By GERHARD FELDBAUER HANOI (ADN) — One of the eminent strides in the 25-year- ‘old history of ‘the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is the great social progress attained by the national minorities through consistent appliance of the Len- inist policy of national integra- tion. The first constitution of the DRV_ proclaimed in 1946 an- chored absolute equality for the more than 60 tribes of the four million -members of national minorities living in Vietnam. Whereas today the ethnic groups in US-dominated South Vietnam are fighting in the ranks of -the national liberation front for equality, this has be- come reality. for the 37 minori- ties living in the DRV. Important steps in this direc- tion were thé worming of the two autonomous regons of Viet Bac and Tay Bac in the north of the DRV which extend over Sa90N40UC40UNU0UNNEUEEUEEQDUOSOUOAUEOSUUEOUEOOUSOOUOUOUOOAUEOOUOUUEEOUOEOUGOUEOOQEOUEOOUEOOUUOUEGAUOEUONOUUEOOUEAUUOOUGUOUGOOUOAUUEGUOODUGOOUOSOUEQUOUOUEOGUCUAUGOUEOOUUGAUEOOUUEUUOUECOUONOUEOOUOGUUEOUUOQUGOOUOEOUGGDUEOOUOOUOQOUEOOuEQueguueoquegqueussott Both feet in the working class STUAUNNSDOUSUROUGUOOOUGUOUAUORUSUAUDEOOUQUONUNUENGUQOOSQOOOSDENSUSULQESESUUGNUGUODONUSUOOUEHOUODDOUOSUOREUQQNULSOUEQDORDODOUGUDEQENQEQ0UUOQEUOEHOOUCGEONOQUOUULOQOUOUQUOUOOTOUQQUOQUOUCSOOOCGUONOQQOCQUOOUQUOOOEHOOCGROQUUGUOOOSUOUEUOOCUUEUOEOOEOOUEE The following is a speech which the popular Danish novelist Hans Scherfig made on “The student society” of Denmark—left of centre, all the way—a few years ‘ago. Scherfig is also a column- ist of the communist daily “Land og Folk” in Copenhagen. The day after the king’s birth- day the super royalistic daily “Politiken” presented for the en- joyment of its readers a touch- ing picture of a university stu- dent; he offered small paper flags for sale to the innocent children who on such an occa- sion are led to the royal castle and wave to. the king’s balcony, shouting: “Say something, Punch!” The student wore a warm, knitted touque on his head, on top of which he had placed the white university student cap. The children and their nurses who bought the flags, were thus advised, that it was not a com- mon street vendor whom they were dealing with, but a univer- sity man. At Christmas time the young students change the white caps for red Santa Claus head gear without becoming Jacobins. But all through the year we see the respectable white caps on heads shouting and selling morning . papers during the night. The university student cap cannot be said to signify any class pri- -ilege; rather some kind of rank below the poverty line — “We are the respectable poor.” Respectability doesnot ex- clude need. And science is not the road to liberty. Neither uni- versity diplomas nor examina- tion papers are passes into the middle class for the poor intel- lectual. After the finished uni- versity education, the student shares the fate of the wage earner. He must sell his ability to work, his aptitude and tal- ents to the class which is at - liberty to be rich on others’ work, This is not just a modern phe- nomenon. Marx and_ Engels pointed it out more than one hundred years ago. Already the . Communist Manifesto said: ‘‘The bourgeoisie has taken the glory away from all the occupations which before were regarded with holy awe. It has changed ‘ more than half of the Republic’s - _territory. Some 2.5 million peo- ple—the vast majority of the national minorities—live there. Members of these minorities hold all key functions of govern- ment and public life. In accord- ance with their proportion in the population figure they hold 64 of altogether 455 seats in par- liament. The national minorities are DVR minorities leave dark ages », —represented in the central com- mittee of the Vietnam Working People’s Party, in the cabinet, in the general staff of the na- tional army and in other leading party and government bodies. The national minorities of the DRV have left behind the dark Middle Ages and feudal slavery and embarked on the road to socialism. About 85 percent of all farmers today are members of agricultural cooperatives. In the mountainous areas abundant in raw materials many industrial enterprises were set up. Over 10,000 kilometres of rails were: laid. Illiteracy was eradicated. Every village has a_ school with four grades, and there is one seven-grade school for every four or five villages. Every district has a ten-class — high school. In all province and district towns hospitals were erected, and every. village has_ an outpatient’s department. the physician, the minister, the‘ dare not belong to a_ trade poet and the scientist into its paid wage earners.” Usually this class arrange- ment has not made the univer- sity wage earner class consci- ous; and in the class struggle he often takes the side of his mas- ters. Despite their position as wage earners the owners of the university student caps themselves in many ways tied to the middle class, which has educated them to its own'needs. There are stories about terrible Chinese emperors of the past who raised children in vases and jars, so that they got the form of the container and be- came amusing misfits and serv- ed their masters as court jes- ters. The higher school of the middle class tries to shape the souls in the same way. Few are they who avoid becoming de- formed. The higher school of the bour- geoisie is not without meaning. Its job is to produce striving star pupils. The goal that lures is the career. To amount to something. is the word. To get on and up. We know the catch- words. -The competing middle class. culture dailies ‘Sunday BT” (conservative) and ‘Poli- tiken” (Liberal) are at present running serials about how to make’ a career by kow-towing and the use of elbows, how to promote oneself to top jobs and chief positions. Fifty ways to make a career, told by top ex- perts. Darwin’s liberalistic nature theory about survival of the fit- test, the survival of the strong- est in the murderous competi- tion (as against Krapotkin’s postulate about mutual aid in nature) is the pivot of middle class society, where the fight for a career begins with marks in school. The natural selection, based on the fight of the wild animals, is the model for middle class education. The striving towards the top positions’ soli- tude is middle class individual- ism. The individualists are the angry older men of our time who flock together in attack on the so-called welfare state, where life is not lived danger- ously enough by others. The in- dividualists are the standard- educated staff members who PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1970—PAGE 8 feel .mounced the Soviet union. The scared and the fright- ened are the individualists. Hypocrisy, which is the nobl- est ability of the middle class, is the top subject in the higher school. It is the prerequisite for perversion of concepts. Hypo- critical explanations are found for all the horrors of capitalism, lies, which they themselves be- lieve in. Hypocrisy approaches the sublime, when you can fool yourself. But doesn’t the university youth protest against hypocrisy and the star pupil system? Of course it does. It is developed in protest, it revolts against the milieu, but carries the marks of it. The middle class looks on quite benevolently, when part of the university youth frater- nizes with the proletarian move- ment for a while. It is a middle class tradition that students are allowed to be revolutionaries before their final diplomas. A little flirting with communism during the university years can be tolerated, if it does not last too long. A little idealism is per- missible before the career. You have no heart, if you are not a revolutionary in your youth, and no brains, if. you are not con- servative later on, said a famed French opportunist. An editor of the ‘“Social-Democrat” has recommended psychoanalysis of “Jeft-complexes.” He has tried the cure successfully and will gladly provide younger co-pa- tients with the address of a psychoanalyst in the next town. When you think of the flood of formidable revolutionaries who just in my time has stream- ed through the “student socie- ty,” it isa wonder that the Dan- ish kingdom has not become a Soviet republic long ago. One remembers the character who acted as a little Lenin in the university cafeteria, before he became department - manager with moderate points of view. The proletarian movement had disappointed him, it did not value his abilities, it was not worthy of him. There were all sorts, all types, such as the re- bellious poet who at a demon- stration at the royal castle an- republic from the steps of the neighbor- -Anti-communism turns its victims into robots MIAMI, U.S.A. — Only one person out of 50 approached on Miami streets by a reporter agreed to sign a typed copy of the Declaration of Independence. Two called it “commi junk,” one threatened to call the police and another warned Miami Her- ald reporter, “Be careful who you show that kind of anti-govern- ment stuff to.” A questionnaire, circulated among 300 young adults attend- ing a Youth for Christ gathering showed that 28% thought an excerpt from the Declaration was written by Lenin. The youths, mostly high school seniors, were then asked to describe briefly what sort of person they thought would make such a statement. Among other things, the author of the Declaration was called, ; “A Communist, someone against our country.” ing church. Later he wrote birthday poems for the royal house. There was the uncontrol- lable barricade fighter who now tries to save society by reforms of footwear and propaganda for liberal health sandals. All over the country staid and depend- able lawyers, physicians, pro- fessors and city managers are sitting who were red revolution- aries before the career swallow- ed them. We have brain workers who have one foot in the: proletarian movement and who ask worried- ly, how much of the middle class baggage they are allowed to take with them into social- ism. Ought there not be room for a little middle class Tosca romanticism under the dictator- ship of the proletariat? You cannot have one foot in the future and another in the past without splitting. You can- not have your cake and eat it too. You have to quit the mid-- dle class or stay there. Ander- son-Nexo spoke about those who helped to push the cart a little bit up the hill and then deserted on the road. It is not they who will lead the move- ment ahead. All those who deserted have different reasons. Some discov- ered that communism was not communistic enough, it should have been redder according to their taste; and so they trans- ferred to social democracy and a government job. Lysenko’s hybrids and Makarenko’s radio lectures for parents have been reasons for breaches with Marx- ism. There have been many other peculiar things,.There were uni- versity students who thought that they ought to be leaders of the less-educated. In their opin- ion they stepped down into the proletariat — and brought their little university vanity into the class struggle. And there was also the ethical reason, which comes with fear, when times become troublesome by the sharpened class struggle. To de- sert during humanity’s final fight may easily be called hu- manism, when you have gone through the school of perver- sion of concepts. When General Franco was nicely in jail after his first attempt of rebellion against Spain’s democratic gov- as “A person who does not havé any sense of responsibility.” “A hippie.” “A red-neck revolutionist.” “Someone trying to make ? change in government — prob: ably for his own selfish reason f Next the Miami reporter typ® up the Declaration in petitio? form, stood all day on a side walk and asked middle-agt” - passersby to read it and sign! | One man agreed, and he $4 “it would cost the pollster a qua ter for his signature. Comments from _ those took the trouble to read the first three paragraphs were: 7 “This is the work of a raver “Someone ought to tell th? FBI about this sort of rubbis “Meaningless.” i‘ | “I don’t go for religion, Mac | “The boss’ll have to read before I can let you put it in th shop window. But politically ; who / can tell you he don’t lean way. He’s a Republican.” UUUULLELRREELE LENE Xe i ernment, the humanists succeed ed in having him pardoned a” released. It was bad humanis not to hang Franco. That the majority, ing the years joined the prole. tarian movement, has desertee — does not mean that university people must be looked at W} distrust willy-nilly. Neither doeé it mean that the movement no use for comrades with know! edge and education. It has n for them. But the wage earners from the universities have m0 need of the proletarian move | ment. The class struggle is n0 philanthropy, nor ethical idea ism. The class struggle is self interest, and its ethics are soll darity. Paks It is in the intellectuals’ ow? interest that they join the clas | which brings the new culture When Anatole France was a5* ed why he had become a com munist, he answered, ‘“Becausé I would rather be carried ahe@ than run down.” The university man must not ; believe that he sacrifices hit self by joining the class strug gle: He saves himself. Perhap> — he sacrifices his career in thé service of a master with no cU¥ ture. But the industrial worket risks also losing his job, whe? he shows solidarity with hi! class. I have spoken of those wh? deserted. This must not be Ut" derstood as if I blamed thosé who now are on the side ° progress. I have not come hefé to sow despondency. There } no reason for despondency. J? my early youth socialism was # theory and a hope; today it 15 reality. One third of the people in this world now live in a $9 cialist society; and in the ul free world — the rest of the world, society is quaking. YOU who are young today will livé to experience a whole world, where one man no longer ca? exploit another. But before we get that fal many of you will have deserté in fright, pulled down by thé burden of middle class educa tion. I congratulate those of you who have the courage to qu! the middle class and use your knowledge and your strength-1? the interest common to all bral and manual workers. ; — who dul } a e