Vietnamese Trotskyists

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Great victories for the workers' movement bring the greatest disorientation to political centrists and confusionists. Nothing more sharply illustrates this rule than the treatment of Vietnam by the leadership of the Workers Revolutionary Party and its Gollan, ex- CPGB Secretary, meets Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi paper Workers Press in the last weeks.

The last thirty years of war in Vietnam, the monumental sacrifices of the Vietnamese masses to drive out imperialism, have been the political responsibility of world Stalinism and its attempts to reach 'equilibrium' with imperialism.

The French lost Indochina to Japan during the Second World War. They only reoccupied it as a result of the attempts at compromise pushed through by Stalin' s main (representative, Ho Chi Minh. To allow the French to return the Stalinists had to destroy the Trotskyist organisations, which held mass support in south Vietnam by August 1945.

As we show below, these events did not just happen to coincide. The Trotskyists were winning mass backing for policies to:

Arm the workers and peasants Expropriate French property Establish full national independence Give power to the workers' and peasants' committees already set up.

Without crushing the Trotskyists, Stalin could not have carried out his bargain with imperialism at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, which involved returning Indochina to France.

STALIN'S BARGAIN

To point this out is not a 'factional' question. The enormous price paid for the liberation of Vietnam is the direct result of Stalin's colossal betrayal of the international workers' movement at the end of the war. At key points he cynically used his influerice on the Communist Parties to carry this out. This lesson is a bitter part of the experience of today's workers' movement.

But how do the WRP leadership explain to their members and supporters this political responsibility of Stalinism? First came weeks of general and unequivocal enthusiasm for the politics of the NLF.

In Workers Press on May 10th the Provisional Revolutionary Government's foreign policy was described - without qualification or criticism - as 'revolutionary internationalism'. On May 12th it spoke of 'the consistent revolutionary line pursued by the NLF since they first took up arms in 1941' Only after Socialist Press on May ISthsistant reinted naty line in.

consistent cluded the murder of the Vietnamese Trotskyists in south Vietnam in 1945 did the WRP leadership even refer to the real lessons of the Vietnamese struggle.

Their 'International Committee of the Fourth International' met in May and issued a 'Manifesto' (Workers Press, June 2nd). As a whole this is a superficial resume of world politics, in language which sounds ferocious but is prudently vague. It contains this short passage on the struggle for revolutionary leadership in Vietnam:

•These achievements, in Indo China - empirically made at enormous cost - do not in any sense, invalidate the principles struggles of the Indo-Chinese Trotskyists -murdered by Ho Chi Minh's agents -for the programme of Permanent "Their martyrdom was not in vain and their policies are indelibly inscribed in the progress of the revolution. New 'generations of Indo-Chinese revolutionaries inspirer by the struggles and victories of Trotskyism will once again turn to the example of these Trotskyist pioneers in the coming period.' This is shabby deceit. The Vietnamese Trotskyists were not only martyred, they were physically and politically defeated by Stalinism in 1945, and with their 'martyrdom' came a historical set-back for the Vietnamese revolution whose price has been paid in thirty years of waI.

The NLF and Hanoi leaderships have learned 'empirically" only through a series of compromises and defeats. The policies of revolutionary internationalism are not 'inscribed' in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City - nor anywhere in the pages of Workers Press, which has written precisely nothing on the political struggles within the liberation and anti-imperialist movement in IndoIt is a duty for Marxists to draw out the political lessons which the Vietnamese - Stalinists, nationalists and Trotskyists alike - have paid for in blood at the hands of imperialism. The revisionists of the WRP, jumping from mood to mood and impression to impression, will not do this. But the following short chronology sets the record straight:

1929-30 Vietnamese Communist Party founded by Moscow-trained Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh). Groups different tendencies together, affiliates to Third International, starts mass work in 1930 Communists lead peasants and workers in strike and land occupation wave. But slogans those of national 'democratic' revolution. 1931 Massive reprisals by French army and police. About 10,000 Vietnamese killed, 50,000 deported. 1933 Vietnamese Trotskyist organisations formed from opposition to Stalinist policies within Communist Party. Tu Tha Thau founds 'Struggle' group in Saigon; 'October' group founded by Ho Huu Tuang. From 1933-39 Trotskyists and many Stalinists operate unity agreements for legal work, including some elections, despite slanders from Stalinist leaders. Trotskyists make important gains in Saigon and surrounding area. Despite repressions and imprisonment Trotskyists and Stalinists maintain clandestine organisations. 1937 Thu Tha Thau and other Trotskyists head poll for Vietnamese seats on Saigon Municipal Council, beating Stalinists and nationalists. 1941-45 Japanese forces in effective military control in most areas. French colonial administration manoeuvres between Vichy government and 'Allied' forces under De Gaulle. Early 1945 Japanese forces retreat in Pacific. Military-nationalist organisation of Vietnamese Communist Party ('Vietminh') gains ground, especially in north. Trotskyists and revolutionary nationalists also make gains in south.

August 10, 1945 Japan surrenders. Revolutionary and nationalist forces take weapons from many Japanese forces in Vietnam. But Stalin has promised the 'Allies' to return Indo-China to France.

August 16, 1945 Ho Chi Minh holds 'People's Congress' near Hanoi to form provisional government. Trotskyists in south demand: expropriation of French colonial pro perty, no re-occupation, militias to defend workers' and peasants' committees (hundreds of which hol‹ local power in the Saigon area, full national independence. Many nationalists support them, but Stalinists denounce them as saboteurs.

August 23, 1945 Stalinists oust coalition of left parties in Saigon, replace it with their 'Committee of the South' , claiming they have an "independence' agreement with the September 2, 1945 Hundreas ot thousands demonstrate in Saigon. Mass opposition in the contingents to Stalinist policies.

September 4, 1945 Stalinist leader in Saigon, Tran Van Giau, violently attacks Trotskyists. Their organisations banned, hundreds arrested, many of whom disappear. Among those killed are Tu Tha Thau and Tranvan Trach, founders of Vietnamese Trotskyism. French colonists and officials released from prison.

September 10, 1945 Mounting fears of invasion force Stalinists to include left nationalists in 'Committee of the South' September 12, 1945 British army detachment under General Gracey enters Saigon. First French forces arrive, seize port and arsenal. September 17, 1945 Vietminh leaders call general strike in Saigon. September 21, 1945 General Gracey declares military rule in Saigon. French and British forces soon control many towns in South Vietnam. Resistance by Vietminh and other anti-imperialist forces spreads in south; Vietminh control north.

October _9, 1945 Ernest Bevin, British Labour Foreign Minister. March 6, 1946 Ho Chi Minh signs "independence' agreement wit! France: Vietnam to remain in "French Union'; 25,000 troops to be stationed in the country. March-November 1946 French manoeuvre while preparing war plans against Vietminh.

November 23, 1946 French forces attack Vietminh in Haiphong. Within days Ho Chi Minh and other leaders driven from Hanoi to countryside.

March 1947 Communist Party ministers in French cabinet vote funds for Indochina war. They remain in the government till May. 1954 Crushing defeat of French army by Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu But Ho Chi Minh agrees to armistice at Geneva, with partition of Vietnam at 17th parallel.

January 1955 Washington starts military aid to Diem regime in South Vietnam.

February 1965 US planes begin systematic bombing of North 1968 Over half a million US troop: in South Vietnam.

April 1975 Liberation of by NLF.

The Workers Socialist League stands unconditionally in support of all struggles against imperialism, whatever the political differences and irrespective of the great crimes of Stalinism against the Trotskyist movement.

The liberation of Indochina 1s for us a great victory - and it immediately strengthens our own work to construct a revolutionary leadership in Britain. But we do not for a moment relinquish our right - in victory or defeat -to draw out the essential lessons of the history of the international workers' movement.

As we indicate in this issue (see page 2) the foreign policies of the Vietnamese leaders are far from what is needed for the develop ment of the revolutionary move ment in south east Asia. This leadership, and those who have supported them, have suffered most heavily of all in their thirty year effort to defend themselves against imperialism.

Much of this price has been due to the politics of Stalinism, its repeated attempt to strike a 'balance' with particular sections of imperialism and their proteges.

The Vietnamese Trotskyist movement was based on an understanding of these dangers. Their deaths will not be 'in vain' only on this condition - that there is a fight to grasp and defend their work by today's revolutionaries. Such prices must not be paid again.