For Alan and Kay Inglis, the
two-week trip to Vietnam during
April and May revealed a country
that, however poor, ‘‘is vibrant
and full of hope.”’

But it also revealed that war
and the threat of war which, 14
years ago, prompted the Inglises
to found Canadian Aid for Viet-
nam Civilians, is still very much a
part of the life and the landscape
of Vietnam.

In Hanoi, in the north, the
bomb shelters that were carved
into the streets during the long
U.S. war and covered in follow-
ing liberation in the south, have
again been reopened. But this
time, they are there in the event of
Chinese attack — a grim
reminder of the unholy alliance
between China and the previous

aggressor.

New Economic Zones, Viet-
namese farmers struggle to
establish a dairy cattle industry in
an area that has been barren since
the U.S. troops left. Once a lush
rubber plantation it was denuded
by American defoliants in a
savage, futile effort to break the
strength of the National Libera-
tion Front.

Although the Inglises made the
trip to discuss orders and delivery
of the Vietnamese furniture and
handicraft which they import,
most of the time went to reaffirm
bonds of friendship that went
back to the establishment of
CAVC in 1966. __

Hosting them during their stay
was the Vietnam Women’s,
Union, the 10-million member
organization headed by Nguyen
Thi Dinh, the diminutive woman
who was second in command of
the Armed Forces of National
Liberation in South Vietnam dur-
ing the U.S. war.

They visited the offices of the
Red Cross in Hanoi to be greeted
by Dr. Nguyen Van Tin who, for
14 years has distributed the more
than half a million dollars in aid

And in the south in one of the |

Reality of war
still a part of
Vietnam's life

the CAVC has sent; and the Viet-
nam Peace Committee whose
president, Phanh Anh, honored
Alan Inglis with an award on
behalf of the Vietnam Committee
of Friendship and Solidarity with
the Peoples of All Countries.

Fittingly, it paid him tribute for
“actively supporting and assisting
the Vietnamese people in the
struggle for independence,
freedom and national reconstruc- -
tions?

At Tien Son, site of a new
hospital, they saw tangible
evidence of CAVC aid..In 1978,
$50,000 was sent to help equip the
hospital and the equipment was in
place when they visited the new
facility. Another $18,000 in
equipment was purchased on
their way through Hong Kong.

“The hospital is pretty spartan
by our standards,”’ Allan remem-
bers, ‘‘but the ministry of health
has done well using what

‘ resources were available.”’

The Inglises’ only regret is that
the federal Canadian Interna-
tional Development Agency was
to have matched the CAVC
donation with its own grant, saw
fit instead to cut off further aid to
Vietnam following the overthrow:
of the Pol Pot regime in Kam-
puchea.

Phan Anh, president of the Vietnam Peace Committee (left),

*
te

turns the friendship award over to Kay

and Alan Inglis. The award was in honor of Inglis’ work as chairman of CAVC.

Significantly, that decision by
the Canadian government was
made at a time when Vietnam fac-
ed food shortages as a result not
only of the. aggression from
China but also massive flooding
and storm damage to crops.

But that too, the Vietnamese
endured.

‘“We were concerned about the
food shortages,’’ Alan and Kay
affirm, ‘‘but everywhere the Viet-
namese told us simply that famine
has been averted, that the pro-
blems of food shortages, par-
ticularly grain, have been over-
come.”’

Alan Inglis poses with Vietnam Red Cross vice-president Dr.
Nguyen Van Tin (r), outside the Red Cross offices in Hanoi, from
which most of the CAVC aid was distributed.

And, again at peace — albeit a
precarious peace broken
periodically, by Chinese border
provocations — the Vietnamese
are concentrating on reconstruc-

tion, the Inglises say.

Even on the border areas,

“many of which were devastated
during the Chinese invasion — a .

devastation which Alan’s slides
graphically documents’ — the
rebuilding has begun.

“The people who farm there
are also the defenders,”’ Kay says,
adding that the older people and
ohers have been moved out to en-
sure their safety.

She also remembers that they
met one woman whose husband
was killed during the invasion. ‘‘I
think she would have moved right
up to the border-and lived there
and worked,”’ she says.

‘There is no question — no
one is going to move the Viet-
namese people. They’re going to
dig in.”’

From the northern border
area, the Inglis’ trip took them to
the other end of the country, to
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly
Saigon; to kindergartens, and
textile co-operatives; to Cap St.
Jacques, once the resort area for
the U.S. military and the site of
massive U.S: defoliation intend-

- edto protect a huge ammunition

dump; and to rehabilitation cen-

_ tres treating former prostitutes

and drug addicts, the names of
which translate quaintly as ‘“‘the
Centre for the building of new
women’? and ‘‘centre for building
new youth.”’ ;

At one of these centres, Kay
was surprised to find Catholic
sisters working with the women.
Later they were to find that is the
case in much of south Vietnam —
that the nuns (although not
necessarily the official church)
work willingly with the govern-
ment in helping to build a socialist
society.

The difficulties in building that ©

new society were apparent to the
Inglises: the bomb shelters that

are a constant reminder of the

threat from China that did not go
away when the troops withdrew;

the aid programs promised by the |

West but blocked by new cold
war attitudes. ;

The country is very poor, Kay
adds, in part because of the aid it:
has given to other countries, not-

ably Kampuchea — aid which the }

press here has only just begun to
acknowledge has been provided
for months.

‘But even if it is poor, you can
see it is a vibrant country, full of
hope.”’ - —Sean Griffin

ie oo premade

Newly-founded cultural alliance
aims at a national organization

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. —°

‘*Art for arts sake, and Fred’s and
* Jill’s and Dominic’s, Art for peo-
ple’s sake,”’ read the reporton art

criticism at the founding conven- °

tion of the Cultural Workers Al-
liance.

It was an historic occasion here
in Peterborough, May 17 and 18 as
86 artists and cultural workers ga-
thered at the founding convention
of the new organization.

The meeting itself proved once
again that artists are not self-em-
ployed individuals ‘‘who do their
own thing.’’ Artists, the conven-
tion pointed out, are like others in
Canadian society who find them-
selves struggling against the same
enemy, the state and monopolies of
Canada.

This was brought out in both po-
sition papers and the final docu-
ment of aims and objectives of
CWA. Artists, whether visual, in
theatre, literature or journalism

pointed out that the main source
of money for the arts is the govern-
ment, be it through the Canada
Council, CBC or other agencies,
provincial or federal. But at the
same time, the artists recognized
they have a direct link with all
working and oppressed peoples in
Canada.

There is a direct link it was noted
with the “technical and support
workers”’ i.e. people: employed in
galleries, museums, television, etc.,
whose work is directly related to the
arts.

Several delegates mentioned the
recent organizing of the Art Gallery
of Ontario and recognized the
AGO workers connection to the ar-
tists whose work is (and isn’t) ex-
hibited there.

The artist’s responsibility to the
peoples of Canada to support them
in their struggles ‘‘for better condi-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 30, 1980—Page 10

tions of life and work”’ was also
highlighted.

The problem of censorship was
dealt with extensively. On one hand
the state uses censorship to sup-
press progressive and anti-monop-
oly culture. On the other hand to-
tally opposing censorship would be
tantamount to allowing racist, sex-
ist and other reactionary cultural
expressions.

The convention adopted the
principle of opposing censorship in
principle while at the same time be-
ing wholly opposed to reactionary
culture regardless of its source.

With the exception of Millie
Lamb of the Nellie McClung Wo-
men’s Theatre in Winnipeg, the
delegates were from Ontario and
Quebec. CWA noted this short-
coming and aid plans to expand
rapidly across Canada to become a
truly country-wide organization of
artists and cultural workers.

: —J.K.

Peterborough.

Delegates to the Cultural Workers Alliance founding conference in ;