Umsebensi Online, Vol. 20, No. 02, 10 February 2020: What kind of post-Covid pandemic recovery? | The Communist Party of Viet Nam's remarkable role
SACP Media & Communications
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Voice of the South African Working Class Volume 20, No. 02, 10 February 2021 |
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What kind of post-Covid pandemic recovery? Unpacking the World Economic Forum’s Reset 2021 report. |
Ashraf Patel
The global Covid-19 pandemic crisis is the gravest global disaster of modern times. The hyper globalisation of the past three decades witnessed multiple interconnectedness of global-regional-national-local value chains, enabled by the internet digital economy, offshoring, outsourcing, rapid urbanisation and a borderless world of travel and commerce. It is a globalisation that enabled the rapid ‘warp like’ spread of Covid-19, destroying over two million lives, and disrupting every nation and economy. Humanity was presented with a unique opportunity to co-operate under the United Nations around a common historical crisis. Sadly, it rapidly descended into most rabid nationalistic form, and Covid-19 vaccine nationalism and selfishness became the moniker of international relations, especially with regards to the Covid-19 vaccine development, starkly divided by geopolitics and mistrust.
In his speech to the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2021 Virtual Conference on 26 January 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a heartfelt appeal to wealthy nations not to horde Covid-19 vaccines but free them up for the Developing South. For a leader of the African Union and South Africa as member of the G20 and BRICS to plead in this manner, it shows emphatically the stark unequal power relations of the rich developed world vis-à-vis the precarious position of the Developing South in one of the most tragic crisis humanity has faced, with rich nations and their patent-profit driven pharmaceutical corporations, even while receiving mega taxpayer subsidies in their home jurisdictions, hoarding tens of millions of vaccine doses and viewing the pandemic as a profit opportunity.
In this context, the latest publication ‘COVID Reset 2021’, co-authored by WEF’s Klaus Schwab, is timely as it provides thought provoking expert insights on the varying and structural impacts in a Covid-19 world order and contours of a global post Covid-19 economic recovery.
The deep disruption caused by Covid-19 globally has offered societies an enforced pause to reflect on what is truly of value. With the economic emergency responses to the pandemic now in place, the opportunity can be seized to make the kind of institutional changes and policy choices that will put economies on a new path towards a fairer, greener future. The history of radical rethinking in the years following World War II, which included the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions, the United Nations, the European Union and the expansion of welfare states, shows the magnitude of the shifts possible.
The report further elucidates that options to boost growth performance & economic recovery are better known (i.e., addressing basic distortions), yet new approaches will have to be found as the manufacturing-led development model is fast losing its power with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is a critical statement from the WEF as the erosion of manufacturing capacity especially in the Developing South and Africa will mean the path towards normal industrialisation of the Kuznets mode—structural transformations through manufacturing, the engine room for job creation, will face insurmountable headwinds as the tools and processes of the 4IR (robotics, AI, IOT), penetrate economic and industrial recovery programs. The section boldly and in a sobering mode observes:
In the pre-pandemic era, new artificial intelligence-based technologies were being gradually introduced to automate some of the tasks performed by human employees. The Covid-19 crisis, and its accompanying measures of social distancing, has suddenly accelerated this process of innovation and technological change. Chatbots, which often use the same voice recognition technology behind Amazon’s Alexa, and other software that can replace tasks normally performed by human employees, are being rapidly introduced. These innovations provoked by necessity (i.e., sanitary measures) will soon result in hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, of job losses. As consumers may prefer automated services to face-to-face interactions for some time to come, what is currently happening with call centres will inevitably occur in other sectors as well. ‘Automation anxiety’ is therefore set for a revival, which the economic recession will exacerbate. The process of automation is never linear. It tends to happen in waves and often in harsh economic times, when the decline in companies’ revenues makes labour costs relatively more expensive.
A post Covid-19 4IR austerity era beckons
These sobering observations clearly point to a new post ‘COVID-19 4IR’ austerity order emerging, and the social sector – especially labour, should expect worse in the coming months and years ahead. It is a textbook case of the 1980s’ Thatcherite dictum ‘There is No Alternative’. The report further points to a dystopian reality awaiting workers everywhere and especially for Africa:
In emerging and developing countries (particularly those with a ‘youth bulge’), technology runs the risk of transforming the ‘demographic dividend’ into a ‘demographic nightmare’ because automation will make it much harder to get on the escalator of economic growth.
This emerging ‘demographic nightmare’ scenario enabled by displacing 4IR technologies is especially concerning for the African development agenda, where the continent’s youthful population—the youth bulge—was seen as a powerful engine and human capital development to propel African nations towards industrialisation, social economic development, and crucially social cohesion. For a host of reasons, this scenario is now less feasible in the post Covid-19 pandemic recovery scenario
The WEF Reset report does a detailed assessment on all components—economics, politics, technology, labour, climate change, gender, and environmental impacts. It acknowledges and promotes a social market-social democratic model and calls for a ‘social compact’ economy, inclusive of all stakeholders.
The social economy spans other high-growth and job-creating areas in the fields of care giving and personal services, education, and health. Investment in childcare, care for the elderly and other elements of the care economy would create 13 million jobs in the US alone and 21 million jobs in seven economies and would lead to a 2% rise in GDP growth in the countries studied. In addition, the growth that did materialise disproportionately accrued to individuals at the top end of the income distribution. A more effective approach may be for policymakers to target welfare-enhancing interventions more directly.
With regards to education and skills development, the report calls for an expanded investment in education, retraining and skills development. In the sphere of health, it calls for massive investment in health systems and infrastructure, a far cry from the austerity IMF type model which for decades prescribed cutbacks in social expenditure.
Education is also an area of massive job creation, particularly when considering primary and secondary education, technical and vocational education and training, university and adult training together. Health, as the pandemic has demonstrated, requires much greater investment both in terms of infrastructure and innovation as well as human capital. These three areas create a multiplier effect both through their own employment potential and the long-term benefits they unleash across societies in terms of equality, social mobility, and inclusive growth.
An interesting observation is that in this latest report, the WEF, that bastion and cheerleader of free market globalisation over four decades, is reviewing parts of its own orthodox market economic trajectory, with the acknowledgment on the need for the developmental state models like China, Germany and even Cuba, have been more successful in addressing public health crisis and economic recovery.
However, nations like South Africa face existential realities and crises, and new contours of inequality abound. It is in this context that a new development and inclusive model is required. 4IR technology as well as ICT and online learning platforms have been a boon that allowed professional classes to continue as normal. However, on the other side of the digital divide and ‘dirt tracks’, millions of blue-collar workers, poor students, rural folk and SMME’s have largely been excluded, partially due to our unaffordable data rates and un-co-ordinated national programme to provide broadband and teacher training to the public education system. Sadly, there is a policy-regulatory disconnect and monopoly-duopoly pricing and challenges. The real challenge for basic and higher education system going forward will be new organisational readiness for online learning, capacity building for administrators, new forms of pedagogical training for teachers, investing in Learning Management System, workplace training, and restructuring the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) college system to upgrade learners for the technology enabled global economy.
It is in this context that South Africa’s leadership has strategic choices in the Covid-19 global economy—the real new normal: choosing between neo-liberal austerity, orthodoxy, and looking at the successful developmental state models. We have the policy space and now the evidence-based results of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as information on which nations succeeded and which ones failed.
Difficult decisions need to be made if we are to navigate the headwinds of the Covid-19 Reset world, where power is distributed, and the economic geography is shifting east. South Africa has choices should it wish to explore alternatives. Above all, do we have decisive leadership that can act in the national and public interest?
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Ashraf Patel is a digital economy associate at the Institute for Global Dialogue and has a master’s degree in Management, Public Policy and Regulation Management (ICT) from the Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM), University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
The Digital Society for Development program is a new and vibrant program that conducts research and advocacy in the field of ICT and emerging 4th Industrial Revolution for Development (4IR). Our perspective is to broaden public, community, labour, gender and youth perspective and voices in this important debate that will impact on the industrial, economic, political and social life of citizens in the decades ahead.
The Communist Party of Viet Nam’s remarkable role
A South African Communist Party (SACP) senior delegation recently met the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and his staff. The aim of the meeting was to exchange views and perspectives and to also reflect on the ongoing developments in both South Africa and Viet Nam, and the global affairs. The exchanges also entailed the expected outcomes of the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which officially opened on 26 January 2021 at the National Convention Centre in the capital city of Hanoi.
This article aims to share information, perspectives and expectations of the watershed 13th Congress, further developments and evaluation of the programs unfolded in the past and the evaluation of socialist construction in Viet Nam to date.
The 13th National Party Congress themed:
‘Strengthening the building and rectification of the Party and the political system into purity and strength; rousing the will and determination for national development and promoting the strength of the great national unity bloc in combination with the power of the era; continuing to comprehensively and synchronously accelerate the cause of reform; constructing and firmly safeguarding the Fatherland and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment; and striving to turn Viet Nam into a developed, socialist-oriented nation by the middle of the 21st century.’
With the motto ‘Solidarity - Democracy - Discipline - Creativeness - Development’, the 13th National Party Congress will review the implementation of the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress, 35 years of implementing the ‘Doi Moi’ (Renewal) process, 30 years of implementing the 1991 Political Platform, 10 years of implementing the amended Political Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011) and the National Socio-economic Development Strategy 2011-2020; setting out socio-economic development orientations and tasks for 2021-2025; and determining goals and orientations to 2030 and a vision for national development to 2045. The Congress will also review the Party building work and the leadership of the 12th Party Central Committee and elect a new Party Central Committee for the 13th tenure.
The 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) taking place in Hanoi from January 25 to February 2, 2021 will be attended by 1,587 delegates from 67 delegations, representing nearly 5.2 million party members nationwide. The number of delegates increased by nearly 80 delegates as compared to the 12th Congress and was the largest among the 13 National Party Congresses. Among the delegates, 13.99 percent are women, and 11.03 percent are ethnic minorities. Guests at the Congress include former Party and State leaders, ambassadors, and representatives of the diplomatic corps of foreign countries and chief representatives of international organisations in Hanoi, Heroic Mothers, and outstanding youths and intellectuals and representatives from religious organisations.
Like the SACP, which changed its name and re-emerged (in conditions of banning) as the SACP, the CPV's foundations are traced to the foundation of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party (ICP) on 3 February 1930, formed to fight to abolish feudalism and French colonialism, and to build socialism in Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos. From 1951 the Lao Dong (Vietnamese Workers’ Party) continued the work of the ICP in Viet Nam alone. At its 4th Congress in December 1976, the Workers’ Party resolved to rename itself the Communist Party of Viet Nam.
The foundation of the CPV in 1930 was a historic milestone, marking a great turning point in the Vietnamese revolution, bringing the nation's struggle into a new period of development. The victories of the Vietnamese revolution are tied to the leadership role of the Party, which promptly determined the appropriate and creative strategies, guidelines, and policies to move the Vietnamese revolution forward, in the long and hard struggle against backward feudalism, colonialism, both Japanese and German fascism, and US anti-Communism and imperialism.
Under the CPV leadership, the Vietnamese revolution has gone through fierce battles and major victories, gradually bringing independence, freedom, prosperity and happiness to the people. The Party has always been closely linked with the people, supported by the people with confidence and trust, and has been consistent in the fight for its national independence, and in advancing to socialism. In its first 15 years, the CPV had led many national liberation struggles, resulting in the victory of the August Revolution in 1945 and founding the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam on September 2, 1945 with Ho Chi Minh as the first President of the Republic.
Immediately after the birth of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, the revolution had to face many difficulties and challenges at the same time, especially ‘enemies of hunger, illiteracy and foreign aggression’. In such circumstances, the CPV has led its people to overcome the country’s situation of ‘hanging by a thread’, steadfastly defended and built up a newly established government, and actively prepared all aspects for a fight against the French colonialist invasion.
Using guidelines on an all-people, comprehensive, long-term war to mobilise the national solidarity and patriotism tradition, the Party led the people to defeat all intrusions and plans. May 7, 1954, the Vietnamese people and armed forces defeated the French colonialists’ last-ditch effort. The victory of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, resounded across the five continents and shook the world, ending the resistance war against the aggressive French colonialists and marking a great turning point in the Vietnamese people’s history of struggle for national construction and defence. Viet Nam became a pioneer of the national liberation movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Dien Bien Phu Victory has always remained a source of pride for generations of Vietnamese people and for all those struggling for independence and freedom in the world.
Despite the Vietnamese people’s belief in a single Viet Nam, the Geneva Accords of 1954 and the Paris Peace Agreement of 1973 all of which asserted Viet Nam as a single country, from 1954 to 1975, the country was divided into two regions. Under the leadership of the CPV, the Vietnamese army and people defeated the U.S invaders, ending with a general offensive and uprising in the spring of 1975.
The spring 1975 victory holds historical and epoch-making significance, opening a new era of reunification, independence, peace, and the whole nation moving ahead on the path to socialism, resulting in 1976 in the renaming of the country as The People’s Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. This victory of the Vietnamese people and Party reverberated across the world and inspired many a revolutionary fighting national liberation. Such a great achievement is the result of the will to unite the country and the desire for peace, representing Vietnamese bravery and intellect and demonstrating the creative application of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought to the conditions and circumstances of Viet Nam’s revolution and revolutionary war. It also symbolises the power of great national unity and the spirit of international solidarity, marking the development of the tradition of fighting enemies to defend the country and the military art of the Vietnamese nation. The victory of the Vietnamese army and people in the resistance war against the US invaders for national salvation has been forever carved into the national history as a brilliant landmark and a symbol of revolutionary heroism and human ingenuity, while entering the world history as a great feat of the 20th century and an event of great international significance, and profound epoch-making significance.
The course of renewal (Doi Moi)
Now, as the CPV holds its 13th Congress, 75 years after the August Revolution and nearly 35 years since implementing the Doi Moi (renewal) policy set out by the Party in 1986, Viet Nam, from being a poor country seriously affected by the war, has made dramatic achievements, with ever-increasing position and power.
Since 1986, Viet Nam's export turnover has continuously increased. From a country of trade deficit, Viet Nam has turned to balance of import and export, and then trade surplus. In 2019, the total import-export turnover of Viet Nam reached over USD543.9 billion, reporting a trade surplus of over USD19.1 billion, the highest ever. Viet Nam's exported goods have been present in more than 200 countries and territories in almost all continents.
The World Bank on October 6, 2020 reported that given Viet Nam’s deep integration with the global economy, the Vietnamese economy has been hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic but has shown remarkable resilience. The initial health impact of the outbreak had not been as severe in Viet Nam as in other countries due to proactive measures at the national and subnational levels. Viet Nam is one of the few countries in the world not to expect a recession. According to the World Bank's December 21, 2020 report, Viet Nam's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by almost 3 percent in 2020 and about 6.8 percent in 2021, thanks to the country's management of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Along with economic development, the CPV and its government have also invested massive resources for socio-cultural development, leading to many changes in improving the spiritual life of the people.
Viet Nam with a population of nearly 100 million people - with an average income of USD2,800 per person, from USD86 in 1998. From the group of low-income countries, Viet Nam has risen and is now ranked in the group of middle-income developing countries. Impressive results have been reported in poverty reduction.
Viet Nam's education has also made great progress while healthcare, welfare and social security have been gradually expanded.
In terms of foreign affairs, Viet Nam has broken the embargo, expanded foreign relations towards multilateralism and diversification; proactively integrated into the world, being a friend, a reliable partner, a responsible member of the international community, for peace, cooperation and development.
Viet Nam has become an important link in many economic chains through the signing of many free trade agreements, thereby creating great incentives for development. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) rated Viet Nam among the 20 economies with the largest contribution to global growth in 2019.
Meanwhile, international integration in politics - security - defence, society - literature and other fields have been deepened.
As a Marxist-Leninist Party, the CPV, established and trained by President Ho Chi Minh, always combined genuine patriotism with the internationalism of the working class, maintained its identity as the working class, been steadfast in reaching for the goals of national independence and socialism, been firm in holding to Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, and applied these factors to the practical condition of Viet Nam to build the proper line and policy since its establishment.
Thanks to that, the Party has fulfilled its historical mission for the nation, leading the Vietnamese revolution to successive victories and development. Simultaneously, it has made great contributions to the international communist and workers’ movement. The ties between our South African liberation struggle and the Vietnamese revolution are a case in point, and we owe the lessons learnt from the Vietnamese revolution of combining political and military struggle for our four-pillars approach since 1979. It is not surprising that in the books once owned by Cde Wolfie Kodesh we find a copy of General Vo Nguyen Giap’s writing People’s War, People’s Army.
As the Vietnamese revolution was a part of international revolution, the Party and President Ho Chi Minh made creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the specific condition of Viet Nam, developed, and supplemented the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism in the process of leading the revolution. Some theoretical points which were developed and supplemented to the theoretical treasure of Marxism-Leninism could be mentioned as follows. First, the CPV has developed Marxist-Leninist theory about the revolutionary path in colonial and dependent countries. Second, the Party has also contributed to developing the Marxist-Leninist theory about the relationship between the national liberation revolution in the colonised countries and the proletarian revolution in the mother country. Third, the CPV has further developed the theory about handling the relationship between the class and people and between liberating class and liberating the people in the liberation work in colonised countries. Fourth, Ho Chi Minh and the Party creatively supplemented and developed Marxist-Leninist theory of the revolutionary party and forces in the context of the national liberation revolution in colonised countries.
Apart from theoretical contribution, the Viet Nam’s Communist Party has also contributed practically to the international communist and workers’ movement, through for example providing valuable lessons about the methods of comprehending, learning, acquiring, and practicing Marxism-Leninism, and to find the way to save the country and show the proper revolutionary method for oppressed colonised peoples to rise up and liberate themselves and apply the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism to the context of a colonised and half-feudal country like Viet Nam successfully.
In the current context of the world, when the global revolutionary movement in general and the international communist and workers’ movement in particular have temporarily fallen into recession, the CPV always shows international solidarity and continues making contributions to the international communist and workers’ movement. On implementing the multi-lateralised and diversified foreign relations line, the CPV always asserts to strengthen and reinforce the solidarity and cooperation with the Communist and Workers’ Parties, left wing parties, liberation movements and national independence, and the revolutionary and progressive movements in the world. In the four instructing mottos to deal with the international matters in the renovation period, the Party has determined that the first one was to ensure the genuine interest of the people and to smoothly combine the patriotism and internationalism of the working class.
Being loyal to the internationalism of the working class in the process of leading the Vietnamese revolution, especially since early 1990s, with their specific operations to restore the international communist and workers’ movement, the CPV, the working class and the progressive people in the world have fought to implement the goals of the era: peace, national independence, democracy and social progress. Although the world situation after the Cold War became complicated, and the operating environment of each communist party in different countries varied, as the pioneer of the working class, the CPV and the Communist and Workers’ Parties in the international communist and workers’ movement always showed the unity in different issues in terms of thought and politics on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, patiently fought for the goals of the era, looked toward to the aim and ideal of liberating the class and society, and build socialism. The basic unity of political thought and these strategic goals are the objective and convenient fundamental premise to create the friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance between the CPV and Communist and Workers’ Parties in the international communist movement in the past as well as today, which express the inevitability and purity of the proletarian internationalism of the CPV.
Although the manifestation of the internationalism of the Party’s working class varies in form in each period and stage, the unity and cooperation in the brotherly spirit with the communist parties in the international communist and workers’ movement are determined as a core principle on the external relation of the CPV. The presence of numerous delegates from the communist parties of many countries in the world at the CPV’s National Congresses, its hosting of the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) in 2016 as well as the participation of the delegation of the Party at the congresses of many communist parties in the international communist and workers’ movement are a specific manifestation of internationalism of the working class. Not only that, in recent years, the CPV has also actively participated in the annual international meetings between the Communist and Workers’ Parties such as those in Athens (Greece), Cyprus, Berlin, or the scientific workshops and forums in Sao Paulo of the Latin American left-wing forces and the world, etc.
Through those, the CPV has expressed its views and positions on many urgent issues for the communists as well as the entire international communist and workers’ movement in the post-cold war period. Along with the popular theoretical issues, the CPV has carried out research and clarified numerous issues faced by the Vietnamese revolution such as the transitional period and the path to socialism from a low starting point like Viet Nam, the development of a socialist oriented market economy, building the law-ruled state, developing the leadership experience of the CPV in the work of renovating the country and international integration, and many more. These are precious experiences that the communist parties in the international communist and workers’ movement can refer to and apply to the specific conditions of their countries; they can also be a source for further supplementing and enriching the treasure of Marxist-Leninist theory.
Over the past 90 years, under the leadership of the Party, the Vietnamese revolution has achieved historical victories. Apart from the decisive factor of internal strength, the international factors also make significant contribution to gaining such victories, including the consensus, support, and great assistance in the pure spirit of internationalism from the working class of the communist parties in the international communist and workers’ movement. In the present international context, when the international communist and workers’ movement has faced a great number of difficulties, as a genuine Marxist-Leninist party and the ruling party which leads the country to socialism, the CPV is required to show the international nature of the working class in cooperating and helping the communist parties in the international communist and workers’ movement than ever.
As the head of the SACP delegation to attend the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) held in Hanoi, Viet Nam on 28-30 October, 2016, Comrade Chris Matlhako, then Secretary for International Affairs, granted an interview on 9 November 2016 to the Viet Nam News Agency and said ‘the Meeting was very successful, and its occurrence contributes in a significant way towards the building of the elements of and momentum towards socialism in the world.’ This interview was published in Umsebenzi Online Vol 15 (41) in 2016.1
The South African Communist Party and the Communist Party of Viet Nam continue finding new ways to strengthen bilateral relations, significantly contributing to each Party’s role in its country and international communist and workers’ movement as well.
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Endnote
1 https://www.sacp.org.za/content/socialist-construction-Viet Nam-great-path
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Cde Chris Matlhako is SACP Second Deputy General Secretary