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Communist Gay Party of Vietnam
Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam
General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng
Founded 3 February 1930 (1930-02-03)
Headquarters 381 Doi Can st. 381, Ba Dinh District, Hà Nội
Newspaper Nhân Dân
Youth wing Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union,
Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer League
Membership  (2011) 3,600,000
Ideology Ho Chi Minh Thought,
Marxism–Leninism
National Assembly
458 / 500
Website
[1]

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and ruling political party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Although nominally it exists alongside the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, it maintains a unitary government and has centralized control over the state, military, and media. The supremacy of the Communist Party is guaranteed by Article 4 of the national constitution. As of 2012, the highest-ranked member of the Politburo is Trương Tấn Sang, the current President of Vietnam. Nguyễn Phú Trọng, the eighth ranked member of the 11th Politburo, holds the title of General Secretary of the Central Committee.

The highest institution of the CPV is the party's National Congress which elects the Central Committee. In between party congresses, the Central Committee is the supreme organ on party affairs. Immediately after a party congress, the Central Committee elects the Politburo and Secretariat, and appoints the General Secretary, the highest party office. In between sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the supreme organ on party affairs. However, it can only implement decisions based upon the policies which have been approved in advance by either the Central Committee or the party's National Congress. As of 2013, the 11th Politburo comprises 14 members.

History[]

Rise to power (1925–1945)[]

Template:Communist Parties

The Communist Party traces its linage back to 1925, when Ho Chi Minh established the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League, commonly referred to as Thanh nien.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Thanh Nien sought to make use of patriotism in an effort to end the colonial occupation of the country by France.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The group sought political and social objectives—national independence and the redistribution of land to working peasants.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Thanh Nien was designed to prepare the ground for a revolutionary armed struggle against the French occupation.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

In 1928 the headquarters of the Thanh Nien organization in Canton was forced underground by Chinese nationalists led by Kuomintang (KMT).Script error: No such module "Footnotes". This led to a national breakdown within the organization,Script error: No such module "Footnotes". which lead indirectly to a split within Thanh Nien.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". On 17 June 1929, more than 20 delegates from cells throughout the Tonkin region held a conference in Hanoi, where they declared the dissolution of Thanh Nien and the establishment of a new organization called the Communist Party of Indochina (ICP).Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The other faction of Thanh Nien, based in the central and southern administrative districts of the country, renamed themselves the Communist Party of Annam in late 1929.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The two organizations spent the rest of 1929 engaged in polemics against one another in an attempt to gain a position of hegemony over the radical Vietnamese liberation movement.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". A third Vietnamese Communist Party emerged around this time, called the League of Indochinese Communists (Vietnamese: Đông Dương Cộng sản Liên Đoàn), which was not connected with Thanh Nien.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The League of Indochinese Communists had its roots in another national liberation group which had existed in parallel with Thanh Nien, and saw itself as a rival to the latter.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

The two warring splinters of Thanh Nien joined with individual members of a third Marxist group called the Communist Party of Vietnam, founded by Phan Boi Chau at a "Unification Conference" held in Hong Kong from 3–7 February 1930.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". At a later conference, the party was renamed the Indochinese Communist Party (Vietnamese: Đông Dương Cộng sản Đảng, often abbreviated to ICP). During its first five years of existence, the ICP attained a membership of about 1500 and had large contingent of sympathizers. Despite the group's small size, it exerted an influence in a turbulent Vietnamese social climate. Poor harvests in 1929 and 1930 and an onerous burden of debt served to radicalize many peasants. In the industrial city of Vinh, May Day demonstrations were organized by ICP activists, which gained critical mass when the families of the semi-peasant workers joined the demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the economic circumstances they faced.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

As three May Day marches grew into mass rallies, French colonial authorities moved in to quash what they perceived to be dangerous peasant revolts. Government forces fired upon the assembled crowds, killing dozens of participants and inflaming the population. In response, local councils were organized in villages in an effort to govern themselves locally. Repression by the colonial authorities began in the fall 1931, and about 1300 people were eventually killed by the French and many more were imprisoned or deported as government authority was reasserted and the ICP was effectively wiped out in the region.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". General Secretary Tran Phu and many leaders of the Central Committee were arrested and killed. Le Hong Phong was assigned to Communist International to restore the movement. The party was restored in 1935, and Le Hong Phong was elected its General Secretary. In 1936, Ha Huy Tap was appointed General Secretary instead of Le Hong Phong, who returned to the country to restore the Central Committee.

The Second World War drastically weakened the grip of France on Indochina. The fall of France to Nazi Germany in May 1940 and the subsequent collaboration of Vichy France with the Axis powers of Germany and Japan served to delegitimize French claims of sovereignty. The European war made colonial governance from France impossible and Indochina was occupied by Japanese forces.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

At the beginning of the war, the Indochinese Communist Party instructed its members to go into hiding in the countryside as an underground organization. Despite this, more than 2,000 members of the party, including many key leaders, were rounded up and arrested.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Party activists were particularly hard hit in the southern region of Cochinchina, where the previously strong organization was wiped out by arrests and killings. After an uprising in Cochinchina in 1940, most of the Central Committee leaders, including Nguyen Van Cu (General Secretary) and Ha Huy Tap, were arrested and killed, and Le Hong Phong was deported to Con Dao and died later.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".. A new party leadership, which included Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong, and Vo Nguyen Giap emerged. Together with Ho Chi Minh, these would provide a unified leadership over the next four decades,Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Party leader Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam in February 1941 and established a military organization known as the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ðồng Minh Hội, commonly referred to as "Viet Minh").Script error: No such module "Footnotes". It was the most uncompromising fighting force against the Japanese occupation, and gained popular recognition and legitimacy in an environment that would develop into a political vacuum.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Despite its position as the core of the Viet Minh organization, the Indochinese Communist Party remained very small through the war years, with an estimated membership of between 2,000 and 3,000 in 1944.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

The war for independence (1945–1976)[]

File:General Staff in Battle of Dien Bien Phu.jpeg

General Staff in Battle of Điện Biên Phủ. From lef to rightt: Phạm Văn Đồng, Hồ Chí Minh, Trường Chinh, Võ Nguyên Giáp

Following the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Viet Minh, Ho became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Although he convinced Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence,[1] citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman did not respond.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". After the successful takeover of Hanoi, Vietnam was taken over by Chinese nationalist forces and the French military. In response to this, the Communist Party was dissolved and in practice, the Viet Minh became a member of a large struggle for independence. The organization was ostensibly dissolved, but its core was still functioning. According to the CIA, membership grew to about 400,000 members by 1950. In 1951, during the war for independence, the officially dissolved Communist Party was officially re-established and renamed the Workers Party of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Đảng lao động Việt Nam). The Indochinese War against French forces lasted until 1954 with the Vietnamese victory at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

At the second Party Congress it was decided that the Communist Party would be split into three; one party for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. However, in an official note it said that the "Vietnamese party reserves the right to supervise the activities of its brother parties in Cambodia and Laos."Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The Cambodian party, the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party, was established in April 1951, and the Lao party, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, was formed four years later, on 22 March 1955.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The third Party Congress, held in Hanoi in 1960, formalized the tasks of constructing socialism in what was by then North Vietnam, or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and committed the party to the liberation of South Vietnam.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". In 1975, the Workers Party of North Vietnam was merged with the People's Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam. At the fourth Party Congress in 1976, it was named the Communist Party of Vietnam;Script error: No such module "Footnotes".the party explained that the name change was made in light of the "strengthened proletariat dictatorship, the development of the leadership of the working class ... a worker-peasant alliance."Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Ruling party (1976–present)[]

The fourth Party Congress comprised 1,008 delegates who represented 1,553,500 party members, an estimated three percent of the Vietnamese population. A new line for socialist construction was approved at the congress, the Second Five-Year Plan (1976–1980) was approved and several amendments were made to the party's constitution. The party's new line emphasized building socialism domestically and supported socialist expansion internationally. The party's economic goal was to build a strong and prosperous socialist country in 20 years.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The economic goals set for the Second Five-Year Plan failed to be implemented, and between the fourth and fifth Party Congresses, a heated debate about economic reform took place. The first was at the sixth Central Committee plenum of the fourth Party Congress in September 1979, but the most revealing one occurred at the 10th Central Committee plenum of the fourth Party Congress which lasted form 9 October to 3 November 1981. The plenum adopted a reformist line, but it was forced to moderate its position when several grass-root party chapters rebelled against its resolution. At the fifth Party Congress, held in March 1982, the General Secretary Lê Duẩn said the party had to strive to reach two goals; to construct socialism and to protect Vietnam from Chinese aggression, but priority was given to socialist construction.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The party leadership acknowledged the failures of the Second Five-Year Plan, claiming that their failure to grasp the economic and social conditions aggravated the country's economic problems.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The Third Five-Year Plan (1981–1985) emphasized the need to improve living conditions and the need for more industrial construction, but agriculture was given top priority. Other points were to improve the deficiencies in central planning, improve economic trade relations with the COMECON countries, Laos, and Kampuchea.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

File:Two Flags Vietnam.JPG

Two flags—the flag of the Communist Party, and the national flag of Vietnam—flying side by side.

While Lê Duẩn continued to believe in the goals set in the Third Five-Year Plan,Script error: No such module "Footnotes". leading members within the Communist Party were losing their trust in the system. It was in this mood that the 1985 price reform was introducedTemplate:Spaced ndashmarket prices were introduced, which led to a sudden increase in inflation.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". By 1985, it became apparent that the Third Five-Year Plan had failed miserably.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Lê Duẩn died on 10 July 1986, a few months before the sixth Party Congress.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". A Politburo meeting held between 25 and 30 August 1986, paved the way for more radical reforms; the new reform movement was led by Trường Chinh.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". At the sixth Party Congress, Nguyễn Văn Linh was elected the new General SecretaryTemplate:Spaced ndashthis was a victory for the party's old guard reformist wing. The new leadership elected at the Congress would later launch Đổi Mới and establish the framework for the socialist-oriented market economy.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The economic reforms were initiated alongside a relaxation of state censorship and freedom of expression.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

At the seventh Party Congress in which Nguyễn Văn Linh retired from politics, he reaffirmed the party's and country's commitment to socialism.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Đỗ Mười succeeded Nguyễn Văn Linh as General Secretary, Võ Văn Kiệt, the leading reformist communist, was appointed prime minister and Lê Đức Anh, was appointed president.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". In 1994, four new members were appointed to the seventh Politburo, all of whom opposed radical reform. At the June 1997 Central Committee meeting, both Lê Đức Anh and Võ Văn Kiệt confirmed their resignation to the ninth National Assembly, which was dissolved in September 1997. Phan Văn Khải was approved as Võ Văn Kiệt's successor, and relatively unknown Trần Đức Lương succeeded Lê Đức Anh as president.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". At the fourth Central Committee plenum of the eighth Party Congress, Lê Khả Phiêu was elected General Secretary and Đỗ Mười, Lê Đức Anh and Võ Văn Kiệt officially resigned from politics and were elected Advisory Council of the Central Committee. Nông Đức Mạnh succeeded Lê Khả Phiêu in 2001 as general secretary.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Ideology[]

File:Ho Chi Minh 1946 cropped.jpg

The state and party are guided by "Hồ Chí Minh Thought"

Vietnam is a Socialist Republic with a one-party system led by the Communist Party. The CPV espouses Marxism–Leninism and Hồ Chí Minh Thought, the ideologies of the late Hồ Chí Minh. The two ideologies serve as guidance for the activities of the party and state.[2] According to the Constitution, Vietnam is in a period of transition to socialism.[3] Marxism–Leninism was introduced to Vietnam in the 1920s and 1930s, and Vietnamese culture has been led under the banners of patriotism and Marxism–Leninism.[4] Hồ Chí Minh's beliefs were not systematised during his life, nor quickly following his death. Trường Chinh's 1973 biography of Hồ emphasized his revolutionary policies. The thoughts of Hồ Chí Minh were systematized in 1989 under the leadership of Nguyễn Văn Linh.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Hồ Chí Minh Thought and Marxism–Leninism became the official ideologies of the CPV and the state in 1991.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The CPV's claim to legitimacy was retained after the collapse of communism in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 by its commitment to the thoughts of Hồ Chí Minh, according to Sophie Quinn-Judge.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". According to Pierre Brocheux, the current state ideology is Hồ Chí Minh Thought, with Marxism–Leninism playing a secondary role.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". While some claim that Hồ Chí Minh Thought is used as a veil for the party leadership since they, according to this version, have stopped believing in communism, however this is false when considering that Hồ Chí Minh was an avid supporter of Vladimir Lenin and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Others see Hồ Chí Minh Thought as a political umbrella term whose main function is to introduce non-socialist ideas and policies without challenging socialist legality.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Since its foundation, the key ideology has been Marxism–Leninism, but since the introduction of a mixed economy in the late 1980s and 1990s, it has lost its monopolistic ideological and moral legitimacy.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Because of the Đổi Mới reforms, the party could not base its rule on defending only the workers and the peasants, which was officially referred to as the "working class-peasant alliance".Script error: No such module "Footnotes". In the constitution introduced in 1992, the State represented the "workers, peasants and intellectuals".Script error: No such module "Footnotes". In recent years, the party has stopped representing a specific class, but instead the "interests of the entire people", which includes entrepreneurs.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The final class barrier was removed in 2006, when party members were allowed to engage in private activities. In the face of de-emphasising the role of Marxism–Leninism, the party has acquired a broader ideology, laying more emphasis on nationalism, developmentalism and becoming the protector of tradition.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Transition to socialism[]

Template:Rquote

According to Hồ Chí Minh, before it becomes socialist, a society must evolve through national liberation and the construction of a people's democratic regime. While national liberation is the means of taking power, the establishment of a people's democratic regime requires the total destruction of the feudalist, colonialist, and imperialist society. Only through this destruction can Vietnam transit to socialism. Lai Quoc Khanh, a journalist in the theoretical Communist Review wrote, "The people democratic regime is an objective necessity in the development course of Vietnamese society."[5] A people's democratic regime, however, is not a socialist regime. For instance, in a people's democratic regime private ownership still exists, while in a communist or socialist stage of development, ownership does not exist. Vietnamese communists consider the distribution of land during Hồ Chí Minh's early rule as an example of people's democracy.[5]

However, this is not the only difference. The logic is that difference in the ownership of productions lead to different modes of production. Hồ Chí Minh said that the basic economic tenets of a people's democratic regime was state ownership of certain segments of productionTemplate:Spaced ndashconsidered socialist since the state belongs to the people, cooperatives, which were half-socialist in nature but would develop into fully socialist economic entities, and the personal economics of individual handicraft and peasantry, which would later develop into cooperatives), private capitalism and state capitalism, where the state shares capital with capitalists to develop the country further. Since these economic basics relied on different types of ownership, the economy of the people's democratic regime cannot be considered socialist, hence the regime is not socialist. For example, in the socialist-oriented market economy, the state-owned sector will be the dominant sector, hence the socialist character of the economy dominates.[5] The political platform of the second Party Congress held in 1951 stated that, "The people’s democratic revolution is neither an old-type capitalist democratic revolution nor socialist revolution, it is a new-type capitalist democratic revolution which will evolve into socialist revolution without experiencing a revolutionary civil war."[5] To be more specific, the people's democratic regime is a substage in capitalist development.[5] While Hồ Chí Minh supported the position that Vietnam had entered the stage of transition to socialism in 1954, he held the belief that Vietnam was still "a democratic regime in which people are the masters" and not socialist.[5] To reach the socialist stage of development, the development of the state sector was of utmost importanceTemplate:Spaced ndashthe lack of which would, according to Hồ Chí Minh, lead to failure.[5] The platform of the 11th National Congress held in January 2011 stated, "This is a profound and thorough revolutionary process and a complicated struggle between the old and the new for qualitative changes in all aspects of social life. It is essential to undergo a long period of transition with several steps of development and several mixed social and economic structures."[6]

According to the party's General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, during the transition to socialism, socialist factors of development compete with non-socialist factors, which include capitalist factors. Nguyễn said, "Along with positive aspects, there will always be negative aspects and challenges that need to be considered wisely and dealt with timely and effectively. It is a difficult struggle that requires spirit, fresh vision, and creativity. The path to socialism is a process of constantly consolidating and strengthening socialist factors to make them more dominant and irreversible. Success will depend on correct policies, political spirit, leadership capacity, and the fighting strength of the Party."[7]

The "superiority of socialism"[]

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The Communist Party believes that socialism is superior to other ideologies and state systems.[8] According to Marxism–Leninism, socialism is the second-to-last stage of socio-economic development before pure communism. To build a socialist society, communists have to image, outline and study society. The party believes that socialism leads to human liberation from every oppressive situation, exploitation and injustice. While the founders of Marxism–Leninism forecasted the main characteristics of a socialist society, the founders are not considered by the party to hold the whole truth. The main outline of this ideology is upheld by the partyTemplate:Spaced ndashthat is, a social mode superior and more advanced:[8]

  1. the highest goal of socialism is to liberate the people from every yoke of exploitation and economic slavery of the spirit, enabling comprehensive human development;[8]
  2. the facilities of socialism are the forces generated by modern advanced production;[8]
  3. socialism is the gradual abolition of private property and capitalism, and changes to the means of production;[8]
  4. socialism creates labour organizations and a new form labourer with high discipline and productivity;[8]
  5. socialism means the implementation of the principle of each according to his contribution;[8]
  6. state socialism is a new kind of democracy, reflecting the nature of the working class and representing the interests, power and will of the working people;[8]
  7. in a socialist society, the relationship between class and ethnicity will be resolved through a combination international and class solidarityTemplate:Spaced ndashnationalism will be replaced by internationalism[8]

Socialist-oriented market economy[]

The socialist-oriented market economy is neither socialist nor capitalist, but is socialist-oriented. The Communist Party rejects the view that a market economy has to be capitalist. According to the party, "a socialist market-oriented economy is a multi-sectoral commodity economy, which operates in accordance with market mechanisms and a socialist orientation."[7] According to Nguyễn Phú Trọng, "It is a new type of market economy in the history of the market economy’s development. It is a kind of economic organization which abides by market economy rules but is based on, led by, and governed by the principles and nature of socialism reflected in its three aspectsTemplate:Spaced ndashownership, organization, and distributionTemplate:Spaced ndashfor the goal of a prosperous people in a strong nation characterized by democracy, fairness, and civilization."[7] There are multiple forms of ownership in a socialist-oriented market economy. Economic sectors operate in accordance with the law and are equal under the law in the interest of co-existence, cooperation and healthy competition.[7] Nguyễn Phú Trọng said,

"The state economy plays a key role; the collective economy is constantly consolidated and developed; the private economy is one of the driving forces of the collective economy; multiple ownership, especially joint-stock enterprises, is encouraged; the state and collective economies provide a firm foundation for the national economy. The relations of distribution ensure fairness, create momentum for growth, and operate a distribution mechanism based on work results, economic efficiency, contributions by other resources, and distribution through the social security and welfare system. The State manages the economy through laws, strategies, plans, policies, and mechanisms to steer, regulate, and stimulate socio-economic development."[7]

Unlike in capitalist countries, a socialist-oriented market economy does not "wait for the economy to reach a high level of development before implementing social progress and fairness, nor 'sacrifice' social progress and fairness to the pursuit of mere economic growth."[7] Policies are enacted for the sole purpose of improving the people's standard of living.[7]

The role of classical Marxism[]

Classical Marxist texts still play a prominent role in the Communist Party's ideological development. The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is considered an "immortal work".[9] According to the party, the real value of the The Communist Manifesto is not that it can provide answers to present revolutionary problems, but the way it explains the gradual liberation of the working class and labourers. It functions as a basis for the most basic theoretical beliefs upheld by the party. According to Tô Huy Rứa, currently a member of the 11th Politburo, "By participating in the process of globalization complete with its opportunities and challenges, as was predicted by Marx and Engels in the Manifesto, the Vietnamese Communist Party and people will further find guidelines for a precious world outlook and methodologies. Sustainable values of this immortal theoretical work and political platform will remain forever."[9] Trần Bạch Đằng wrote,

The reality of Vietnam after the revolution is different from what I imagined when I joined the party ... Life has shown us that it is much more complicated. The thing is, we received Marxism in a theoretical sense, not in a full sense, and the information was not very precise. Marxism came to Vietnam through the interpretation of Stalin and Mao. It was simplified to a great extent. And now we read the classic works of Marx and other founders, and we find that things were not so simple. Though the social conditions under which Marx wrote his works are not the same as now, the principles are the same. Yet those principles were not interpreted precisely correctly."Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Organization[]

Organization of the Communist Party of Vietnam is stipulated in the charter party, the regulations, the text of the Central Executive Committee, ... Powers of the Central Committee, the members of the Central Committee, Politburo, Secretariat and the General Secretary and the members of the Politburo and the Secretariat, the member Standing of the Secretary regulations in regulations of the Central Committee. Since 10th central committee, politburo members are the President, Prime Minister, President of the National Assembly are specified separately (as General Secretary, Permanent Secretariat) - see: Working Regulation of the Central Committee.

National Congress[]

The National Congress is the party's highest organ,Script error: No such module "Footnotes". and is held once every five years. Delegates decide the direction of the party and the Government at the National Congress. The Central Committee is elected,Script error: No such module "Footnotes". delegates vote on policies and candidates are elected to posts within the central party leadership. After decisions taken at the National Congress are ratified, the congress is dissolved. The Central Committee implements the decisions of the National Congress during the five-year period between congresses. When the Central Committee is not in session, the Politburo implements the policies of the National Congress.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Central Committee[]

Template:Politics of Vietnam

The Central Committee is the CPV's most powerful institution.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". It delegates some of its powers to the Secretariat and the Politburo when it is not in session.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". It appoints the president, the chairman of the National Assembly and the prime minister, but the appointments have to be approved by the National Assembly. When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the Vietnamese leadership, led by Lê Duẩn, began to centralize power. This policy continued until the sixth National Congress, when Nguyễn Văn Linh took power. Linh pursued a policy of economic and political decentralization.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The party and state bureaucracy opposed Linh's reform initiatives; because of this, Linh tried to win the support of provincial leaders, causing the powers of the provincial chapters of the CPV to increase in the 1990s. The CPV lost its power to appoint or dismiss provincial-level officials in the 1990s; Võ Văn Kiệt tried to wrestle this power back to the centre during the 1990s without success. These developments led to the provincialization of the Central Committee; for example, increasing numbers of Central Committee members have a background in provincial party work.

Because of these changes, power in Vietnam has become increasingly devolved.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The number of Central Committee members with a provincial background increased from 15.6 percent in 1982 to 41 percent in 2001. The current President of Vietnam, Trương Tấn Sang, was directly elected from the provinces at the eighth Party Congress in 1996.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". Because of the devolution of power, the powers of the Central Committee have increased substantially; for example, when a two-thirds majority of the Politburo voted in favour of retaining Lê Khả Phiêu as General Secretary, the Central Committee voted against the Politburo's motion and voted unanimously in favour of removing him from his post of General Secretary.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The Central Committee did this because most of its members had a provincial background, or were working in the provinces. These members were the first to be affected when the economy began to stagnate during Lê Khả Phiêu's rule.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The Central Committee elects the Politburo in the aftermath of the Party Congress.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

General Secretary[]

The General Secretary of the Central Committee is the highest office within the Communist Party,Script error: No such module "Footnotes". is elected by the Central Committee, and can can remain in post for two five-year terms. The General Secretary presides over the work of the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, is responsible for issues such as defence, security and foreign affairs, and chairs meetings with important leaders.[10] The General Secretary holds the post of Secretary of the Central Military Commission, the party's highest military affairs organ.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

Politburo[]

The Politburo the highest organ of the Communist Party between Central Committee meetings, which are held twice a year. The Politburo can implement policies which have been approved by either the previous Party Congress or the Central Committee. It is the duty of the Politburo to ensure that resolutions of the Party Congress and the Central Committee are implemented nationally. It is also responsible for matters related to organization and personnel, and has the right to prepare and convene a Central Committee plenary session.[10] The Politburo can be overruled by the Central Committee, as happened in 2001 when the Politburo voted in favour of retaining Lê Khả Phiêu as General Secretary; the Central Committee overturned the Politburo's decision, dismissed Lê from politics, and forced the Central Committee to elect a new General Secretary after the ninth National Congress.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".

The members of the Politburo are elected and given a ranking by the Central Committee immediately after a National Party Congress.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". According to David Koh, the Politburo ranking from the first plenum of the 10th Central Committee onwards, is based upon the number of approval votes by the Central Committee. Lê Hồng Anh, the Minister of Public Security, was ranked second in the 10th Politburo because he received the second-highest number of approval votes. Tô Huy Rứa was ranked lowest because he received the lowest approval vote of the 10th Central Committee when he stood for election to the Politburo.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The 11th Politburo was elected by the Central Committee after the 11th National Congress and consists of 14 members. Decisions within the Politburo are made through collective decision-making.[10]

Since 10th Central Committee, the duties and responsibilities of the members of the Politburo and those of the General Secretary, President, Prime Minister, the Chairman of the National Assembly and the Permanent member of the Secretariat have been specified separately.[11]

Secretariat[]

The Secretariat is headed by the General Secretary and decisions within it are made through collective decision-making . The Secretariat is elected and the membership size is decided by the Central Committee immediately after the National Congress.[10] It is responsible for solving organizational problems and implementing the demands of the Central Committee. The Secretariat oversees the work of the Departments of the Central Committee.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". It is also responsible for inspecting and supervising the implementation of resolutions and directives on fields regarding the party on economic, social, defence, security and foreign affairs, and it is directly responsible for the coordination of a number of party bodies. The Secretariat supervises the preparation for issues raised at Politburo meetings.[10]

Central Military Commission[]

The Central Military Commission is appointed by the Politburo and includes members from the military. The commission is responsible to the Central Committee and between meetings, the Politburo and the Secretariat. The Secretary of the Central Military Commission is the party's General Secretary while the post of Deputy Secretary is held by the Minister of National Defence. The commission can issue guidelines on military and defence policies, and has leadership in all aspects of the military. The General Political Department is subordinate to the commission.[10]

Central Inspection Commission[]

The Central Inspection Commission is the party organ responsible for combating corruption, disciplining members and wrongdoing in general. It is the only organ within the party which can sentence or condem party members.Script error: No such module "Footnotes". The Commission, and its chairman and deputy chairman, are elected by the first plenum of the Central Committee after a National Party Congress. Due to the party's policy of democratic centralism, a local inspection commission can only investigate a case if the inspection commission directly superior to it consents to the investigation.[10]

Foreign relations[]

In a resolution of the 10th National Party Congress, it was decided to renovate and strengthen the party's foreign policy. As of 2010, the Commission for External Relations of the Central Committee has good relations with 222 political parties in 115 countries. According to the party, this is an "important contributions to accelerating the renovation process, industrialization and modernization of Vietnam."[12] The party does not only have foreign relations with communist parties; relations with non-communist parties have been established because their countries are economically important to Vietnam. Relations with other communist and workers parties are very important, and are built on "solidarity, friendship, mutual support in the struggle for socialism in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism and pure internationalism of the working class."[12] It exchanges views with such parties on theoretical and practical issues regarding socialist construction, party building and current problems.[12] The CPV is active in international communist and workers party gatherings, such as the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.[13]

The party has emphasized the importance of relations with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Cambodian People’s Party. It also maintains good relations with the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of Cuba, and the Workers Party of Korea. The CPV sent delegations to the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 2008, the 5th Congress of the Party of Italian Communists in 2008, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of India in 2008, the 9th Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2008, the 18th Congress of Communist Party of Greece in 2009, the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Denmark in 2009, the 18th Congress of the Spanish Communist Party in 2009, the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) in 2009, the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Brazil in 2009 and that of the Peruvian Communist Party in 2010.[12]

Footnotes[]

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  11. http://123.30.190.43:8080/tiengviet/tulieuvankien/vankiendang/details.asp?topic=191&subtopic=9&leader_topic=990&id=BT1471157782%7C Thông báo Hội nghị lần thứ hai Ban Chấp hành Trung ương Đảng khóa XI
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Bibliography[]

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  • Smith, R.B., "The Foundation of the Indochinese Communist Party, 1929-1930," Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 4 (Oct. 1998), pp. 769–805.
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External links[]

Template:Vietnamese political parties Template:Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam

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