Fe de ree ee ee Le a eg SO ig NO A ND

Ne

Pee SS SS OR eS ee:

By RAE MURPHY

HR TO 1965, when it be-
Me obvious to the govern-
ent of North Vietnam that
“was going to be extend-
9 the North, plans were
0 Operation to military
the North as well as to
¢ its industrial and eco-
e..
® years between 1954 and
# period which is some-
feferred to as the “ten
# Peace”, North Vietnam
sistance from the social-
itries rapidly developed
Wustry and agriculture.
Twas in Vietnam in 1965
See the fruits of the ten
% peace in the number of
quarters that had been
H€ schools, training insti-
hospitals and factories.
41 industry in the North
eOoming highly mechan-
th many working condi-
mat coal miners in Can-
ud’ Well envy.
textile industry was ad-
3 an important by-pro-
Which was the opportun-
esented to a new genera-
Vietnamese women to
full and equal partners
ilding of a new society.
mine - building industry
0 built. This industry
f2 in accordance with
as of North Vietnam, in
bulk of its production
ared to the necessity to
ze and make agriculture
cient.
lost Western standards,
ietnam was still an eco-
Wy backward country in
the progress it had
1 10 years was breath-
nd inspiring.
came the war in the air,
nh it the de-centralization
. This one plan, per-
we than any other single

defensive measure taken, has
resulted in the economic miracle
of North Vietnam. However, his-
torians will judge that. I will
limit myself to what I saw and
heard.

Over peanuts and beer with
the trade union secretary and
the director of the Haiphong
docks, I was told something of
the traditions of the Haiphong
working-class. “The longshore-
men here are like longshoremen
in every port of the world, and
our traditions of struggle go
back to the building. of these
docks. During the darkest days
of the underground struggle
against the French and against
the Japanese, whenever our Jead-
ers had to travel abroad we saw
they got there. When the time
came to strike and take over,
our men were in the forefront.
Just as now the longshoremen
load and unload the ships, de-

fend the city, and go out into the .

water and destroy the mines.
The working class of Haiphong
cannot be conquered.”

I saw much of this spirit in
Haiphong. Earlier I visited the
engineering plant. which was
built in 1960. This plant manu-
factures lathes, automatic drills
and presses, milling equipment,
pumps and other irrigation
equipment. The plant is being
de-centralized and exists in
several buildings throughout the
city with elements scattered in
villages around the province and
indeed throughout the country.
This is true in the physical as
well as in the administrative
sense, In all of North Vietnam,
production is being localized and
its administration and control is
in the hands of local authorities.

The basic products of the Hai-
phong engineering works ap-
peared to be irrigation equip-

Impressions of a people's War

Reorganizing

for

defense

ment and a type of portable
drill-press which was designed
by the chief engineer of the
plant. The drill has an electric
motor mounted on its frame, is
light enough to be transported

_by bicycle, and when the situa-

tion arises, it can have the rear
wheel of the bicycle mounted to
the drive shaft and can be oper-
ated with two workers, one
peddling. furiously on the bi-
cycle.

There were about two hun-
dred workers left in the opera-
tion of the plant in Haiphong,
another thousand are scattered
in feeder and assembly plants
around the province. For those
in the city, production goes on
in spite of air attacks. The ma-
chines are encased in bomb-
shelters of their own and the
workers are protected by indivi-
dual shelter beside the machine.
The whole plant is honeycombed
with connecting tunnels and
trenches, which in case of heavy
attack can lead the workers to
safety almost a mile from the
factory. “We're diggers in Viet-
nam,” the young plant director
told me as I admired the net-
work.

For the workers in the plant
all aspects of life continue.
There is a song and dance en-
semble whose slogan is: “The
sound of our songs rise higher
than the bomb’s_ explosion.”
There is a self defense unit, a
medical unit, and above all there
are night schools. Fifteen of the
workers have reached college
level in education and is also the
worker has passed the grad
seven level.

It would be pointless to try
and illustrate the competitive
productive spirit in the plant, the
number of medal winners and
the honoured production teams.
Typical of the workers I met
was Nguyen Thi Vieng, a 23
year old girl, who emigrated to
Vietnam from Thailand after
1954. She is a model worker,
who has now reached college
level in education as is also the
best rifle shot in the plant. Of
the total work force, 31 percent
are young women like Thi
Vieng.

The plant’s Haiphong opera-
tions have surpassed this years
plan, month by month, and so
have all the scattered operations.

The dispersal of industry has

.a two-fold effect. It protects the

lives and families of the workers
and maintains production in
spite of the heavy bombing.
Secondly, it -introduces the
working class into villages and
serves as a uniting, cohesive ef-
fect among the population as a
whole which is overwhelmingly
peasant.

As evidence of the success of
the industrial dispersal in Viet-
nam, I was told that in the pro-
vince of Haiphong, industrial

production

in the first six
months of 1967 is 6 percent
higher in this period in 1966,
which in turn was 10 percent
higher than 1965.

All this in spite of the inten-
sive attacks which come from
planes based in Thailand, South
Vietnam, and the 7th fleet. Ame-
rican crusiers also range the
coast and shell the land from 35
miles out at sea.

Some industries cannot be dis-

persed. Every home and building

in the surrounding coal fields
have been destroyed. The work-

ers now live in caves but pro- .

duction goes on and the ships
are unloaded in Haiphong. The

Drying of cocoons on collective farm.

cement plant, which was the
pride and joy of Haiphong, is
destroyed and casts only a gro-
tesque silhouette on the skyline,
but cement is still produced in
small factories in several vil-
lages, and is transported along a
network of roads that defy any-
thing the Americans can seem to
throw.

In the city life goes on. More
children are enrolled in schools
around the city than last year.
There has been a 27 percent in-
crease in night school attend-
ance, and in the Haiphong en-
gineering works the song en-
semble raises its voices higher
than the sound of bombs.

Over 5 million adults and children continue schooling.
" DECEMBER 15, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7