The Red Earth by Binh Tu Tran

Author:Binh Tu Tran
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Asian Studies
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2014-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

The Party Comes to Phu-rieng

Our struggles drew the attention of Ngo Gia Tu,[31]one of the first Communists in Viet Nam. Brother Tu had come south to work in 1927. In 1928 he delegated Nguyen Xuan Cu, alias Vinh, one of his comrades, to go up to Phu-rieng to work in the rubber workers movement and to build up an infrastructure for the Revolutionary Youth League. Cu was from the North, a student at the Buoi school (now the Chu Van An school).[32]Though he had student roots, brother Cu understood that if he wanted to make revolution he would have to go among the worker and peasant masses and learn from them to be able to fulfill his responsibility. He came to Phu-rieng and asked to work as houseboy for the overseer Lebonne, chief of Village 3.

At the time the French hated and suspected me and transferred me to the clinic to clean up and do the laundry. They wanted to cut me off from the old Ha-nam workers who really believed in me. So, from then on, I had to live at the clinic. The work was hard and complex, but I learned what I could from it. After only a few months working at the clinic I knew how to give intramuscular and intravenous injections. I also knew how to use the common drugs. The head nurse, whose name was Phong, was short with very dark skin. He would laugh maliciously while he stared evenly at you. Phong beat the patients resoundingly, and whenever any women workers were ill and came to the clinic, he always raped them. Many times I stopped him, he beat me, and I hit back. I had long been famous at the plantation for my obstinacy, and I was not about to submit to him.

Brother Cu heard of my attitude and of all the struggles I had been involved in before, so he held me in high esteem. He sought me out to make friends. He invited me back to his room and we exchanged confidences. He was very poised, and every time he explained something to me he went slowly, explaining each detail so I had a thorough understanding of all he had said.

Cu also worked cautiously. Before he propagandized anyone, he researched and investigated the person carefully. Within a short time the number of people he had propagandized and brought into the Revolutionary Youth League had risen to four, including me and three other comrades: Ta, Hong and Hoa. Cu’s style of work had a great influence on me after that.

The things that Cu explained to us were very practical. They were in direct response to the impasse we faced at the time. They helped us discover the reasons for the failure of our previous efforts, and at the same time gave each person confidence in the new methods of struggle. For the first time I understood how revolutionary theory was related to the revolutionary movement. The teachings of the old masters

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