Directing the struggle on public press forums

(Baonghean)At the end of 1937, comrade Le Hong Phong returned to Saigon with the Party Central Committee to directly lead the Vietnamese revolution. This was also the time when the Saigon City Council election had just ended and there were active preparations for the election of the Southern Regional Council.

In the new democratic context, the Indochinese Communist Party advocated sending representatives to these councils, openly fighting for the rights of the workers and peasants. However, the communist representative Nguyen Van Tao was elected to the City Council but not to the Southern Regional Council (April 1939). Meanwhile, Trotskyist representatives such as Phan Van Hum, Ta Thu Thau, and Tran Van Thach were elected. At this time, in public opinion, including a number of communists with different perceptions, many people believed that the communists had made mistakes and had been “exposed”… The enemy took this opportunity to propagate and lower the role and prestige of the communists.

Faced with this situation, Le Hong Phong wrote a series of articles under the pen name TB, published in the "People" newspaper - the first public newspaper of the Indochinese Communist Party, debating to reach a consensus on the issue of parliamentary struggle, the issue of Indochina defense in order to gather maximum forces for the anti-war struggle, to prevent the compromise of the Trotskyites: Lessons in the election of the Regional Council, Discussion with Mr. Nguyen Van Tao on the article "Was the Constitutional Party overthrown by the masses? Was it the policy of overthrowing the Constitutional Party that the Trotskyites won the lottery?... Le Hong Phong's viewpoint was presented in many articles as: "Fighting against the left, the right and those who compromise with them, fighting against speculation, against the tendency to form factions, that is the condition to make the Party consolidated, unified, strong, capable, leading the revolution to victory".

Also during this period, participating in directing the ideological struggle of our Party, General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu with the pen names DC, T, TH, Tri Thanh... wrote many articles published in the newspaper "Dan Chung" such as Democratic Front with the Workers' and Peasants' Front in the election of the Council of Administration (Cochinchina), Around the issues of Japan's occupation of Hainan... wrote the work "Self-criticism" (pen name Tri Cuong).

In his articles, General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu pointed out that “Openly, boldly, and honestly pointing out one’s mistakes and finding ways to correct and combat compromising tendencies does not weaken the Party, but makes it unified and strong… On the contrary, “closing the door and telling each other” to maintain external unity, while inside it is a mess, full of activists…that shows that it is not a revolutionary party, but a reformist, activist party”, “The Communist Party advocates alliances with parties and classes of people…must have principles, and not compromise with reactionaries, Trotskyite provocateurs, and fascist henchmen”.

The meeting of perceptions and methods of struggle on the ideological front was shown through a series of articles by Le Hong Phong and General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu in the newspaper "Dan Chung" in the years 1938 - 1939, actively contributing to regaining unity within the Party in ideology and methods of struggle - very sensitive issues facing the Indochinese Communist Party in the late 1930s of the 20th century.

Thanh Thuy (ST - GT)