Promoting the spirit of the work 'Self-criticism' in Party building and rectification by General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu
Comrade Nguyen Van Cu (1912-1941) was a member of the first generation of party members and became the Party's General Secretary in March 1938, when he was not yet 26 years old. At the age of 29, with more than 13 years of revolutionary activities, two imprisonments with 7 years in imperial prisons, and more than 2 years as General Secretary, his life was short but "his contributions shone brightly like a meteor in the sky of the Vietnamese revolution at a historical period of great and complicated turning points" (1). He left behind a shining example of revolutionary spirit and many valuable lessons, especially in the work of Party building and rectification, as shown in his work "Self-criticism".
MODEL THEORETICAL WORK ON SELF-CRITICISM AND CRITICISM IN THE PARTY
Comrade Nguyen Van Cu was the Party's General Secretary during the period of complicated developments in the world and in the country, especially after the election of the Council of Management in Cochinchina (April 1939), different tendencies emerged within the Party and the revolutionary movement, which could cause division and disunity in the Party. Under the pen name Tri Cuong, comrade Nguyen Van Cu wrote the book "Self-criticism”,Published by the People's Bookstore in Saigon in 1939. Through this work, General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu directed the implementation of the struggle to expose the Trotskyites' false revolutionary face, conduct self-criticism and criticism, implement democracy, build and consolidate solidarity and unity within the Party, and at the same time, it was also a political and ideological preparation for the 6th Central Conference in November 1939, which decided to change the direction of the Party's revolutionary strategy, entering the stage of fighting for power.
Purpose oftyescriticizeis “to find out the causes of failure and study methods of correction and progress”(2). The newly established party had little experience, and operated in illegal conditions, oppressed by the enemy, so it was difficult to avoid shortcomings and mistakes, but "Every failure is an opportunity for us to gain experience, to see whether the slogans we put forth are understood, recognized and practiced by the masses."(3). “Honest and bold” self-criticism aims at “unifying thoughts, a real, strong unity, based on the enlightenment and loyalty of everyone”(4). Criticism is not to weaken the Party, but to strengthen it, to respond to the development of the revolutionary movement in the new situation. To do so, first of all, communists must understand what "self-criticism of the Bolsheviks" is, must start from the motive of building the Party, at the same time, must have a solid theoretical level and practical capacity to "know how to analyze the situation according to Marxism, must know the special conditions of Indochina".(5), not allowing enemies to take advantage to lower the prestige and sabotage the Party.
Contentcritical and self-critical strugglemust be closely linked to the Party's important political tasks, promptly correcting deviations in the democratic movement and mistakes in the method of mobilizing the masses. He pointed out diseases such as personal pride, ambiguity about class positions, "a number of comrades have deviated to the right, hesitated and acted contrary to the Party's policies"; there are comrades who show a lonely "leftist" tendency, wanting to shrink the Party, narrow it down by factions, and distance it from the masses"(6)Those mistakes “only aggravate the dangers that threaten us from all sides.”(7), affecting the unity and solidarity within the Party, causing serious damage to the revolutionary cause.
The spirit of self-criticism and criticismComrade Nguyen Van Cu's teaching is to look straight at the truth and clearly recognize shortcomings. A true communist, "even if he makes mistakes or fails, must have the courage to "open his eyes to see the truth", "must take full responsibility..."(8). The unity achieved after discussion, after self-criticism and criticism, after right and wrong have been clarified, will become a self-conscious unity, the basis for collective consensus and solidarity, and the unity of will of the Party. If we do not dare to fight, but only aim to "maintain the appearance of unity while inside it is a mess", then it is "not a revolutionary vanguard Party but a reformist Party". The Party will lose its fighting spirit and will no longer have a vanguard role with the revolutionary masses.
"Self-criticism" is an important political theory document of the Party, clearly demonstrating the theoretical thinking capacity, understanding of the practical situation, enthusiasm and great responsibility of the person holding the highest position of the Party at that time. Born more than 80 years ago, but the spirit of "Self-criticism" of General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu still retains its current value; is an important solution, contributing to the successful implementation of the 13th Central Resolution 4 to continue building and developing the Party to become a revolutionary, genuine, strong Party, worthy of the sacrifices and contributions of generations of Party members, the trust and expectations of all classes of people for the Party and the revolution.
Criticism and self-criticism must uphold the principles of the Marxist Party.. In the face of the success or failure of the revolution, a communist party member “is neither pessimistic nor panic-stricken nor complacent”. Each party member has the right to freely discuss and criticize, but must have principles, not “putting oneself above the Party, using one’s own opinions - even if they are correct - to oppose the Party, using a few shortcomings to slander the Party, destroying the Party’s influence, sowing confusion and doubt among the masses, causing factionalism and division within the Party ranks…”(9). Those are actions of a nature.right-wing, opportunistic.
The Party's principles alsonot allowing public debate or exposure of internal issues. That is the manifestation of the "left" tendency. Every party member has the right to debate, criticize comrades, criticize the Party, raise internal issues, within the framework of the organization. And when the discussion is clear, the resolution is built, then "there is only one will, the will of the Party, thousands of people will act as one to practice that will"(10)Self-criticism and criticism must go beyond "quarreling over petty matters", absolutely avoid "attacking or exaggerating the mistakes and shortcomings of one's comrades", must ensure education, help each other progress; promptly correct, do not let small shortcomings and mistakes become big.
To overcome mistakes and shortcomings, we must correctly analyze the causes of the mistakes and have appropriate solutions..
In conclusion,“Self-criticism”,General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu left a very valuable experience for the Party: "We had to overcome the wrong trends within the ranks: the isolated "leftist" trend that wanted to shrink the Party, narrow it down by factions, distance it from the masses, and the rightist tendency to compromise, wavering in the face of serious situations, forgetting or covering up the propaganda of Marxism-Leninism, threatening to abandon revolutionary principles."(11)Those two tendencies are always a constant danger, weakening the Party in every revolutionary period.
SELF-CRITICISM AND CRITICISM IN THE SPIRIT OF "SELF-CRITICISM" CONTRIBUTES TO IMPLEMENTING RESOLUTION OF THE 13TH CENTRAL COMMITTEE, 4TH TERM
President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “During many years of secret activities, despite being severely terrorized by the colonialists and our Party facing many difficulties and dangers, our Party has grown stronger and stronger and has led the people to make a successful revolution and win the resistance war. That is because our Party skillfully uses the sharp weapon of criticism and self-criticism.”(12).
Continuing that spirit, in the process of innovation, the Party attaches great importance to the work of Party building and rectification, with the most important content being to promote self-criticism and criticism. In the last three congresses, the Party has chosen the 4th Central Conference as the first conference of each term to discuss the work of Party building.
Conclusion No. 21-KL/TW on "Promoting the building and rectification of the Party and the political system; resolutely preventing, repelling, and strictly handling cadres and Party members who have degraded in politics, ethics, lifestyle, and manifestations of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" of the 4th Central Conference of the 13th tenure has expanded its scope, not only in the building and rectification of the Party but also in the building of the political system in the spirit of the 13th National Party Congress. This affirms that our Party always attaches importance to the work of building and rectifying a clean and strong Party in all aspects as the key to building a political system and building a rich, civilized, and happy country.
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Memorial area of General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu. |
In the spirit of the work “Self-criticism”, the 13th Central Resolution 4 deeply criticized itself when looking directly at the shortcomings: A number of cadres and party members, including leaders and managers, have not yet raised their sense of responsibility, lacked exemplary role models, faded their ideals, lost their will, fallen into individualism, words did not match their actions, violated party discipline, and violated the law. The leadership capacity, fighting spirit, self-criticism and criticism, inspection and supervision work of many party organizations are still limited.
Overcoming these shortcomings requires a system of solutions, in which the first solution proposed is "Continuing to innovate and improve the quality of political and ideological work, self-criticism and criticism". To effectively implement that solution, on the basis of learning the spirit and methods of General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu as stated in "Self-criticism", it is necessary to focus on implementing the following contents:
One is, must always have a deep and full awareness of the role of self-criticism and criticism in the existence and development of the Party. In the current period, although the country has made remarkable progress and the Party's ruling role has been firmly consolidated, we are still facing many risks and challenges, including risks that are more complicated, unpredictable and serious than in the previous period, especially the risk of degradation in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, "self-evolution", "self-transformation" of a number of cadres and Party members.
Therefore, continuing the spirit of the 4th Central Resolution of the 11th and 12th terms, in the 13th term, the Party issued a Resolution on Party building and rectification, which placed requirements on Party building and rectification at a higher level, closely linking prevention with proactive attack to build a clean and strong Party in all aspects of politics, ideology, organization, ethics, and working style of Party members and cadres, thereby creating a new step of development for the Party in terms of intelligence, political mettle, true ethics, civilization, increasingly closely connected with the people, increasingly trusted by the people; with enough prestige and leadership capacity to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.
Second,must have the spirit and method of correct self-criticism and criticism. Resolution 4 of the 12th and 13th Central Committees affirms: Improve the quality of activities of Party organizations, socio-political organizations, especially Party committees and standing committees, promote and strictly implement self-criticism and criticism from the Central Committee to Party cells, overcome the situation of deference, avoidance, fear of conflict, "peace is precious". Timely detect and resolutely fight to prevent signs of degradation, "self-evolution", "self-transformation". If there is a lack of awareness for the people, for the Party; a lack of the spirit of "self-examination, self-correction", criticism and self-criticism will either be formal, superficial or be exploited to attack, cause division, weaken the organization, weaken the capacity and leadership role of the Party.
The work "Self-criticism" is a model of our Party's spirit of self-criticism and criticism, demonstrating the spirit of resolute struggle against all manifestations of opportunism, both leftist and rightist.,clarifying the Party's guidelines and viewpoints, contributing to dispelling all ambiguity and confusion in the thinking and actions of cadres and Party members, leading to unity within the Party. "Self-criticism" not only meets the requirements and demands of the revolutionary practice in the country at that time, but the spirit, content and methodological issues in this work still illuminate and guide the work of Party building and rectification today.
Third,against both rightist and leftist tendencies in self-criticism and criticism. In the period when the Party had not yet gained power, differences in viewpoints within the Party's ranks were mainly due to the level of awareness of Party members. In the conditions of the Party ruling and developing a market economy, and deep international integration, differences arise not only due to the level of awareness, but mostly due to the impact of interests as well as the influence of many relationships in social life and many cultural and ideological currents.
Therefore, self-criticism and criticism today must not be avoided, denied, or "closed off to hide shortcomings" but must be truly open-minded, expand democracy, discuss openly within the Party as well as mobilize maximum participation and contribution of opinions from all walks of life, socio-political organizations; linked with grasping psychological and ideological developments, controlling interest relationships, controlling power in the process of performing tasks entrusted by the Party and authorized by the people. In addition, the Party always upholds Marxist principles, not allowing internal Party issues to be exploited by hostile forces and political opportunists to sabotage the Party. Struggle to achieve unity and solidarity within the Party, eliminate all seeds of opportunism or sectarianism; as well as not allowing the internal Party struggle to be exploited by outsiders to incite and lower the Party's prestige, cause division within the Party, and divide the Party from the people.
Four is, attach self-criticism and criticism toResolutely and persistently fight against corruption and negativity, strictly handle officials who commit violations. The issue of handling violations by cadres and party members must ensure strictness according to the provisions of the law and the Party Charter, while also being humane, aiming to push back the bad and awaken the good in each person. Once shortcomings have been identified, there must be a plan and timely corrective measures, because the purpose of self-criticism and criticism is not to "weaken the Party", but to "correct shortcomings, unify thoughts and actions", make "the Party stronger and more developed", better perform political tasks, and strengthen people's trust in the Party.
Five is, the innovation and improvement of the quality of self-criticism and criticism in particular, and the work of Party building and rectification in general, are closely related to the work of cadres. Regarding the work of cadres - an important part of the current work of Party building, the Party has raised the requirement of strong innovation, improving the quality, bothTightly control power in each stage of personnel work, fight against abuse of power and position, andnot to miss out on truly virtuous and talented cadres who "dare to think, dare to speak, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, dare to innovate, dare to face difficulties and challenges, and dare to act for the common good".
In addition to strengthening ideological work, improving the theoretical level, educating and training the ethics of cadres and party members, it is necessary to strictly implement the Party's regulations on setting examples, the regulations of the Central Executive Committee on what party members are not allowed to do, the higher the position of cadres, the more pioneering and exemplary they must be. Focus on improving the capacity, practical level and practical organization of cadres and party members, creating a solid foundation for grasping and testing the truth through criticism and self-criticism.