Speech by Comrade Le Duan, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the V Congress of the Vietnam Trade Union

Dear comrades,

Dear distinguished guests,

Allow me, on behalf of the Party Central Committee, warmly welcome the V Congress of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.

I respectfully welcome delegates from the World Federation of Trade Unions and trade union delegates from other countries to attend this Congress, bringing us the solidarity of "all proletarians are brothers".

Over the past five years, our country's revolution has gone through a period of fierce struggle, overcoming new difficulties and challenges, and achieving great victories. I warmly commend the outstanding contributions of the working class and our country's laborers to that glorious cause.

Dear comrades,

Our country is facing a very vibrant revolutionary period. Our Party, the working class and the working people of our country are shouldering a great mission, successfully building socialism and firmly protecting the socialist Fatherland.

Grasping pro-proletarianism, promoting the collective mastery of the working people, conducting three revolutions simultaneously, taking socialist industrialization as the central task, that is the key that our Party and our working class must grasp to pave the way forward, solve all major problems posed by our country's revolution.

Collective mastery is the power to move mountains and fill seas. Previously, we defeated aggressive imperialist forces because our Party firmly grasped the pioneering ideology of the working class, had correct political and military guidelines, and mobilized the power of mastery of the whole country. In the anti-American resistance war, this power of mastery increased many times over because our Party knew how to arouse and promote the inherent community consciousness and traditions of the nation, combined with the strength of the era, the strength of the three revolutionary waterfalls of the world that are in an offensive position.

Today, along with those extremely important factors, our people will definitely successfully implement the two strategic tasks in the new period. With the strength of mastery, higher quality, with the reorganized labor force, with all land and material and technical facilities already in the hands of the people, we must solve and definitely successfully solve the task of bringing our country's economy from small-scale production to large-scale socialist production.

As a school of socialism and communism, the Trade Union has a great responsibility in the struggle to reform and build the economy and culture according to socialism, encouraging the collective mastery of workers and civil servants nationwide to exploit and use labor, resources, and technical facilities most rationally, to develop production, reorganize distribution and circulation, stabilize and gradually improve the lives of working people.

Socialist industrialization is the basic path to create the material - technical basis of socialism, improving social labor productivity. We focus a lot of effort on building new projects of key significance to change the face of the country's economy. However, never forget that, to industrialize, we must maximize labor productivity right in the existing material and technical conditions.

Productivity, quality, and efficiency must now become daily action slogans of us, of all industries, industry as well as agriculture, of all workers, workers as well as farmers.

Currently, our labor productivity is still too low. The capacity of equipment and machinery is only used more than half. Materials are lacking but use is still wasteful. Goods are not good. It is necessary to quickly overcome that situation. Only by achieving higher labor productivity, doing business with higher quality and efficiency can there be re-production and expansion, improved life, and initial accumulation for socialism.

On the industrial front, it is necessary to focus on improving the productivity, quality, and efficiency of key industries - coal, electricity, mechanics, transportation, basic construction... - to promote industries and other aspects to move more strongly.

Industry must effectively serve agriculture, promote agriculture to one step towards large-scale socialist production, creating a reasonable industry-agriculture structure right in this first stage. Industry must contribute to distributing and reorganizing labor nationwide, combining labor with land and industries, so that everyone has jobs, resources are well exploited, and products are produced more and more. The working class needs to see its full role in that urgent task.

To have high productivity, good quality, and high efficiency, the working class must grasp science and technology, master science and technology. It is necessary to constantly improve cultural level, professional level, and management capacity. It is necessary to make the working class have many skilled workers, many scientific and technical staff, and good management staff. The quality of production, of construction, and the efficiency of industry and economy are primarily determined by this team.

Workers must love labor, uphold labor discipline, and be representative of the new working style. That is the first standard of a new socialist person, a collective master. Working must be in accordance with regimes, procedures, and regulations, ensuring standards and norms. Overcoming the phenomena of laziness, disorganization, and arbitrariness in labor. Working carelessly, not enough days, not enough shifts, doing lies, and sloppy work is a crime against the class and the people.

Export is a spearhead that determines the pace of building socialism, promoting the improvement of social labor productivity in our country. It is necessary to find every way, by exporting and importing more and more new techniques, more materials and raw materials, to reequip the national economy, promote agriculture and industrial sectors to develop, create increasing export capacity and, through exports, improve our production level and product quality.

Speaking of economy is speaking of production and saving. Saving time, saving capital, materials, raw materials. Saving in production and in consumption, diligently saving to industrialize the country. Using rationally all material factors of production. Not letting an hour of labor be wasted. Not letting a tool, a machine lie still. Not letting a quintal of iron, a kilogram of oil be scattered. In the current difficulties, although materials and raw materials are still lacking, it is still possible and necessary to create more wealth for the Fatherland.

In recent years, in the socialist emulation movement, in some industries and some production and business establishments, good examples of effective and quality business have emerged. This affirms that it is possible to better exploit existing economic capacity. Each factory can quickly increase production and meet quality standards. Each construction site can ensure construction progress and complete construction ahead of schedule. Each production and business establishment can effectively use capital, end losses, and gradually accumulate for themselves and for the State. It is necessary to summarize those examples, replicate them, and promote the movement to learn to catch up with and overcome advanced examples widely in establishments, industries, and localities.

Comrades,

The issue that everyone of us is concerned about today is how to soon stabilize and gradually improve the material and cultural life of the people, first of all of workers, civil servants and armed forces. In this regard, we have made many efforts. But the results achieved are still few; many things have shortcomings that need to be rectified.

It is necessary to solve the problem in a fundamental way. It is necessary to go from the root of promoting production. It is necessary to rearrange the national economy, reorganize production in each industry, each locality, and each establishment. At the same time, it is necessary to organize good distribution and circulation. It is necessary to synchronously solve commercial and financial issues, prices, wages, bonuses, market reform and management, properly resolve the relationship between accumulation and consumption, and properly implement the principle of labor-based distribution. These are the top issues in our socio-economic plan. In the coming years, the Party and the State will definitely implement necessary reforms in this important field.

The struggle to restore socialist order on the distribution and circulation front today is a central expression of the struggle between the two paths of socialism and capitalism associated with the struggle of our people against the enemy's multifaceted destructive war. This struggle must definitely lead to the victory of the working class and collective farmers over the bourgeoisie, over spontaneous forces and enemies of socialism. The stance of the working class is to fight together with its State for that victory.

It is necessary to promote the collective ownership of the working people to manage the economy, distribute and circulate, ensuring that the State controls the market, grasps goods, grasps money and distributes fairly and reasonably for the needs of society. In each production and business unit, workers and civil servants must fight to ensure that the discipline of handing over products to the State is fully implemented, so that materials and goods do not fall into the hands of private traders.

Trade union organizations, especially Trade Unions in distribution and circulation industries, must be the ones to resolutely fight against corruption, wastefulness, bribery, and speculation and smuggling, strive to maintain market and price discipline, strengthen financial and monetary activities, and serve production and life well. In particular, commercial enterprises need to meet the needs of goods that must be supplied in quantity and perform well the function of housewives of the whole society.

Rectifying distribution throughout society as well as in each production unit is an important content of improving economic management and building new management mechanisms.

Our Party has identified the basic principles of the management mechanism as: Taking planning as the center, linking planning with economic accounting and socialist business. In accordance with the principle of democratic centralism, implementing financial autonomy for grassroots levels, expanding the initiative for localities, and at the same time ensuring that the State unifiedly manages the entire national economy, concentrates accumulated resources to build works of the whole country, and grasps the vast majority of strategic products for distribution according to plan.

That management mechanism ensures collective ownership at three basic levels: Central, local and grassroots; properly resolves the relationship between three interests, always ensuring the highest interests are the interests of the whole society, properly caring for the interests of the collective, and strongly encouraging the legitimate interests of workers.

That management mechanism resolutely opposes bureaucratic subsidies, does not pay attention to economic laws, does not care about economic efficiency, does not ignite the creativity of the masses, does not promote potentials, does not encourage the dynamism of localities and grassroots levels. That management mechanism also follows the "free" market, widely expanding unplanned business, nourishing capitalist and neo-socialist factors, eroding the base of the plan, weakening the battlefield of socialism.

More than anyone else, Trade Union organizations and workers and civil servants must fight to implement that correct management mechanism.

Comrades,

In these days, the whole world has clearly seen the belligerent and reckless face of the Riyadh government. They stubbornly promote the placement of medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. They invade and occupy Granada, promote armed intervention in Nicaragua and Salvador, causing an extremely dangerous situation in Central America and the Caribbean Sea. They use Israel as a tool for war and aggression, blatantly sending troops into Lebanon, exacerbating the situation in the Middle East. They are aggressively strengthening the Japan-US-South Korea alliance.

That situation makes nations more awake and vigilant in the face of the increasing risk of a new world war.

Peace and human life must be protected.

National independence and struggle for national sovereignty must be protected.

The Soviet Union was a stronghold of world peace and revolution. We reaffirm once again that we fully support the consistent peace policy of the Soviet Union, strongly support the statements on September 28 and October 27 of Comrade Iu. V. Andripov. We agree with the resolute retaliatory measures that the Soviet Union is implementing together with the German Democratic Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Federal Republic.

The US imperialists had to withdraw from Granada and withdraw troops from Lebanon. Along with socialist countries and non-aligned countries, Vietnam resolutely stood side by side with Cuba, Nicaragua, alongside the people of El Salvador, the people of Arabia, and Palestine.

Solidarity with Cambodia and Laos, we resolutely fight for a peaceful, friendly and cooperative Southeast Asia.

Dear comrades,

Beloved Uncle Ho and our Party, right from its establishment, have always taken care of and closely led the workers' movement and trade union activities.

Fighting under the banner of the Communist Party of Vietnam, a party absolutely loyal to Marxism-Leninism, proletarian internationalism, the Vietnamese working class should always be worthy of being a pioneering class, typical of national independence and socialism. The Vietnam Trade Union should enthusiastically move forward, acting as a solid pillar of the socialist collective mastery regime.

Revolution is a festival of the masses, a source of our happiness.

Trade union organizations, please strongly advance into the three revolutions, stir up a vibrant and heroic socialist emulation movement. Hanoi Capital, Ho Chi Minh City, mining areas, and industrial centers must take the lead in that emulation movement.

The Vietnamese working class is a resilient team of the international workers' movement. The Vietnam Trade Union is an active member of the World Federation of Trade Unions. We will definitely join our brothers and sisters, befriend all five continents, and fight for victory for peace, national independence and socialism!

Wishing your Congress success!

Excerpt from the book "Vietnamese Trade Union from the 1st to the 10th Congress" by Lao Dong Publishing House.