution and in socialist construction, but also of the concrete tasks of each factory, each enterprise; they must make them consider the targets in the plan of their production unit as the political program that they are to implement in the best possible way.
At present, socialist consciousness requires from us the clear realization that, owing to the poverty of our country, the problem of accumulating funds for socialist industrialization is posed in a most acute manner; for, despite the low productivity of social labour, we have to concentrate funds on industrialization, and simultaneously carry out distribution according to the socialist principle, and gradually improve the people’s living conditions. There is no other way for us than to bend all our energies on increasing labour productivity and to practise economy. We must chiefly strive to be economical in production, and at the same time, in all consciousness, save our personal spending to speed up accumulation. Only by substantially accumulating and concentrating funds can we accelerate the technological revolution.
Parallel to the development of industry, the ranks of the working class keep swelling. This is something natural and necessary, but the newcomers carry with them their habits of thinking and living more or less unfit for the working class. Moreover, as our working class was immersed in the sea of small production, which has been recently transformed, and as it has just been freed from colonial and feudal domination, it is natural that certain of its segments are contaminated by the unproletarian ideologies and vices of other classes. Therefore, a question of great consequence for the preservation of the vanguard character of the working class is the struggle for the elimination of vices incompatible with proletarian ethics, such as the penchant to do what one pleases, the lack of discipline and of concern for the requirements of one’s collective, inertness and conservatism, waste and corruption.
To become a strong organization possessed of high combativeness, the trade-unions must recruit and temper their members in the crucible of an ever-effervescent revolutionary movement. It is through the accomplishment of our production and combat duties, through the carrying out of our three revolutions and through the drives of patriotic emulation and socialist emulation, that the trade unions must consolidate the ranks, undertake the ideological formation, and strengthen the political and ideological unity of the working class.
We should clearly realize that aside from using the dictatorship of the proletariat as a sharp weapon in the resistance against aggression, for the defence of the Fatherland, and aside from repressing counter-revolutionaries, agents of imperialism, another form of class struggle of the working class in power is to bring economic construction and management to a successful end. We must make the workers thoroughly conscious that productive labour today is no longer waged labour but an obligation toward themselves, their family and society, and a revolutionary task — the building of our country into an independent and prosperous one. That is to work for oneself, for one’s class and one’s nation, for the present and the future of one’s offsprings. To love labour, not to waste time and to care for the preservation of machines are concrete manifestations of the working class’ socialist consciousness and lofty virtues. Hence, workers, employés, and the working people as a whole, must enhance their sense of labour, resolutely oppose breaches of labour discipline, waste of time, sluggishness, ensure an eight-hour work day, and incessantly raise labour productivity.
How happy we, labourers, are to take in hands the destiny of our Fatherland, to be masters of our own lives, to fight for the defence of our beautiful country bequeathed to us by our ancestors, and to build a bright future for the coming generations! At present, in spite of sacrifices, difficulties and hardships, our hearts are filled with joy and happiness because revolution is always a treat for the popular masses. Our compatriots in South Viet Nam, who are put to fire and sword and are suffering a hundred times more than we, remain enthusiastic, optimistic and indomitable. Their shining example commands our affectionate admiration, makes us proud, reinforces our confidence and increases our strength.
In short, the tasks of the trade-unions at the present stage are to step up the education of the workers so that they fully realize their role as collective masters and to reinforce the organization of workers so that they can take an active part in the management of factories and economy with a view to the triumph of the technological revolution. These tasks at the same time consist in paying great attention to the living conditions of the workers and employés to stimulate them to take part in patriotic emulation and socialist emulation to the best of their ability, to carry on socialist construction and resolutely fulfil their duties in production and combat, thus contributing to the frustration of all the aggressive schemes and actions of the U.S. imperialist aggressors in order to defend the North, liberate the South and proceed toward the reunification of our country.
To accomplish all these tasks trade-union cadres must be the most representative revolutionary militants of the advanced revolutionary forces of the society; they must be well aware of the concern and aspirations of the workers and employés and be the true spokesmen of the labouring people. They and the leading bodies of the trade-union organizations as well, must get in close touch with the masses, with production work and the workers’ life. A slogan for trade-union cadres is: go to factories and enterprises. It is there and not in their offices that they must do their work. They must go there, live there, and talk there with the workers to know the latter’s concern, aspirations and needs to acquaint themselves with and solve the problems mooted by production and combat, by factory management and the workers’ life. They must go there to strengthen their class stand, improve their style of work and enrich their knowledge of industry.
To keep close contact with the masses is the most basic, the most important condition for the success of all trade-union activities. If, in such and such a place, in such and such a branch, there lacks an impetuous revolutionary mettle among the workers, one must question the class sentiments and the revolutionary will and the contact with the masses of the trade-union cadres there.
Lenin has said, “These comrades (the trade-union cadres — L.D.) should live right among the workers, study their lives in every detail, and be able unerringly, on any question, and at any time, to judge the mood, the real aspirations, needs and thoughts of the masses. They must be able without a shadow of a false idealization to define the degree of their class consciousness and the extent to which they are influenced by various prejudices and survivals of the past; and they must be able to win the boundless confidence of the masses by comradeship and concern for their needs.”
7In order to improve the work and working methods of the trade-union committees, we should imbue ourselves with this teaching of Lenin.
In addition, trade-union cadres must study to raise their technical level, they must understand economic laws and widen their knowledge in all fields, especially in economic and industrial management. In short, they must make themselves able, and acquire the qualification required, to carry out our three revolutions with success.
To strengthen the links of the trade-unions with the worker masses and maintain the mass character of their activities, we must see to the composition of their executive committees at all levels and consolidate their apparatus from a just viewpoint.
Among trade-union cadres there are many old comrades, many veterans who, under the colonial rule, fought for a wage-rise of a few cents. They are very valuable cadres who enjoy a high prestige among the workers. A great many others have grown up since the August Revolution and taken part in our first Resistance War. But at present trade-union committees at all levels include few representatives of the workers who have contributed to socialist construction in these last ten years.
To highly rate old cadres makes sense and it is necessary to preserve and enhance the revolutionary traditions of our working class. Nevertheless, failing to pay adequate attention to the representatives of those new strata of the people would be a serious shortcoming. Our working class is very revolutionary, very heroic, including the young segments who have recently joined its ranks. These neither lack intelligence nor courage; they are capable of mastering modern science and technology. Fostering and enhancing the ardour and dynamism of the youth conforms to the requirement of the technological revolution and that of increasing the qualities and management abilities of the working class.
Women make up a tremendous productive force. Now that we are at war, women workers keep increasing in number and play an important role in production even in combat to protect their factories. We must pay special attention to fostering them, to putting them in, and to promoting them to, appropriate posts in management and leading trade-union bodies. This meets our need of boosting production and serving combat, and concurrently aims at accomplishing a great task of the socialist revolution: the emancipation of women.
We must attach importance to consolidating grassroot trade-union committees and to appointing capable cadres to leading posts. These committees should include enthusiastic male and female workers who enjoy the confidence of the masses, young comrades capable of strongly forging ahead. They should not exclusively comprise Party members; the participation of non Party workers is indispensable. Only so could the trade-union committees be aware of the concern, aspirations and needs of broad masses of workers, be in close touch with the latter’s life and with production. This is to ensure the application of a principle that we must abide by with regard to our connection with the masses. Should we overlook this principle the voice of a trade-union would in no way differ from that of the Party, and the activities of a trade-union would no longer be those of a mass organization.
National trade-union committees must attach particular importance to professional and technological studies and encourage the workers to raise their professional and technical standards and accomplish the central task of each branch in accordance with their position in the whole of our country’s economic and cultural life. As for regional trade-union committees, they must look after the family life as well as the public life of the workers, take care of their health, and provide labour insurance.
The trade-unions are directly responsible for agitation among the workers; this work, nevertheless, devolves upon the whole Party. Party Committees at all levels must pay great attention to trade-union work and constantly attend to the growth of the workers’ ranks. City and provincial Party committees, in particular, must give heed to trade-union work since we are pushing up the development of regional industry — a problem new to us — in all respects, from factory building, production and management to the training of workers. These Party committees must regularly listen to reports by city and provincial trade-union committees on their activities, and give them directions in order to help them play their role and contribute to making enterprises start producing in a short delay and achieve good management and ever-greater economic efficiency.
To help trade-union work achieve rapid and steady progress, the Industry Department, the Propaganda and Education Department and the Organization Department of the Party Central Committee, as well as the mass organization under the Central Committee, must co-operate more closely with the Federation of Trade-unions; on its part, the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee will provide closer guidance to trade-union work.
For several years now, the trade-unions have recorded good result in mobilizing the workers and employes for economic construction and cultural development. Since the start of the American war of destruction they have adapted their activities to the new situation, and the workers have set good examples of courage in production and undauntedness in combat. It is hoped that the trade-unions will make strenuous efforts to organize the workers and employés and stimulate them, so that the latter can surmount all wartime difficulties and accomplish their immediate task in contribution to our victory over the U.S. aggressors.
Dear comrades,
We are living in the most glorious period of our history. Our people are carrying out two revolutionary tasks at the same time: the building of socialism in the North, and the fight against U.S. aggression for defending the North, liberating the South and proceeding toward the reunification of our country, for safeguarding peace in Southeast Asia and the world. The valiant and persistent struggle of our people is the concrete expression of the close combination between genuine patriotism and proletarian internationalism.
We are extremely glad to live in the most glorious epoch of human history, epoch in which the working class, in alliance with the oppressed peoples, are rising up to conduct the last struggle, unremittingly attacking the imperialists and advancing toward the complete overthrow of imperialism with U.S. imperialism as the ringleader, to achieve the transition from capitalism to socialism on a world-wide scale.
This epoch has been ushered in a half-century ago, on November 7, 1917, by the Great October Socialist Revolution. The communists and the toiling people in every continent will soon celebrate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, a resplendent festive day, a day for the glorification of the triumph of Marxism-Leninism, of the workers’ revolutionary movement, of proletarian internationalism and of friendship among nations.
The October Revolution is the dawn of a new era, the sunbeam that dispels the long and painful nights in which the toiling masses have been living during thousands of years under the rule of oppressors and exploiters.
The triumph of the October Revolution and the development of the world in the last fifty years — the striking characteristic of which is the fact that the socialist camp has become the decisive factor of the evolution of human society — further demonstrates the soundness and strong vitality of Marxism-Leninism which is invincible.
The triumph of international significance of the October Revolution has confirmed the historic role of the working class as the main force in the class struggle of our time and as the bearer of the banner of socialism to the final destination.
Following the path charted by the October Revolution, in the light of Marxism-Leninism, learning from the experiences of the Russian, Chinese and other revolutions, and creatively applying the teachings of Marx and Lenin and these experiences to the concrete conditions of our country, the Vietnamese communists with President Ho Chi Minh in the van, have led our working class and people to surmount all difficulties and sacrifices and recorded splendid successes.
Sharing the joy of the labouring people all over the world, our working class and people commemorate the October Revolution with all their heart and profound gratitude; for the ideology which inspires the October Revolution has shown our working class the victorious path to save our nation from extermination and brought our people to a new way of development, one which will lead them to the apex of civilization — communism.
We have the right to be proud of the heroic fighting traditions of our working class; the latter, too, has the right to be proud of its vanguard Party which has always been faithful to the interests of its class and of the nation, a thoroughly revolutionary Party which has been following the path mapped out by the October Revolution, and proved absolutely faithful to immortal Marxism-Leninism.
Our struggle against U.S. aggression, for national salvation is entering a most arduous and sharp stage; the continuation of socialist construction in war time and its acceleration after the triumph of the Resistance War set our working class and people most urgent and heavy tasks. But under the correct leadership of the Party, our working class and our trade-unions will certainly fulfil this great historic mission.
Let our workers and toiling people close their ranks under the glorious banner of the Party, promote their revolutionary traditions, heighten their patriotism, their love for socialism, and their spirit as collective masters, and enthusiastically march forward, emulating one another to carry out President Ho Chi Minh’s sacred appeal for national salvation.
1. Engels, Anti-Dühring, 3rd Ed., F.L.P.H. Moscow, 1962, II, Theoretical, p. 365.
2. Marx and Engels, Selected Works, F.L.P.H. Moscow, 1958 Vol. I, p. 43.
3. Ibid., p. 44.
4. Marx and Engels, Selected Works, F.L.P.H. Moscow, 1958, Vol. I, p. 51.
5. In 1930. (Pub.)
6. V.I. Lenin : Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 298, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966.
7. V.I. Lenin, On Socialist Economic Organization, Progress Publishers, Moscow; 1967, pp. 348-349.