The Party’s mass mobilisation work in the new situation

 90 years of the close-knit bond with the people: stages of history of the Party’s mass mobilisation work

In October 1999, commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the article entitled “Mass Mobilisation” by President Ho Chi Minh (October 15^th, 1949), at the request of the Central Mass Mobilisation Commission, the 8^th Politburo decided to select the fifteenth of October as the traditional Day of the Party’s mass mobilisation work and the whole country’s Mass Mobilisation Day to enhance the study and following of Uncle Ho’s teachings.

Under the light of Marxism-Leninism, during his journey, Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh succeeded in finding the way for the Vietnamese revolution with the leadership of a true revolutionary party. The Party’s strength derives from the people’s great strength, from its close-knit bond with the people, and from the people’s faith in the Party. Under such viewpoint and ideology, Nguyen Ai Quoc started mobilising the patriotic masses with the establishment of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Guangzhou, China (1925). He directly engaged in training faithful soldiers as the core force in disseminating Marxism-Leninism and sowing revolutionary faith and a sense of unity amongst social strata via the work titled “Revolutionary Path” (1927), thereby creating a historic turning point with the foundation of the Communist Party of Vietnam on February 3^rd, 1930. The Party’s first Political Platform identified the central contents of the Vietnamese revolution and developed strategies to attract and widely gather people from all walks of life as the revolutionary forces under the Party’s flag. In that period, considering mass mobilisation as an urgent political task in response to “white terror” and demagogy by the colonial regime, the Central Party Committee’s first Conference (14^th October - 31^st October, 1930 in Hong Kong) approved Resolutions on the mobilisation of workers, peasants, communist youth, women and troops as well as on relief and anti-imperialist alliance. Those Resolutions clearly stated that “within high-level Party Organisations (provincial and municipal level and above), there should be specialised committees and cadres in charge of mobilising social strata,” including Worker Mobilisation, Peasant Mobilisation, Youth Mobilisation, Women Mobilisation, Military Mobilisation, and Anti-Imperialist Front so as to gather, educate and encourage the masses to take part in revolutionary movements against oppression and exploitation for the sake of the people’s rights and democracy under the Party’s leadership.

First cadres in charge of mass mobilisation “proletarianised” themselves together with the people and conducted the work of propagation to establish mass organisations behind the Party and add an incentive to the Vietnamese revolution under the motto of “tapping our strength to free ourselves.” The 1930-1931 revolutionary movement with the Nghe - Tinh Soviet movement as its peak marked a milestone as a fledgling party expressed its role, prestige and remarkable capacity to lead, unite and mobilise the masses. With only several thousands of members, the Party placed its absolute faith in the people’s immense strength, maintained a close-knit bond with the people, understood the people’s aspirations, relied on the people, supported the people, rendered the people fully aware of the path towards independence, freedom and happiness, mobilised the people into fronts and politico-social organisations, and provided instructions for the people on our struggle from low to high levels to achieve the victory of the 1945 August Revolution that gave birth to Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2^nd, 1945 and opened a new era of independence, freedom and socialism construction in the national history.

In the resistance war against the French colonialists (1945-1954), fully aware that the enemy would possibly damage the close-knit bond between the Party and the people, the Party Central Committee Standing Board issued a Directive, dated September 1^st, 1947 on the mass mobilisation work, underlining that “the enemy is employing brutal, cunning stratagems to divide, deceive and panic the people; therefore, mass mobilisation is now an important task of the Viet Minh.” Meanwhile, President Ho Chi Minh required that “we must keep in close contact with the masses; do not stay away from the people or we will be isolated and fail for sure.” Notably, on October 15^th, 1949 he wrote the article titled “Mass Mobilisation” on the Truth Newspaper - a central agency of the Party. The article served as the Party’s complete platform on the mass mobilisation work and provided a solid foundation for well promoting this work. Doing so enabled the Party to perform its revolutionary task and “exercise its leadership over the people by educating, encouraging and explaining to and relying on the people to satisfy their legitimate aspirations.” With the expansion of the United Vietnam National Front and the widespread development of the people’s unions, we managed to build a powerful political force for the people’s war against the enemy. The Patriotic Emulation Movement launched by President Ho Chi Minh aroused the people’s revolutionary will and enthusiasm and encouraged them to combat the enemy and work for the Homeland. As a result, a new source of strength was created for the resistance war and the national construction, with the ultimate victory of Dien Bien Phu that “resounded across five continents and shook the globe.”

In the period of 1954-1975, when the country was temporarily divided into two parts, the North became the big rear that provided human and material resources for the resistance war against the U.S. in the South. On September 10^th, 1955, the Vietnam Fatherland Front was founded; it united all forces and encouraged all people and troops to heighten revolutionary heroism and fight for Southern brothers. In the South, on December 20^th, 1960 the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam was established. The mass mobilisation work was carried out widely and deeply across sectors and fields as well as amongst people both at home and abroad, which allowed us to combine the national strength with the strength of the times and create the synergy to “drive the U.S. troops away, topple the Saigon puppet regime,” liberate the South, and reunify the country on April 30^th, 1975.

 In the period of national renewal, according to the Political Report of the 6^th National Party Congress (1986), there were 4 major lessons learnt from our revolution. To be more specific, “in all activities, the Party must always consider the people as the roots, build and promote the labouring people’s right to collective mastery, and enhance the connection between the Party and the people.” That ideology had been reaffirmed by the Platform on national construction in the period of transition towards socialism (1991), which was then supplemented and developed in 2011. “The revolutionary cause belongs to the people, by the people and for the people. It is the people who make historic victories. All operations of the Party must be aimed at the people’s legitimate benefits and aspirations. The Party’s strength lies in its close-knit bond with the people. Bureaucracy, corruption and distancing from the people will lead to unpredictable consequences for the survival of the country, the socialist regime and the Party.” The National Party Congresses’ Political Reports always focused on assessing the building and promotion of the strength of national great unity block, socialist democracy, and the people’s right to mastery, while working towards tasks and measures for the mass mobilisation work in each period. To strengthen its leadership over the mass mobilisation work, the Party issued many documents, such as the Resolution 08B-NQ/HNTW, dated March 27^th, 1990 on “renewing the Party’s mass mobilisation work and improving the relationship between the Party and the people,” the Directive 30-CT/TW, dated February 18^th, 1998 on “developing and executing the Regulation on democracy at grass-roots level,” the Decision 290-QĐ/TW, dated February 25^th, 2010 on “the Statute for the political system’s mass mobilisation work,” and the Resolution 25-NQ/TW, dated June 3^rd, 2013 on “enhancing and renewing the Party’s leadership over the mass mobilisation work in the new situation,” together with 5 viewpoints and 7 tasks for mass mobilisation in the new period. There were documents for the people and mass organisations to voice their opinions and take part in supervision and social criticism to make the Party and the political system strong and pure, such as the Decision 124-QĐ/TW, dated February 2^nd, 2018 on the Vietnam Fatherland Front, politico-social organisations and people’s supervision of leaders, cadres and party members’ self-improvement in morality and lifestyle. Doing so helped raise the awareness and responsibility of party committees and organisations and political system towards the mass mobilisation work in national renewal, construction and protection.

Head of the Central Mass Mobilisation Commission Truong Thi Mai addressing the National Conference to review the mass mobilisation work and introduce the mass mobilisation task in 2020 (photo: VNA)

Over the years, under the Party’s leadership, with efforts made by the whole political system, the mass mobilisation work has continued to be enhanced and renewed, while obtaining many good results. Emphasis has been placed on carrying out state agencies’ mass mobilisation, realising 6 central contents of the year of governments’ mass mobilisation at all levels, “really believing the people, respecting the people, understanding the people, learning from the people, relying on the people, and being responsible for the people.” The Fatherland Fronts and politico-social organisations at all levels have renewed and expanded the method of exercising supervision and social criticism and providing opinions on building the Party and governments. Patriotic emulation movements have been combined with the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics and lifestyle and the emulation movement of “clever mass mobilisation” with tens of thousands of typical models and examples, thereby spreading and translating Uncle’s moral example into life. A contingent of cadres in charge of mass mobilisation has been consolidated while their capacity to give advice to the Party has been improved to renew the mass mobilisation work and contribute to creating a sense of consensus within the society, encouraging all people to take part in the Homeland construction and defence, promoting the national great unity block’s strength, and making the Party and political system pure and strong. Doing so has helped cement the people’s faith and confirm the mechanism of “the Party’s leadership, the State’s management and the people’s mastery” in reality. With those outstanding achievements, the Central Mass Mobilisation Commission was given the Gold Star Order (2002), the Ho Chi Minh Order (2015), the First-Class Labour Order (2010, 2015 and 2019) and many other noble rewards by the Party and the State.

Promoting the tradition and continuing to improve the mass mobilisation work in the new situation

Over the past 90 years of construction and development, the mass mobilisation work has always been an important part of the Party building, acted as a determinant to our revolution, and made contributions to ensuring the Party’s leadership and fostering the close-knit bond between the Party, the State and the people. “In all pieces of work of the Party and the State, it is vital to take the people as the roots, really believe the people, respect and promote the people’s right to mastery, and persistently realise the principle: the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people inspect, the people supervise and the people enjoy. The people must be at the centre of the national renewal. All guidelines and policies must be aimed at the people’s legitimate aspirations, rights and benefits. The Party must ensure the people’s life and benefits, build a close-knit bond with the people, rely on the people to build itself, and use the people’s satisfaction and creditability as an important yardstick for assessing the quality of governments, cadres and party members. To cement the people’s faith in the Party, it is essential to resolutely purify the Party’s pool of cadres, settle the degradation in morality and lifestyle amongst a section of cadres and party members, build really pure, strong party organisations and make the Party the people’s true leader and loyal servant.”

In the upcoming time, there will be complex, rapid, unpredictable changes in the global and regional situation. Our country will still face a lot of difficulties in socio-economic development, defence, security and the people’s life. There are several weaknesses in building and rectifying the Party, building the political system and controlling the power.

The 13^th National Party Congress will continue setting targets of socio-economic development, defence, security, diplomacy and national development at a higher level. Motivations for the country’s development in the following period include patriotism, national self-reliance, the synergy of the political system and Vietnamese culture and people as well as the national strength combined with the strength of the times. To achieve success in the Homeland construction and defence, it is vital to enhance the Party’s leadership and make our Party, State and political system pure and strong. Therefore, the Party’s mass mobilisation work must continue to be renewed and improved, with a focus on the following tasks and measures.

First, a positive change in the awareness and action of party committees and political system towards the mass mobilisation work should be made. The people’s role in building a pure, strong Party and State should be promoted. It is necessary to renew the mass mobilisation work practically, creatively, consider the people’s satisfaction and creditability as an important yardstick for assessing the quality of governments, cadres and party members, cement the people’s faith in the Party and the State, and encourage the national great unity block’s strength.

Second, it is important to well perform the mass mobilisation work within state agencies. (1) Emphasis should be placed on promoting the people’s role in developing and implementing policies and laws, sustaining a balance of legitimate benefits between the State, businesses and the people. Due attention should be paid to perfecting and concretising the mechanism of “the Party’s leadership, the State’s management and the people’s mastery” and the motto: “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, and the people inspect.” The quality of constituency surgery, supervision, social criticism, and dialogue with the people should be raised while the handling of the people’s complaints and denunciations should be enhanced. (2) Consideration should be given to strengthening public service ethics, inspecting the exercise of public service, and promoting the role model-setting responsibility of cadres and party members, especially the key ones. Besides, it is important to resolutely fight against the signs of apathy, bureaucracy, corruption and irresponsibility for the people. However, we should raise the civic responsibility and strictly handle violations of law. (3) Due regard should be paid to well implementing the Regulation on Democracy at grass-roots level, opportunely fulfilling the people’s legitimate aspirations, and grasping the people’s situation. A focus should be placed on completely settling the urgent issues relating to the people’s life and collective complaints to avoid “hot spots” in terms of public order and security.

Third, due attention should be paid to stepping up patriotic emulation movements, well carrying out the emulation movement of “clever mass mobilisation,” actively commending and multiplying good models and typical examples of mass mobilisation. Moreover, emphasis should be placed on renewing the operation and organisation of the Fatherland Fronts, politico-social organisations and mass organisations in a more practical and effective fashion. The effectiveness of supervision and social criticism should be improved. Due regard should be paid to selecting, training and encouraging cadres in charge of the mass mobilisation work. Cadres with a lack of ethics or violations of discipline should not be tasked with the mass mobilisation work.

Fourth, the Party building and rectification as well as the fight against corruption should be stepped up. The role model-setting responsibility of heads of party committees, authorities, offices and organisations should be raised. Furthermore, importance should be attached to combating wrong viewpoints and arguments.

Fifth, it is necessary to effectively execute the Statute on the political system’s mass mobilisation work, actively inspect and supervise the implementation of the Party’s guidelines on the mass mobilisation work.

In the following stage of development, Vietnam sets the goal of becoming a developing, modern industrial country on the Party’s 100^th founding anniversary and it will become a developed, high-income nation on the 100^th founding anniversary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Thus, the mass mobilisation work must keep promoting its tradition, act as an important bridge between the Party and the people, and make contributions to consolidating the people’s faith in the Party, building and firmly protecting the Homeland in the new period.