Vijay Prashad (ed.) - Selected Ho Chi Minh

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Selected H Ch Minh

First paperback published by LeftWord Books in April 2022

First eBook published by LeftWord Books in April 2022

LeftWord Books

2254/2A Shadi Khampur

New Ranjit Nagar

New Delhi 110008

INDIA

LeftWord Books and Vaam Prakashan are imprints of

Naya Rasta Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

leftword.com

ISBN 978-93-92018-03-9 (ebook)

978-81-953546-2-7 (paperback)

2022, Vijay Prashad

For our teacher

Aijaz Ahmad

(19412022)

Victor Jara

El derecho de vivir en paz | 1971 | The Right to Live in Peace

Poeta Ho Chi Minh Que golpea de Vietnam A toda la humanidad Ningn can borrar El surco de tu arrozal El derecho de vivir en paz

Poet Ho Chi Minh, who punches from Vietnam to all humanity. No cannon will erase the furrow of your rice field. The right to live in peace.

Indochina es el lugar Ms all del ancho mar Donde revientan la flor Con genocidio y napalm La luna es una explosin Que funde todo el clamor El derecho de vivir en paz Indochina es el lugar Ms all del ancho mar Donde revientan la flor Con genocidio y napalm La luna es una explosin Que funde todo el clamor El derecho de vivir en paz To Ho, nuestra cancin Es fuego de puro amor Es palomo palomar Olivo del olivar Es el canto universal Cadena que har triunfar El derecho de vivir en paz Es el canto universal Cadena que har triunfar El derecho de vivir en paz El derecho de vivir en paz

Indochina is the place beyond the wide sea where they burst the flower with genocide and napalm. The moon is an explosion that melts all the clamour. The right to live in peace. Indochina is the place beyond the wide sea where they burst the flower with genocide and napalm. The moon is an explosion that melts all the clamour. The right to live in peace. Uncle Ho, our song Is fire of pure love Its dove dovecote. Its olive tree olive grove. It is the universal chant. Bonds that will triumph. The right to live in peace. It is the universal chant. Bonds that will triumph. The right to live in peace. The right to live in peace.

Translated by

Taroa Ziga Silva

Contents

Vijay Prashad

H Ch Minhs Pen

by Vijay Prashad

VENERABLE H

In early September 1969, a black lacquered wooden plaque was placed on the door of an old and abandoned temple in Saigon. In vermillion, the residents of the neighbouring hutments of the poor read, Temple of the Venerable One ( n th Ch ). People from the locality marched into the temple carrying flowers, incense, and fruit, bowing before the lamps and candles that had been placed on the alter. Thousands of people began to appear at the temple: workers and students, housewives and teachers, soldiers and journalists. Mother Seven, who lived next door, took charge of the temple as its priest.

Not long after, the local police superintendent sent along his policemen who stood before the temple with their guns and bayonets at the ready. When a police officer tried to remove the plaque, Mother Seven shouted that the police were destroying the Temple of the Venerable One. Her alert summoned a crowd of neighbours; they approached the police, whose officer ordered them to charge. Mother Seven, at the front of the crowd, removed her head scarf and said,

My boys! When I started life as a worker, my hair was jet black, and I wore it in a big chignon. As you see, it is now white and thin. Never in my life have I eaten my fill. Year in and year out, Mr Dim and Mr Thiu have clamoured about independence and freedom, but we have never been able to live in independence and freedom. On the contrary, we watch the heaps of garbage grow higher in Saigon. We must look for independence and freedom in another world. We believe there is a world in which our aspirations can be realised. We believe in those who can help our dreams come true. It is all quite simple. The gentlemen who rule over us order you to come to kill us. We have only joss sticks in our hands and no weapons at all.

Mother Seven referred to two presidents of South Vietnam, Ng nh Dim (1955-1963) and Nguyn Vn Thiu (19671975), both subordinate to the United States and the remains of the Vietnamese oligarchy. Mother Seven understood that neither of these men puppets of imperialism, as they were often called moved an agenda that benefitted her. The police lowered their guns. Other women came and stood beside Mother Seven, joining her in challenging the officers. The officer claimed he was just following orders; he asked Mother Seven and other leaders to come and talk to the district chief.

The next day, Mother Seven and a few others went to the home of the district chief, who was guarded by men with machine guns. The district chief was furious. Your excellency, said Mother Seven, Have you set foot in the temple to see what is in there?. Come and visit our temple, she said to him. We practice the cult of the Venerable, that is a person who has dedicated his life to the happiness of the people and to the independence of the country.

Mother Sevens sincerity irked the police chief. Who are you worshipping if not the Venerable H? Who else in the country apart from Mr H Ch Minh could be called Venerable? There never used to be anyone saying prayers in that deserted temple, but as soon as Mr H died, the decrepit old temple suddenly attracted everyone imaginable! You watch out! Dont go too far. And if you do, dont complain about my being too severe!

H Ch Minh died on 2 September 1969 in Hanoi. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) declared a week of mourning. The Republic of Vietnam south of the 17 th parallel banned any commemoration. The police chief had been tasked to prevent any kind of celebration of his life, including the conversion of an abandoned temple. Even the police chief had to admit: this man was venerable, and none other seemed to match him. The confounded superintendent was one more functionary of a defunct system, whose working-class creatively found a way to exercise their sorrow at the loss of the man that they knew as Bc H or Uncle H.

VIETNAM HAS A RIGHT TO BE FREE

Nguyn Sinh Cung was born in Hoang Tru in Ngh An Province on 19 May 1890. In his schools, including the prestigious Quc Hc Academy in Hu, the old imperial capital, Ho Chi Minh propagated his instinctual patriotic and nationalist ideas. In May 1910, Ho Chi Minh offered to interpret for some agricultural workers and peasants from the village of Cng Lng, who came to Hu to protest French colonial taxes. For this act, Ho Chi Minh was expelled from his school.

Ho Chi Minhs earliest writings written a decade after this expulsion are suffused with great hatred of the cruelty of French colonialism, which in 1922 he called colonial sadism [Documents 1 and 2]. These early writings from La Paria are filled with stories of brutality: a man beaten and shot to death for looking into the house of a French colonial-settler; a man hung from the rafters by a missionary and beaten to death for being suspected of theft; high taxes leaving the peasants starving, their bowls filled with opium rather than food. Words like duty, humanity, and civilisation, he wrote in 1923, are not what they seem: What is this duty? You showed what it is throughout your speech. It is markets, competition, interests, privileges. Trade and finance are things that express your humanity. Taxes, forced labour, excessive exploitation, that is the summing up of your civilisation.

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