江泽民总书记在庆祝中国共产党成立80周年大会上的讲话中指出:“中国工人阶级始终是推动中国先进生产力的基本力量。我们党必须始终坚持工人阶级先锋队的性质,始终全心全意依靠工人阶级。”全心全意依靠工人阶级,这是由工人阶级的先进性和历史作用决定的。中国革命的历史和实践一再昭示,正是由于工人阶级代表了最先进的生产力,才使其成为社会主义革命和建设的主力军。当前,随着知识经济的风起云涌,对于工人阶级的先进性无疑又提出了新的要求。正是在这一背景下,人们对工人阶级的先进性有了不同的认识,有的甚至对工人阶级在新形势下是否仍是先进生产力的代表提出了质疑。我们认为,要全面回答这一问题,首先必须对 In his speech at the General Assembly celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, General Secretary Jiang Zemin pointed out: “The working class in China has always been the basic force for pushing forward China’s advanced productive forces and our party must always uphold the nature of the vanguard of the working class and always rely wholeheartedly on the working class.” Depend on the working class wholeheartedly, which is determined by the advanced nature and historical role of the working class. The history and practice of the Chinese revolution have repeatedly demonstrated that it is precisely because the working class represents the most advanced productive forces that it has become the main force for the socialist revolution and construction. At present, with the turbulent flow of knowledge-based economy, there is no doubt that new requirements have been put forward for the advanced nature of the working class. It is in this context that people have different views on the advanced nature of the working class and some even question whether the working class is still the representative of advanced productive forces under the new situation. We think we must first answer this question in a comprehensive way