TODAY LET US ILLUMINATE THE TORCH AND RESSURECT SPIRIT OF
IMMORTAL COMRADE HO CHI MINH WHO DIED EXACTLY 50 YEARS AGO. ON HIS 50TH
ANNIVERSARY LET US DIP OUR BLOOD AGAINST THIS CRUSADER AGAINST IMPERIALISM WHO
DID AS MUCH TO LIBERATE HIS COUNTRY AS ANY GREAT LEADER.IMPLEMENTED MAO'S
MILITARY THEORY OF PEOPLES WAR FIGHTING FRANCE AND SOWED THE SEEDS FOR IT
AGAINST AMERICA. OVERALL LET US DEFEND HO AS A GENUINE MARXIST-LENINST MAOIST.
By Harsh Thakor
Ho Chi Minh was not only one of the greatest Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries but amongst the greatest men ever who rendered service to the liberation of mankind. He infused a new spirit not only amongst the people ofVietnam but the
entire world when waging a war against imperialism. Above all he never
mechanically copied the French Communist party and even revolted against its
lack of genuine Marxist-Leninist content. He also did not blindly imitate path
of Chinese people’s war of Mao but applied it to the conditions of Vietnam . He was
an abject example of how a great Marxist Leninist revolutionary develops from
the very grassroots like a businessman learning his trade from sheer practice.
Few men ever had biographies which were so touching which revealed the inner
spiritual change in a revolutionary to wage a crusade against all odds. His
life revealed simplicity in regions of divinity but achievements in
metaphysical proportions.
His mass line practice and leadership had a lot to do with the great bastion of the Peoples Guerilla army or the Vietminh which later became the Vietcong penetrating into the very soul of the masses and carrying out heroic military offensives. I recommend readers to read an analysis in an Indian revolutionary journal 'The Comrade'. In November 1995 which brilliantly summed up howVietnam adopted the mass line to defeat America .
Chairman Ho had won the adulation or hearts of the people of the world like few men ever did .His path imbibed a spiritual change to create a new man amongst people world over. I can never forget the creativity of the tactics of the Vietcong when building underground tunnels. Few men ever could galvanize masses in the manner of Ho .Ho blended the genius or creativity of a poet of musical composer with the skill of a surgeon and tenacity of a boulder in encountering the most hazardous paths in his journey. Never in modern history have so may youth or people been galvanized with a revolutionary spiritual change as in the time of the Vietnam war with Ho at the forefront. Today we have to resurrect the spirit of Ho in a new form relevant to the modern times when imperialism has reached a crescendo in era of globalization.
His biography is close to the most fascinating any reader would wish to unravel. From his very youth he started his revolutionary journey being inspired by all the anti-colonial movements worldwide and experiencing the cruelty of his own French colonialists.
His life was a traveling spree for 2 decades from France, London Moscow and toHong Kong .
He gained his early baptism working as a cook on a French steamer and serving as a waiter inFrance and
then London
where he read the writings and news of revolutionaries and movements. William
Duiker in a biography brilliantly portrays how his life as a worker doing harsh
Fifty
years on the frontline: Revolutionary contributions of Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was not only one of the greatest Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries but amongst the greatest men ever who rendered service to the liberation of mankind. He infused a new spirit not only amongst the people of
His mass line practice and leadership had a lot to do with the great bastion of the Peoples Guerilla army or the Vietminh which later became the Vietcong penetrating into the very soul of the masses and carrying out heroic military offensives. I recommend readers to read an analysis in an Indian revolutionary journal 'The Comrade'. In November 1995 which brilliantly summed up how
Chairman Ho had won the adulation or hearts of the people of the world like few men ever did .His path imbibed a spiritual change to create a new man amongst people world over. I can never forget the creativity of the tactics of the Vietcong when building underground tunnels. Few men ever could galvanize masses in the manner of Ho .Ho blended the genius or creativity of a poet of musical composer with the skill of a surgeon and tenacity of a boulder in encountering the most hazardous paths in his journey. Never in modern history have so may youth or people been galvanized with a revolutionary spiritual change as in the time of the Vietnam war with Ho at the forefront. Today we have to resurrect the spirit of Ho in a new form relevant to the modern times when imperialism has reached a crescendo in era of globalization.
His biography is close to the most fascinating any reader would wish to unravel. From his very youth he started his revolutionary journey being inspired by all the anti-colonial movements worldwide and experiencing the cruelty of his own French colonialists.
His life was a traveling spree for 2 decades from France, London Moscow and to
He gained his early baptism working as a cook on a French steamer and serving as a waiter in
In London
and Paris molded
his thinking where he interacted with Vietnamese workers. In France he brought out a workers newspaper 'The Pariah'
which reached Vietnam
secretly and was circulated allover the world.
InMoscow he
joined the Communist East Toilers school which got him access to all leading
comrades like Dmitrov. Here he could distinguish between the revisionist trends
and the genuine revolutionary trends supporting agrarian revolution and mobilizing
peasantry. Ho was disillusioned with the French Communist party which opposed
struggle of peasantry and only supported struggle of workers against capitalists.
The turning point in his political career came in 1924 in the fifth conference
of the 3rd international. From where he grasped the necessary revolutionary dialectics.
Here he understood the essence of not only building a communist party but a
truly revolutionary one, unlike the revisionist French Communist party. His
political insight played a major role in the inroads the Vietnam workers
made in the broad Vietnamese masses’ here staunchly opposed the Euro-centrism
of Marxism by many Communist parties that gave no accent to the conditions
prevailing in the 3rd world.
Subsequently he went as a representative of his country in the Comintern meeting inKowloon .
.In Canton he
was sent by the party to recruit youth and spread anti-colonial ideology. He
brought out a revolutionary newspaper 'Than Nien' which sold in thousands,
formed the Vietnam Communist revolutionary league and set up many communist
cells. With considerable insight he formulated a Marxist-Leninist line
conducive to the situation in Vietnam .
Ho founded the Indo-Chinese Communist party in a joint meeting in Kowloon
1930.The party programme revealed great clarity and innovativeness What was
crucial was his understanding of building a peoples democratic revolution with
the four class alliance and agrarian revolution as the axis as opposed to
Trotskyite line of Socialist revolution. With meticulous skill he evaded the
agents of the Kuomintang in Hong Kong . Finally
he was captured by the British authorities and languished for a year and a half
in prison. Eventually he was released after efforts of a British lawyer.
In 1942 he returned toVietnam
.The most significant development was the formation of the Vietminh, the
guerilla army of Vietnam .
From the mid 1940's he was able to set up party branches all over the country. through
establishing Soviets which laid the base of people capturing power from the
French colonialists. It was a revelation how like a spark turning into a
prairie fire moral peoples or parallel rule spread over a huge range of
villages and towns for land rights, housing, education, health, transport etc. Land
rent was reduced to 25 percent, eight hour day was awarded to workers, literacy
was free almost everywhere..
With great tactical ingenuity Ho led his party to capitalize on the cracks in the armory of the French rulers after World War 2 and weakening of other colonial powers. In battle ofDien bien Phu
the Vietnamese forces overcame the French by launching offensives in several
distant region s to disperse the forces of the enemy. Never in the history of
mankind had a Western army been defeated by guerilla forces like at Dien Ben
Phu.
Since his inception as a leader his practice was in ideal contrast to the collaborationist or pro-British policies of the Indian National Congress led by Gandh-Nehru. In the 1954 Geneva agreement Ho displayed outstanding qualities of Leninist statesmanship
After 1954 Ho now worked on the unity of both North and South Vietnam by liberating the Southern part from dictator Ngo Din Diem who was an American puppet. Later although now not formally in charge, his moral leadership and tactical ingenuity played a major role in the Vietcong launching a thumping blow on the American enemy in the Tet Offensive. Although the American enemy was much more powerful the tactical maneuvering of Vietnamese forces won the day with their element of surprise. To prepare the Vietnamese Peoples Liberation Front destroyed the enemy supply lines and transport routes. The real turning pint was that the Vietcong could move like a fish in water being based in the very hearts of the masses. The base of a Socialist Society is what facilitated this -Thus a victory for Marxist-Leninist ideology. No under or over estimating the enemy. Although Ho died before the final victory of Liberation led by General Lu Duan in 1975 It would be incorrect not to give him the moral credit for the final victory.
What is remarkable was also the adoration of bourgeois military commanders or strategists and intellectuals for Ho's ideas and practice. They morally admitted that his strategy overcame and overpowered the Western military ones .The inherent quality of humility played a very important role in his life as a leader where he humbly listened to the view of others and thus even General Von Guyen Giap could rise to almost level stature. Since he opposed elevation of his personality cult his country could win the war even after his death, which is pertinent.
True he did make errors like adopting a centrist line and not formally upholding the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution inChina and not
completely demarcating from Kruschevite revisionism. He was also not critical
of the class collaborationism of Gandhi and Nehru in India or of the revisionism of
Fidel Castro. It is a lesson for al cadres how centrism leads to revisionism
and after the 1970's the Vietnamese Communist party took the rightist path.
Ironic the nation that won the greatest peoples War after USSR defeating the
Nazis has not supported a single Revolutionary armed struggle in the last 4
decades be it in Asia, Latin America or Africa. Perhaps Chairman Mao's
establishing relations with Nixon and placing greater emphasis on Soviet Social
Imperialism could take a share of the blame and the eventual victory of the
rightists led by Deng Xiaoping. Today Vietnam practices state capitalism.
Although formally adopting a centrist path, morally he was one of the closest comrades in arms to Chairman Mao. All cadres should meticulously read the writing of Ho which possessed the characteristic dialectical Leninist touch .His military writings also had classical analysis which were illustrated in the famous victories at Dien Ben Phu or in the Tet Offensive. Even as Maoists we have to remember that since the Chinese Revolution of 1949 no Maoist armed struggle equaled the achievements of the Vietminh and the Vietcong. The war inIraq against America
to an extent emulated the Vietnam
experience. It was a very common saying in the late 1960's and early 70's to
create many Vietnams .
It greatly inspired comrades in India
supporting Naxalbari path and there was a very supportive statement in 1969
paying homage to Ho after his death. In this regard there is a very sectarian
attitude in the role of the International Maoist camp towards Ho Chi Minh like
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement earlier and Maoist forces in Europe and
Canada .
With the Palestinian or Middle East situation at the forefront of the
anti-imperialist movement toady there is no more inspiring struggle than the
Vietnam War to defeat the fascist Israel
and America .
Even if wars may take a different shape they could still emulate many of the
ideas of Vietnam .
Ho also gave a fitting blow to the counter-revolutionary Trotskyite line that
opposed anti-imperialist struggle.
Several Maoist sections like Dem Volke Dienen,Tjen Folke media Struggle Sessions and other Gonzaloites criticize Ho as a rightist, rejecting Maoism. Their grounds are that he took aid from revisionistUSSR and did not uphold the
Cultural revolution, taking a centrist path. Chairman Joma Sison staunchly
defends Ho as a Maoist refuting such critques stating "Ho Chin Minh is a
great revolutionary leader of the Vietnamese people and the world proletariat.
He led to victory the people's war that confronted French and US aggression and inflicted the first frontal
and definitive defeat of US
imperialism in a country that it had dominated. Under Ho's leadership, the
Vietnamese proletariat and people won victories on their self-reliant struggle
even as China assisted their
struggle for certain periods and so did the Soviet Union ,
especially in the run up to victory in the late years of the 1960s to 1975. It
is a matter of historical fact that even as the Soviet Union was already social
imperialist, Ho was able to wisely use its assistance to defeat US imperialism.
Without Soviet assistance, South
Vietnam would not have been liberated at the
rate it was liberated.
"Only infantile Maoists, characterized by dogmatism and sectarianism, deny the historical facts. Even Mao highly respected Ho as a comrade. Only a fool can condemn Ho for forthrightly availing of the Soviet assistance, when this was crucial for bringing down thousands of US planes and mobilizing armed personnel in both North and South. Ho did not put forward any systematic theory and practice of "centrism". And he cannot be held mainly or greatly responsible for the social developments in Vietnam due to the influence of Soviet social imperialism and then in current time US imperialism, just as Mao cannot be held responsible for the forces and trends opposing his line before, during and after the cultural revolution.
"
In
Subsequently he went as a representative of his country in the Comintern meeting in
In 1942 he returned to
With great tactical ingenuity Ho led his party to capitalize on the cracks in the armory of the French rulers after World War 2 and weakening of other colonial powers. In battle of
Since his inception as a leader his practice was in ideal contrast to the collaborationist or pro-British policies of the Indian National Congress led by Gandh-Nehru. In the 1954 Geneva agreement Ho displayed outstanding qualities of Leninist statesmanship
After 1954 Ho now worked on the unity of both North and South Vietnam by liberating the Southern part from dictator Ngo Din Diem who was an American puppet. Later although now not formally in charge, his moral leadership and tactical ingenuity played a major role in the Vietcong launching a thumping blow on the American enemy in the Tet Offensive. Although the American enemy was much more powerful the tactical maneuvering of Vietnamese forces won the day with their element of surprise. To prepare the Vietnamese Peoples Liberation Front destroyed the enemy supply lines and transport routes. The real turning pint was that the Vietcong could move like a fish in water being based in the very hearts of the masses. The base of a Socialist Society is what facilitated this -Thus a victory for Marxist-Leninist ideology. No under or over estimating the enemy. Although Ho died before the final victory of Liberation led by General Lu Duan in 1975 It would be incorrect not to give him the moral credit for the final victory.
What is remarkable was also the adoration of bourgeois military commanders or strategists and intellectuals for Ho's ideas and practice. They morally admitted that his strategy overcame and overpowered the Western military ones .The inherent quality of humility played a very important role in his life as a leader where he humbly listened to the view of others and thus even General Von Guyen Giap could rise to almost level stature. Since he opposed elevation of his personality cult his country could win the war even after his death, which is pertinent.
True he did make errors like adopting a centrist line and not formally upholding the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in
Although formally adopting a centrist path, morally he was one of the closest comrades in arms to Chairman Mao. All cadres should meticulously read the writing of Ho which possessed the characteristic dialectical Leninist touch .His military writings also had classical analysis which were illustrated in the famous victories at Dien Ben Phu or in the Tet Offensive. Even as Maoists we have to remember that since the Chinese Revolution of 1949 no Maoist armed struggle equaled the achievements of the Vietminh and the Vietcong. The war in
Several Maoist sections like Dem Volke Dienen,Tjen Folke media Struggle Sessions and other Gonzaloites criticize Ho as a rightist, rejecting Maoism. Their grounds are that he took aid from revisionist
"Only infantile Maoists, characterized by dogmatism and sectarianism, deny the historical facts. Even Mao highly respected Ho as a comrade. Only a fool can condemn Ho for forthrightly availing of the Soviet assistance, when this was crucial for bringing down thousands of US planes and mobilizing armed personnel in both North and South. Ho did not put forward any systematic theory and practice of "centrism". And he cannot be held mainly or greatly responsible for the social developments in Vietnam due to the influence of Soviet social imperialism and then in current time US imperialism, just as Mao cannot be held responsible for the forces and trends opposing his line before, during and after the cultural revolution.
"
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