No, Vietnam’s triumph over Covid-19 isn’t because of Socialism

 There is a popular myth among the Left that Vietnam hasn’t suffered as badly from Coronavirus because of socialist policies and measures. This is laughable for many reasons, the most glaring one being that Vietnam is a thoroughly capitalist state. The other being that the measures implemented by the “Socialist” Republic Vietnam are not socialist.


The one exceptional thing about the precautions taken by Vietnam were that they were implemented early. The country was familiar with deadly diseases, having experienced many others in just the past two decades, so it acted quickly to mitigate the effects of this one. The fact that it was mysterious and only just began killing people in Wuhan likely influenced this. Social distancing and quarantines were thus implemented in hot spots faster than you could say “Ðộc lập, Tự do, Hạnh phúc”.


While nice from the viewpoint of a capitalist, from a Marxist perspective this is not special. In fact, this strategy of strong measures implemented quickly was used by New Zealand, a country that is also thoroughly capitalist. It seems that the special formula for Vietnam’s success does not lie in Ho Chi Minh Thought, but rather in the party dictatorship which has the power to implement these measures.


Emphasis on party dictatorship by the way. The National Assembly, Vietnam’s highest legislative body, decides how to run the country and thus how to handle this pandemic. It is, of course, firmly in the hands of the falsifier Communist Party of Vietnam. The National Assembly essentially amounts to Congress or Parliament but draped in red cloth. Thus, no real worker participation was involved in deciding the policies going forward. Worse yet is that no independent working class institutions were involved. In fact, attempts by workers to deviate from the Party Line are often met with violence.


Independent working class institutions are precisely what the matured proletariat of Vietnam needs. If the opportunist falsifier bourgeoisie is to be overthrown, the workers cannot rely on old state apparatuses. Instead, they must smash the state machine, and build a new dictatorship of the proletariat in its place. This dictatorship of the proletariat will wipe the land clean of the parasitic capitalists and, with workers councils, lay the groundwork for Communism!

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