Affirming the eternal value of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought

In our country, the renovation process, in terms of theory, is the inheritance and creative development of the revolutionary and scientific ideology of Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. Photo: Tuoi Tre online

1- The lasting values ​​of Marxism-Leninism

In the late 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, human history witnessed a great loss: the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe collapsed, real socialism fell into decline. This situation put Marxism-Leninism before the harsh challenges of history. In this context, former US President R. Nixon - author of the strategy: "Victory without war" considered this a great opportunity to "Seize" to "Actively attack, make commitments with distinction to each country, each region. For the collapsed socialist countries and the remaining socialist countries, we must take advantage of the victory to advance, approach, and transform".

“Peaceful evolution” is the imperialist offensive strategy, aiming to eliminate socialism without armed war, a war without gunpowder. The breakthrough of this strategy is to attack on the ideological-theoretical front to negate Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought, negate the path to socialism; negate the leadership of the Party; distort,Distorting national history and revolutionary history; defaming and undermining the prestige of leaders; destroying people's trust in the Party; raising a "flag" for opposition political organizations, inciting riots and overthrowing.

To carry out the above strategic plot, reactionary bourgeois politicians and ideologists coordinated with domestic political opportunists, through foreign press and publishing media and especially on social networks, to launch a series of reactionary and erroneous ideological views.

As the pinnacle of human intelligence, the worldview and methodology that outlines the direction of the struggle to abolish the capitalist regime, realize the goal of class liberation - eradicating exploitation, liberating society - eradicating oppression and injustice, liberating people and bringing freedom, prosperity and happiness to all people, Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought are the ideological foundation and compass for our Party's actions. Therefore, hostile forces and opportunists have focused on sabotaging very frantically with insidious tricks and pseudo-scientific arguments, distorting, slandering, and demagoguery to criticize and deny from the origin of formation, to criticize each principle, each basic component, to criticize and deny the entire ideological foundation of our Party. The state of political and ideological degradation and "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" among a number of cadres and Party members of our Party is caused by the "peaceful evolution" plot in the ideological and theoretical field of hostile forces.

To strengthen the building of our Party in terms of political ideology, more than ever, we must sharpen our ideological and theoretical weapons, fight against reactionary and erroneous ideological viewpoints, and defend and steadfastly apply and creatively develop Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought.

After the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, bourgeois ideologists launched a series of reactionary and erroneous arguments, rewinding and rewinding the following arguments:

- The end of history - the end of socialism, the eternal existence of capitalism! (Fukuyama).

- Topl's theory of civilizations denies the theory of socio-economic formations.

- The theory of people's capitalism and new capitalism denies the theory of surplus value...

- Many theses distort and deny the doctrine of class and class struggle.

- Some documents, books, and films of reactionary Vietnamese organizations abroad in the campaign: No Ho Chi Minh! aim to defame, depose the idol, and deny Ho Chi Minh's ideology.

All the above false theories, viewpoints and arguments aim to conclude: The collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe means that Marxism-Leninism is outdated! Uncle Ho brought Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam, which caused the fratricidal conflict. Choosing socialism is leading the Vietnamese people to their death!

To focus on refuting the above reactionary and erroneous arguments, soldiers on the ideological front need to firmly uphold the Party's ideological foundation based on a thorough understanding of the lasting values ​​of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought:

The lasting vitality of Marxism-Leninism lies first of all in the system of scientific viewpoints of Marx, Engels, and Lenin in the three constituent parts of Marxism-Leninism.

Nowadays, many people who oppose Marxism, either due to political motives or intellectual incompetence, do not see that Marxism-Leninism is not only a purely personal product but also a genius inheritance and development of the most advanced ideological trends of humanity in the 19th century. C. Marx and F. Engels studied and inherited British political economy, French utopian socialism and classical German philosophy, especially the philosophy of Hegel and L. Feuerbach. As F. Engels commented: C. Marx was great because he "knew how to stand on the shoulders of giants", namely D. Ricardo, A. Smith, O. Saint-Simon, G. Fourier, F. Engels and L. Feuerbach.

Marxism, like all other doctrines, not only cannot overcome the limitations of history, but may also have certain shortcomings. However, the sustainability of Marxist ideas compared to other ideas lies in the fact that they are based on a scientific worldview, that is, dialectical materialism. As C. Marx said, in dialectical philosophy, nothing is permanent, unchanging, or absolute. Marx, Engels, and V. Lenin themselves set a great example of a modest, scientific spirit.

They always examine themselves, criticize themselves and surpass themselves to reach objective truth. The movement of human history today continues to provide new materials for Marx's views on the method of producing material wealth, which determines the existence of society. The change in the method of material production will inevitably lead to changes in class structure, economic structure, political content, ethics, lifestyle and human thinking. Marx's historical materialist perspective not only accurately explains the movement of history, but is also the key to futurology.

Today's social and ethnic relations have changed profoundly compared to the time when Marx lived. That is obvious. That change is not only due to the impact of the scientific and technological revolution, the adjustment of modern capitalism, but also due to the great influence of socialism, the reality of the development of national consciousness. However, that does not make Marx's ideas on class and class struggle, democracy and the state... become outdated. The crisis of socialism and the collapse of socialist states in some countries, on the one hand, shows that once we deviate from Marx's ideas, we inevitably have to pay a high price; on the other hand, it also proves that class struggle, establishing a social regime under the control of the people is a realistic and inevitable, but arduous path to the complete liberation of society. There can be no other way.

Regarding Marx's economic theory, while some people try to refute and even distort that modern capitalism has changed in quality, the state in capitalism is a general welfare state, so Marx's theory has become outdated, many great economists rely on Marx to develop their arguments. There are even economists of capitalism who say: Marx is one of the giants who made a revolution in economics (RASamuenson): "Without Marx's analysis, the central contradiction of capitalism (between labor and capital), the inequality between rich and poor countries would still be an incomprehensible reality (M. Gallo).

We do not deny that, today, based on the use of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution, modern capitalism has changed. But if we deny the theory of surplus value, we will commit a serious mistake both scientifically and politically. Even if today, one can include the managerial labor of the capitalist in the structure of surplus value, it is certain that its contribution cannot include the whole of surplus value. If we abolish that concept, we will not even be able to explain the expanded reproduction of capitalism. And we cannot forget that surplus value also reflects another aspect of production in general - that is, no economy that wants to develop does not rely on surplus products.

Politically, the denial of surplus value means that there is no longer any reason to abolish the social structure that weighs down more than 90% of humanity. The correct attitude is to continue Marx's work, through scientific and practical activities, to seek solutions, appropriate steps, from limiting to eliminating exploitation, while maintaining the driving forces of development.

According to Marx, the birth of communism was not outside the natural historical process. It was a dialectical negation, not a metaphysical negation of capitalism. Marxism emphasized the active role of human beings - first of all, the perception of objective laws. Absorbing Marx's thoughts, Lenin pointed out that revolutionary dialectics was the essence of Marxism. According to him, the working class and the working people, oppressed nations could carry out revolutions to gain the premises for a shorter, less painful development than the capitalist path.

The content and nature of some of the issues facing the revolutionary cause today are different from those in the time when Marx lived. The struggle to liberate the working class, the working people and oppressed nations has entered a new phase with new forms. More than ever, the guidance of Marx and Lenin on the diversity of types of struggle, on the possibility of choosing development paths and on the pace of social transformation on the path to communism has become extremely valuable to us.

As a revolutionary doctrine, the vitality of Marxism is still in the real revolutionary movements. Although real socialism is a model with defects and deviations from Marx's thought, it has made great contributions to the development of humanity. Although a series of socialist countries have collapsed, there are still millions of people who firmly believe in the future of socialism. Even in the former socialist countries, after the "velvet revolution", the left-wing movement in Latin America, the victory of many social democratic parties in Europe, a new struggle for communist ideals began.

The struggle against monopoly capitalism for people's rights and democracy in developed capitalist countries as well as the struggle for and protection of national independence in poor countries are trends formed under the influence of Marxism-Leninism with great support and assistance from socialist countries. Those trends still exist and develop. That is an irreversible historical trend.

The vitality of Marxism is vividly demonstrated in the communists' uncompromising struggle against new manifestations of opportunism and revisionism, as well as new manifestations of dogmatism, to defend and creatively develop Marxism-Leninism.

In our country, the renovation process, in terms of theory, is the inheritance and creative development of the revolutionary and scientific ideology of Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. The ideology that runs through the renovation path is liberation and development - liberating and developing all the country's potentials, gradually realizing the noble goal of striving for every Vietnamese person to have food to eat, to eat well and progress to eating well; to have clothes to wear, to wear enough and progress to wearing well; to have a house and progress to living comfortably; to have education to continuously improve the people's knowledge; to care for those who are sick, and to live in freedom, humanity and harmony.

After the national liberation cause, the Vietnamese revolution has entered a new phase. The content and nature of the revolutionary struggle have fundamentally changed. Developing a multi-sector commodity economy, operating according to a market mechanism under the management of the State, creating a mechanism with strong motivation: harmoniously combining material and humanitarian interests in social relations; building a socialist rule-of-law state; ensuring a disciplined society and implementing in practice the people's right to mastery; comprehensively democratizing society, strongly promoting the strength of the whole community and the strength of each liberated Vietnamese person; realizing the great national unity bloc, national harmony; international solidarity, making more friends and fewer enemies; gradually perfecting the new model of Vietnam transitioning to socialism.

2- Ho Chi Minh's thought forever illuminates the path of the Vietnamese revolution.

From the historical context of our nation in the early 20th century, from the failure of a series of patriotic movements of Vietnamese scholars, from the fact that the outstanding young man of the nation Nguyen Tat Thanh with his ardent patriotism and love for the people, with his burning desire for independence and freedom, with the sensitivity of an intellectual genius decided to leave to find a new way to save the country. From all the vibrant and heroic revolutionary activities of Nguyen Ai Quoc to Ho Chi Minh...,We can come to a clear understanding: Ho Chi Minh's thought is the product of the combination of the quintessence of Vietnamese culture, the core of which is Vietnamese patriotism, with Marxism-Leninism and the quintessence of human culture. This wonderful combination is the historical encounter of the quintessence of culture and the spirit of the Vietnamese people with the pinnacle of the wisdom of the times.

From the system of viewpoints of Ho Chi Minh's thought and throughout his revolutionary activities, we deeply perceive that Ho Chi Minh's thought is not only a creative application but more specifically a creative development of Marxism-Leninism in the Vietnamese situation - a common situation of hundreds of nations in the world dominated by colonialism. Studying Uncle Ho's revolutionary theoretical viewpoints, we further appreciate the creative development and invaluable contributions of Ho Chi Minh's thought to the development of Marxism-Leninism.

When studying the nature and development laws of capitalism, C. Marx put forward the historical slogan: The proletariat of the world unite; then V. Lenin, when studying the development of capitalism moving to the stage of imperialism, put forward the slogan: The proletariat of the world and oppressed peoples unite. With Uncle Ho, from the discovery and understanding of the urgent demands of the Vietnamese people and hundreds of peoples dominated by colonialism in the new era, the era of transition from capitalism to socialism on a global scale, came to the ideological viewpoint: To save the country, liberate the nation, there is no other way than the path of proletarian revolution. Here, national independence is closely linked with socialism.

In his speech commemorating the 110th anniversary of Uncle Ho's birth, General Secretary Le Kha Phieu highlighted: This is the greatest contribution of Ho Chi Minh's thought to the Marxist-Leninist ideology. With the banner of national independence and socialism, the national liberation revolution not only brings independence and unity to the Fatherland but also, step by step, must bring freedom and happiness to the people. National independence is the goal and prerequisite for realizing socialism; socialism is both the goal and the condition for firmly protecting national independence.

In the revolutionary strategy, Marx predicted the possibility of victory of the socialist revolution simultaneously in a series of developed capitalist countries. Lenin, under new conditions, put forward the thesis: The socialist revolution can break out and win in a few countries, even an average capitalist country if that country concentrates the most fundamental contradictions of the era, which is the weakest link in the chain of imperialism.

From the extremely important development of imperialism as a two-headed leech, one sucking the blood of the working people of the motherland, the other sucking the blood of the colonial peoples, President Ho Chi Minh creatively developed a world revolutionary strategy when he affirmed: The revolution to liberate colonial peoples is a part of the world revolution. The national liberation movement is one of the two wings of the bird. The national liberation revolution does not passively wait for the help of the revolution in the motherland, but must proactively win and help support the revolutionary movement in the motherland.

VILenin summarized the principle of the formation of the Communist Party: The Party is the product of the combination of Marxism and the workers' movement. To President Ho Chi Minh, from the practice of the Vietnamese revolution - in a semi-feudal colonial country, the vast majority of whom were farmers, the working class, though small, was the only class shouldering the historical mission of leading the revolution, came to a correct and creative application of Lenin's new-style Party principle, successfully building a Communist Party in Vietnam. The birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam was the product of the combination of Marxism-Leninism with the workers' movement and the Vietnamese patriotic movement.

From this correct and creative application, since its inception, our Party has had the nature of the working class, a loyal representative of the interests of the working people and the entire nation. From the reality of the Vietnamese revolution, he always attached importance to educating Marxism-Leninism, cultivating and training the capacity and qualities of Party members. Thanks to that, although the Communist Party in a colonial country had a majority of Party members who were not workers, the nature of the working class and the revolutionary vanguard role of the Party were still maintained. And it was in the practice of leading the revolution that our Party became the sole leader of the Vietnamese nation, considered by the entire Vietnamese nation as their Party, the sole leader of their nation.

The more we study Ho Chi Minh's thought, the more deeply we perceive his creative application and development of Marxism-Leninism, the more firmly we adhere to the principle: Practice is the criterion of truth; revolution is creativity, is innovation; dogmatism, stereotypes, and mechanisms are failures.

The most precious legacy that President Ho Chi Minh left to the Vietnamese people and all of humanity is his ideology, the core part of which is the system of his revolutionary theoretical and ideological views. Let me present the basic contents of Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary theoretical and ideological views.

a)Ho Chi Minh's ideology is the ideology of a lifelong struggle for the people, for the country, for the cause of national liberation, class liberation, social liberation, and human liberation. This is the system of goals and ideals of the Vietnamese people, of the Vietnamese revolution in the new era that Uncle Ho discovered.

This system of ideal goals was formed in Uncle Ho not by chance but under certain historical conditions: From the tradition of national cultural quintessence, the tradition of family and homeland; from the vibrant reality of the nation and the contemporary world that he experienced. And what is especially important is that this system of ideal goals was fully formed and perfected on a scientific basis when a historical encounter took place: Nguyen Ai Quoc - an outstanding son of the Vietnamese people with a passionate love for the country and people, with Leninism, Marxism-Leninism - the pinnacle of intelligence of the era.

b)President Ho Chi Minh not only found and determined the ideal system of goals for the Vietnamese nation and revolution in the new era, but he also found the way to realize this noble ideal goal - the way to closely link national independence with socialism. "To save the country and liberate the nation, there is no other way but the proletarian revolutionary way." With the thought of holding high the flag of national independence and socialism, President Ho Chi Minh correctly resolved the relationship between nation and class, between nation and international, combining national strength with the strength of the times.

Holding high the flag of national independence and socialism is the ideology that runs through the history of the Vietnamese revolution from 1930 to the present and from now on.

To deeply understand the ideology of the revolutionary path, the path of raising high the flag of national independence and socialism, we need to clearly perceive Uncle Ho's extremely important argument in the ideology "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom". Here, national independence is the top goal, the prerequisite. In 1941, when returning to the country with the Central Committee to directly lead the Vietnamese revolution, at the 8th Central Committee Conference, after clearly analyzing the context and the most fundamental contradictions of Vietnamese society, Uncle Ho affirmed: "At this time, if we cannot solve the problem of national liberation, cannot demand independence and freedom for the entire nation, not only will the entire nation and people continue to suffer the fate of slaves and buffaloes, but the interests of a part of the class will not be regained for thousands of years". In early 1945, when the revolutionary opportunity appeared, Uncle Ho made a historic decision: At this time, even if we had to burn the entire Truong Son mountain range, we would still win independence for the nation!

Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom. It is not only the top priority and guiding principle of the struggle for independence, but also the sacred call of the nation's thousands of years of building and defending the country. This sacred call has mobilized the great strength of the entire nation to win and protect its life. Today, the meaning and significance of the thought "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom" has gone beyond the space of Vietnam and is recognized by many nations in the world as the truth of the times.

InBrief Platform, Brief Strategy, Brief ProgramandThe Bad in Briefof the Communist Party of Vietnam drafted by President Ho Chi Minh, approved at the Party's founding conference - became the Party's first Platform, right from this first Platform, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed a basic thesis: "Advocating for bourgeois democratic revolution and land revolution to move towards communist society". The thesis clearly stated that after completing the national revolution, people's democracy must advance to socialism, skipping the stage of capitalist development as a political regime.

During his short time leading the construction of socialism in the North, President Ho Chi Minh left very basic and profound views on socialism and building socialism in our country.

Uncle Ho's ideas about socialism are: "Socialism first of all aims to help working people escape poverty, make everyone have jobs, be well-off and live a happy life", "If the country is independent but the people do not enjoy freedom, then independence is meaningless", "socialism is how to make people have enough to eat, enough to wear, increasingly happy, everyone can go to school, have medicine when sick, retire when old and cannot work, bad habits are gradually eliminated", "socialism is to improve the material and cultural life of the people and is built by the people themselves", "socialism is how to make the people rich and the country strong".

The above basic concepts of President Ho Chi Minh are the fundamental characteristics of socialism that our entire Party and people are striving to gradually realize.

Regarding the path to socialism, President Ho Chi Minh left behind extremely important ideological views. First of all, those are his arguments about the starting point and the greatest characteristic of the socialist revolution in our country, which is to move straight to socialism from a small, backward production base without going through the stage of capitalist development. Therefore, in building socialism, he pointed out: "If we want socialism, there is no other way but to devote all people's strength to production, production is our main front today"; "production must go hand in hand with thrift". The most important task is to build the material and technical foundation of socialism... To have modern industry and agriculture, to have advanced science. "To build socialism, first of all, there must be socialist people." Uncle Ho also left very important arguments about economic sectors, about developing the state-owned economy as a foundation, about economic management and encouraging people to get rich: The poor have enough to eat, those who have enough to eat become well-off and rich, the rich become richer...His thoughts on socialism and the path to socialism remain valuable today.

c)President Ho Chi Minh left the Vietnamese revolution a great creativity in revolutionary methods. After having the right revolutionary path, the revolutionary methods play a decisive role in the success or failure of the revolution.

Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on revolutionary methods are very rich and profound. We can approach the following two very basic revolutionary methods:

The method of creating and using combined strength was demonstrated in the fight for independence and in the two resistance wars against France and the US, which was the creation and use of combined strength of political violence of the masses combined with armed violence, the strength of tradition combined with the strength of modernity, the strength of the nation combined with the strength of the international community; all-people resistance, all-round resistance; fighting the enemy on three fronts, three prongs, three strategic areas...

Nowadays, in economic construction, promoting a multi-sector economy in a socialist-oriented economy is a method to create and promote the combined strength of economic sectors.

His thought on the revolutionary method of knowing how to win step by step towards complete victory was demonstrated in the two resistance wars: Defeat step by step, defeat each plot, overthrow each part, move forward to gain complete victory.

"Beat America to get out"

Beat the puppet to the ground

Forward, soldiers and compatriots!

"North and South reunion, what spring is happier"

d)President Ho Chi Minh was not only a great thinker but also a genius organizer. He left behind a system of ideological views on revolutionary forces and the building of revolutionary organizations. Those were his great thoughts on the Communist Party and the building of a new-style Party; his thoughts on a revolutionary state and the building of a revolutionary state of the people, by the people, for the people; his thoughts on great national unity and the building of a great national unity bloc. "Unity, unity, great unity; success, success, great success"; his thoughts on the armed forces and the building of the people's armed forces, on military art; his thoughts on the building of revolutionary organizations of workers, farmers, youth, women, etc.

His consistent thought in building revolutionary organizations was the overarching thought: The country takes the people as its root, revolution is the cause of the masses; everything is by the people and for the people; the people are the force that decides the victory of the revolution. "It is a hundred times easier to endure without the people, a thousand times harder to accomplish with the people."

e)Ho Chi Minh's thought is the thought that takes practice as the criterion of truth, and takes popular satisfaction and conformity with actual circumstances as the measure for the correctness and effectiveness of all guidelines, policies and strategies.

f)One of the invaluable legacies that Uncle Ho left to our Party and our nation is Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style. Throughout his revolutionary activities and life, Uncle Ho left behind a shining example of revolutionary ethics, ideology on revolutionary ethics and style of revolutionary activities.

More than anyone else, President Ho Chi Minh always attached great importance to education and training in revolutionary ethics. He pointed out that "Only with strength can one carry heavy burdens and go far. A revolutionary must have revolutionary ethics as a foundation to complete the glorious revolutionary mission." According to him, ethics is also the "foundation", the "root", the "strength" of revolutionary cadres and the revolutionary Party. His overarching ethical thought is to strive and sacrifice for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, for the happiness of the people; to live for the people, for the country, for the cause of national liberation, class liberation, social liberation, and human liberation. That is, "wealth cannot seduce, poverty cannot shake, power cannot subdue", that is, "diligence, thrift, integrity, impartiality".

The entire life and revolutionary activities of President Ho Chi Minh also left behind an exemplary model of revolutionary style, the typical styles of which are: Theory linked to reality; learning goes hand in hand with practice; saying goes hand in hand with doing. Thoroughly grasping the above mentioned ideological values ​​of Uncle Ho, we understand more deeply that Ho Chi Minh's thought - an invaluable legacy that Uncle Ho left to our Party and our nation - is the product of the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the specific circumstances of Vietnam and is the creative development of Marxism-Leninism.

Today, thoroughly grasping the great thoughts of President Ho Chi Minh and implementing his sacred Testament, we firmly follow the path of national independence associated with socialism that he chose; resolutely promoting the cause of innovation, promoting industrialization and modernization, successfully building a powerful Vietnam with rich people, strong country, democratic, fair and civilized society, steadily advancing towards socialism. That is the best way to express our infinite loyalty to his ideals and cause.

3. To fight, criticize and reject wrong reactionary arguments, and protect the Party's ideological foundation, more than ever, all cadres and Party members need to firmly adhere to Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought; creatively apply and creatively develop the Party's ideological foundation to form and perfect the correct platform and guidelines in the new development period of the Vietnamese revolution. Step by step, successfully realize the 8 characteristics and 8 orientations of building socialism in the cause, soon turn our country into a modern industrialized country, successfully build and firmly protect the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam.