Vietnam

In recent times, land disputes and struggles over land seizures have intensified in Vietnam, as large corporations rake in huge profits building factories and homes on stolen land, assisted by local government officials. This in turn has led to intense riots, demonstrations, protests and conflict with the police.

A wave of class struggle, rising all over the world, is approaching Vietnam. Under increasing financial pressure, sections of the Vietnamese working class have engaged in furious wildcat struggles. The rising tension is also reflected in the actions of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (VCP), which is now led by its most powerful leader in decades. While making a show of proactively addressing corruption in Vietnamese society in an effort to appease the masses, it has simultaneously increased repression.

In the past few years, Vietnam has been battered by severe storms, the effects of which continue to be felt and are compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These extreme weather conditions are a global phenomenon, as demonstrated by super-storms around the world; tornado outbreaks in the Midwest and Southern USA; and massive sandstorms in China and Mongolia in late 2021. At root, the climate change which is to blame for these disasters is caused by the rapacious capitalist exploitation of the planet.

We are very excited to announce that dozens of important articles from marxist.com are newly available in the Vietnamese language! This very important addition to our website will make our revolutionary ideas available to an entirely new audience.

Today is the 45th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. Prior to this denouement, from 30-31 January 1968, 70,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, together with guerrilla fighters of the NLF, launched one of the most daring military campaigns in history. The Tet Offensive was the real turning point in the Vietnam War. In 2008, on its 40th anniversary, Alan Woods analysed the events that led to the Vietnam War and the significance of the Tet Offensive in bringing about the defeat of US imperialism, and drew some parallels with Iraq.

The politics of the ruling class time and time again affirms the famous saying of Marx: “First as tragedy, then as farce.” Here, the ex-Stalinist, now state-capitalist government of Vietnam has asserted its place in both the old tragedy and the new farce with respect to American imperialism.

We received this interesting letter which gives an insight into the situation that has emerged in Vietnam since it adopted so-called “market reforms”, with extremes of poverty side by side with immense wealth.

As US imperialism prepares to go to war against Iraq, Jonathan Clyne looks back at the Vietnam War. He shows quite clearly the level of radicalisation that had developed among both the US soldiers fighting in Vietnam and the mass opposition that had developed back home among US workers and youth. As he says, "It was the American working class, those in uniform and those without, that more than anything else put an end to the war."

We received a letter from Vietnam which gives a wider and more political view of the situation in Vietnam on the eve of the important forthcoming congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam on "market led socialism".

We publish this article from the Vietnamese press, translated for In Defence of Marxism by one of our Vietnamese correspondents which shows the conditions Vietnamese workers face in the Export Processing Zones through the example of the strike at the Tan A company in Ho Chi Mihn City.

This article gives a picture of the appalling housing conditions of workers employed in the IZs and EPZs, the special industrial zones established to attract foreign investment.

After 14 years of "reform", with the introduction of the so-called "market economy under state control in a socialist direction", an economic boom is indeed taking place in Vietnam. However, its economy is obviously not immune from the financial crisis of its neighbours. Very few strikes have been reported, and most of them have attracted very few workers. However the strike of over 4,000 workers at the Hue Phong company (a joint-venture producing shoes) on 12-13th September may represent an important turning point in the workers' struggle in Vietnam.

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