Experts talk about | Why should we carry out thematic education?
On April 3rd, the education conference on studying and implementing the theme of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the new era was held in Beijing. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader attended the conference and delivered an important speech. From the strategic height of the overall development of the cause of the party and the country in the new era and new journey, the important speech of the Supreme Leader General Secretary profoundly expounded the great significance and target requirements of carrying out theme education, made comprehensive arrangements for all the work of theme education, and provided fundamental follow-up for the whole party to carry out theme education. Based on the spirit of the important speech delivered by the Supreme Leader General Secretary at the theme education work conference, this paper will analyze and explain why theme education should be carried out and its purpose and practice.
First, attaching importance to theoretical arms is an important experience for Marxist political parties to win.
Why should we carry out thematic education? This issue needs to be understood from the nature of our party and its experience.
Marxism holds that the birth of proletarian political parties is the key to the transformation of the proletariat from spontaneous to conscious. Organizationally, through the establishment of proletarian political parties, the proletariat has its own political organization, so that the proletariat can be organized. Ideologically, through the propaganda of proletarian political parties, Marxist theory can be spread among the proletariat and the proletariat can realize its mission. Therefore, Marxism has promoted the formation of highly conscious and organized actors through the organization and propaganda of political parties, so that ideological theory can be transformed into action force and practical results.
Therefore, after the establishment of the Communist Party of China (CPC), it has continuously promoted the modernization of Marxism in China, and through organization, mobilization, publicity and education, the whole party and the people of the whole country have mastered scientific theories and cognitive tools, made clear the historical mission and central tasks, and made clear the line, principles and specific policies. Among them, party member, especially the party’s leading cadres, is required to systematically master Marxist theory and the party’s line, principles and policies, so as to lay a theoretical foundation and provide capacity guarantee for the party to assume leadership responsibilities, thus becoming one of the important experiences for our party to win in each historical period.
Therefore, the cadre education in party member has become an important basic work of Party building, and it has been promoted through the combination of daily education and centralized education. Among them, centralized education is divided into two ways: one is to send party member cadres to Party schools for systematic training, and the other is to focus on a certain topic for a period of time to carry out education throughout the Party.
As an activity of a political organization, inner-party learning is for application and inner-party education is for practice. Therefore, every time we carry out theme education, our party attaches importance to both theoretical learning and practical transformation. Through systematic theoretical study, the theoretical level of all party member and cadres will be promoted to a higher level, and through targeted practice transformation, the achievements of the modernization of Marxism in China will be continuously transformed into the action force of party member cadres, and a certain key issue within the Party will be solved.
Second, the completion of the new era, new journey, mission and task requires the guidance and arms of the party’s innovative theory.
After understanding why our party should carry out theme education, the next question is: "Why is this theme education to study and implement Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era?" To answer this question, we need to grasp it from the historical logic, theoretical logic and practical logic of socialist modernization and the modernization of Marxism in China.
After the Opium War, the Chinese nation suffered an unprecedented disaster. After arduous exploration by countless people with lofty ideals, the people of China chose the Communist Party of China (CPC) as the leading force and Marxism as the guiding ideology. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of Marxism and through the efforts of the people of China, we have completed the central task of each historical period, achieved the goal of the first century, and started a new journey of comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese modernization.
Our great cause was achieved under the guidance of Marxism, and an important experience of our victory is to constantly promote the modernization of Marxism in China. Through the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China’s concrete practice and Chinese excellent traditional culture, we will constantly enrich Marxism with China’s experience in revolution, construction and reform, so that it can effectively guide China’s practice at every stage. In the process of revolution, construction and reform, and in the process of promoting the modernization of Marxism in China, our party formed Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Theory of Three Represents and Scientific Outlook on Development.
With Socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, we have carried out great struggles with many new historical characteristics, made great achievements and great changes in the new era for ten years, opened up a new realm of the modernization of Marxism in China, and formed Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the new era, a contemporary China Marxism and a 21st century Marxism.
With the completion of the goal of the first century, "from now on, the central task of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the country to build a socialist modernization power in an all-round way, realize the goal of the second century, and comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese modernization." According to the successful experience of our party, to successfully complete the mission of the new journey, we must arm the whole party with Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era, which is the latest achievement of the modernization of Marxism in China. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out the theme education of studying and implementing Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era.
As General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out, "The grand goal of building a strong country and national rejuvenation is inspiring and inspiring, and our generation of communist party people has a glorious mission and a great responsibility. We should take this theme education as an opportunity to strengthen the party’s innovative theory, constantly improve the Marxist level of the whole party, continuously improve the party’s ruling ability and leadership level, gather together for the new journey of forging ahead, work hard and courageously, and unite and struggle for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. "
Third, the theme education is an important means to transform the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought into a powerful force in the new era.
When we understand "why this theme education is to study and implement Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era", we must also know what is the fundamental task of this theme education?
At the conference on studying and implementing the theme education of Supreme Leader Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, General Secretary of Supreme Leader gave a clear answer, that is, "To carry out this theme education, the fundamental task is to adhere to the integration of learning, thinking and application, and to unify knowledge, belief and practice, and to transform Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era into a powerful force to strengthen ideals, temper party spirit, guide practice and promote work, so that the whole party can always maintain a unified thought, firm will, coordinated actions and strong combat effectiveness, and strive to build souls through learning and increase their strength through learning. While pointing out the fundamental task of this theme education, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader particularly emphasized that this theme education should achieve "five essentials", namely, to build a solid foundation with a firm heart, to temper character, to strengthen loyalty, to work hard to promote development, to practice the purpose of benefiting the people, and to establish a new atmosphere of honesty and integrity.
After understanding the fundamental task of this theme education, we can draw the following conclusions: It is an important means to transform Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the new era into a powerful force by focusing on leading cadres at or above the county level, and it is also an important measure to implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress, which is of great significance for unifying the Party’s thinking, solving outstanding problems within the Party, maintaining the flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the people, and promoting the development of the cause of the Party and the country.
Fourth, the theme education should firmly grasp the general requirements of "learning ideas, strengthening party spirit, emphasizing practice and making new contributions"
The next important question is, how should this theme education be carried out?
At the work conference on studying and implementing the theme education of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era of the Supreme Leader, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that this theme education should firmly grasp the general requirements of "learning ideas, strengthening party spirit, emphasizing practice and making new contributions". First, we should comprehensively study and understand Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era; second, we should consciously transform the subjective world with Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era; third, we should consciously practice Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era; fourth, we should learn the wisdom and strength to forge ahead from Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era.
With regard to specific steps and practices, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that this theme education should be integrated with theoretical study, investigation and research, promotion of development, inspection and rectification, and promoted organically and integrally. Of course, in practical work, we must also pay attention to the targeted work of establishing rules and regulations in order to be able to form a normalization effect on the achievements of this theme education. As this theme education is a major event that has a bearing on the overall situation, the time is tight, the task is heavy and the requirements are high. To this end, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader requires party committees (party groups) at all levels to shoulder the main responsibility and plan, organize and implement the theme education well. (The author is the director of the Research Center for Party Building and National Development of Fudan University, a think tank of Shanghai universities, and a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University.)