Workers Resistance

Category: Vietnam

  • The Thai junta and its friends

    The Thai junta and its friends

    Giles Ji Ungpakorn

    The Thai junta has proudly announced that friendly neighbouring nations have approved of the coup and the subsequent destruction of human rights and democracy. The junta’s closest friends are (yes, you guessed it!) China, Burma and Vietnam….. all models of democracy and freedom. This comes on the 25th anniversary of the bloody suppression of the democracy movement at Tiananmen Square. The Burmese generals are still firmly in the driving seat while window-dressing their fake democracy. The Vietnamese dictatorship sends plain clothed security thugs to beat up and jail bloggers and pro-democracy activists. What a nice little authoritarian club.

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    Meanwhile, Indonesia, one of the two south-east Asian nations that does have a political system which corresponds roughly to democracy, has shown concern about the coup and its “undemocratic nature” and this comes from the elected president of Indonesia who is an ex-general!

    Back in Thailand, the (independent) Counter Corruption Commission has announced that ex- Prime Minister Yingluk has not filed her report of her income on “leaving office”. But they also state that there are no laws stipulating that the self-appointed junta members need to declare their earnings on taking office!!

    The Thai university “Vice Chancellor’s Committee For Dictatorship” has announced that the coup is a great opportunity to “reform” the education system to instil morals into students, perhaps army discipline too. The education permanent secretary agrees, saying that for too long universities have been under “political” influence. What is needed, according to this self-important clown, is reform to bring universities up to “international standards”! …. Just don’t discuss politics or have any freedom of expression and these “high standards” will be reached.

    Finally, just to let readers know that I have been summoned to “report” to the military in Bangkok on 9th June. Given that I already have a warrant for my arrest, out since 2009, for writing a book against the 2006 coup, it sounds like a game of Monopoly: “Go straight to jail and do not pass Go”.

    Filed under: Thai politics Tagged: Burma, China, counter corruption commission, junta, Thai politics, Vietnam

  • National liberation movements mourn passing of Vietnam’s General Giap

    Minneapolis, MN – National liberation movements around the world are morning the Oct. 4 passing of General Vo Nguyen Giap who, along with Ho Chi Minh, was one of the main leaders of Vietnam’s fight to free itself from Japanese, French and finally U.S. domination.

    Describing General Giap as a “warrior of the twentieth century, architect of the future,” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stated, “Japan, France and the United States, three of the strongest powers in human history, fell successively, humiliated before his military and political genius.”

    A statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said “Giap was the first military commander to defeat a Western colonial power in Asia, and his legacy is renowned not only by the Vietnamese people but by all peoples around the world and all movements for liberation from colonialism and imperialism.”

    The Communist Party of the Philippines, summed up some of the lessons of Giap’s efforts, stating, “Comrade Giap led the Vietnamese People’s Army in the historic Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the center of French military power in Indochina. Here, the Vietnamese people demonstrated how they could defeat a more modern army through the use of guerrilla tactics. They marched in their thousands to build hidden trails, dug hundreds of kilometers of trenches, dismantled their cannons and artillery and manually pulled them up to high mountain ridges in order to quietly encircle the overly confident French troops. They launched a blitzkrieg attack against the French military base and after 55 days of fighting, forced the complete surrender of the French colonialists on May 7, 1954.”

    The Communist Party of the Philippines also stated, “The lessons of the Vietnamese people’s war of resistance continue to illumine people’s wars around the world, including that being waged by the Filipino people through the New People’s Army. The military writings of Comrade Giap, especially in waging guerrilla warfare, have been translated into Pilipino and other local languages, enabling Filipino revolutionaries to study the lessons of the people’s war in Vietnam.”

  • National liberation movements mourn passing of Vietnam’s General Giap

    Minneapolis, MN – National liberation movements around the world are morning the Oct. 4 passing of General Vo Nguyen Giap who, along with Ho Chi Minh, was one of the main leaders of Vietnam’s fight to free itself from Japanese, French and finally U.S. domination.

    Describing General Giap as a “warrior of the twentieth century, architect of the future,” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stated, “Japan, France and the United States, three of the strongest powers in human history, fell successively, humiliated before his military and political genius.”

    A statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said “Giap was the first military commander to defeat a Western colonial power in Asia, and his legacy is renowned not only by the Vietnamese people but by all peoples around the world and all movements for liberation from colonialism and imperialism.”

    The Communist Party of the Philippines, summed up some of the lessons of Giap’s efforts, stating, “Comrade Giap led the Vietnamese People’s Army in the historic Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the center of French military power in Indochina. Here, the Vietnamese people demonstrated how they could defeat a more modern army through the use of guerrilla tactics. They marched in their thousands to build hidden trails, dug hundreds of kilometers of trenches, dismantled their cannons and artillery and manually pulled them up to high mountain ridges in order to quietly encircle the overly confident French troops. They launched a blitzkrieg attack against the French military base and after 55 days of fighting, forced the complete surrender of the French colonialists on May 7, 1954.”

    The Communist Party of the Philippines also stated, “The lessons of the Vietnamese people’s war of resistance continue to illumine people’s wars around the world, including that being waged by the Filipino people through the New People’s Army. The military writings of Comrade Giap, especially in waging guerrilla warfare, have been translated into Pilipino and other local languages, enabling Filipino revolutionaries to study the lessons of the people’s war in Vietnam.”

  • ILPS: In honor of the immortal General Vo Nguyen Giap

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Professor Jose Maria Sison,Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle(ILPS).

    We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, solemnly honor and render our highest respects to the immortal General Vo Nguyen Giap upon his passing away on 4 October. He was a close comrade in arms of the great Ho Chi Minh and outstanding hero, leader and commander of the Vietnamese people’s revolutionary struggles for national liberation against Japanese, French and US imperialism.

    He was born to a peasant family in 1911 but he was able to go to school. In 1922 he joined the anti-colonial student movement. After graduating with high honors from the university,he became a teacher and journalist noted for his patriotic and progressive views. In 1933 he became a member of the Communist Party of Indochina and soon a member of the leading core under the direction of Ho Chi Minh.

    He founded and led the Vietnam People’s Army under the leadership of the Communist Party. He adopted and developed the strategic line of people’s war against the foreign aggressors and occupiers of his country. He built the people’s army as the politico-military weapon of the Vietnamese people in order to achieve brilliant victories against the enemy.

    In late 1941, he formed the first guerrilla groups in the mountains of Vietnam. He made an alliance with the armed formation of a national minority in northeastern Vietnam. By mid-1945 he had some 10,000 fighters under his command and carried out an offensive against the Japanese invaders. Thus, the way was made for the Viet Minh to undertake the August Revolution on a nationwide scale, compelling Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate on 25 August and proceeding to the proclamation of Vietnam’s independence on 2 September 1945.

    He directed the people’s war that brought utter defeat to the French colonial army at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. He mustered 100,000 fighters and another 100,000 workers (many of them women) to encircle and gain vantage points against the enemy. The heroic people’s army and the people struggling for national and social liberation under the leadership of the Communist Party inflicted heavy losses on the enemy forces and compelled them to surrender.

    The brilliance of Vo Nguyen Giap as a strategist of protracted people’s war came to the fore by reflecting and availing of the revolutionary determination and courage of the Vietnamese people against the US war of aggression from the 1960s to 1972. He and his people were not cowed by the US which had become the strongest imperialist power in the course of World War II. They fought even harder and more effectively even as US imperialism barbarically used weapons of mass destruction.

    The US killed one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians, who constituted a large percentage of the Vietnamese population then. This is reminiscent of the US butchery in the killing of 1.5 million Filipinos from 1899 to 1913, and more than 3 million Koreans from 1951 to 1953. To this day, the Vietnamese people continue to suffer from the chemical warfare waged by the US, which poured millions of liters of Agent Orange on Vietnam.

    As the US war of aggression went on, the people of the world, including the American people, were outraged by the barbarism of US military forces and were inspired by the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese people. The anti-imperialist and democratic movement expanded and intensified on a global scale. The US started to sue for peace in 1969 and withdrew from Vietnam under the Paris Peace Accord of 1972, after the death of 58,226 US troops and many more wounded.

    US imperialism accepted defeat as it was faced with the prospect of losing more troops and financial resources at a faster rate and as the American people and the people of the world condemned the war of aggression on an ever widening scale. The people of an underdevelopedcountry and victims of aggression achieved a resounding victory over US imperialism.

    Since then, the defeat of US imperialism in Vietnam has served to show the limits of US economic and military power and has inspired the oppressed peoples and nations of the world to persevere and intensify their struggle for national and social liberation. All peoples of the world emulate the heroic example and indomitable spirit of the immortal General Vo Nguyen Giap in fighting for national independence, democracy, socialism, international solidarity and peace.