Nghe An and Ha Tinh truly deserve the title 'red' (referring to the region's color/red hue)!

RED NGHE TINH

The provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh are located 360 kilometers north of Hue, the capital of Annam (where the "puppet" king established his court), and 326 kilometers south of Hanoi, the capital of French Indochina. Nghe An province has 3 prefectures and 6 districts with a population of 614,000 people in 942 villages. Ha Tinh province has 2 prefectures and 6 districts, 601 villages, with a population of 405,000 people. Of the 500,000 men in both provinces, 120,000 pay a poll tax of 2.20 dong per person per year.

Ha Tinh has no industry. Vinh is the main city of Nghe An. In Vinh, there is a large train station, a water and electricity plant, a match factory, 5 sawmills, 2 automobile repair shops and several smaller workshops, all employing 4,000 workers.

Apart from those workers and a similar number of officials, plantation owners, and merchants, the population of the two provinces consisted mostly of poor and middle-class farmers (over 1 million).

The two provinces are mountainous and forested, with barren land and no irrigation canals. Floods and storms are frequent, causing widespread hunger and extreme hardship for the people. Heavy taxes and social and political oppression exacerbate their dire circumstances.

People of Nghe An and Ha Tinhfamous for being stubbornDuring the French invasion and the national revolutionary movements (1905-1925), Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces were renowned. In the current struggle, the workers and farmers of Nghe An and Ha Tinh still...Upholding revolutionary traditionsof mine.

From May to December, workers in Nghe An (Vinh) went on strike and protest eight times, with 2,500 participants. During the same period, 137 protests broke out, involving a total of 300,000 farmers.

Damage: 625 farmers killed by bombing and machine gun fire, 8 villages destroyed, over 1,000 soldiers captured, and hundreds exiled.

In both provinces, more than 60,000 farmers (men, women, and youth) were organized into the Association.

Nghe An and Ha Tinh truly deserve the title "red" (referring to the region known for its red color/red hue)!

II

From December 26th to January 19th, there were two major ceremonies near Vinh: one was a "red" ceremony.”and a "golden" ceremony”.

The first ceremony was held in Loc Da village, 2 kilometers from Vinh, where 4,000 workers from Vinh city and farmers from Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc attended to commemorate the soldiers who died on December 11-12, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Guangzhou Commune.

A hammer and sickle flag was unfurled over an altar laden with incense and flowers, surrounded by 100 red flags and a string of 200 red lights. At 10 p.m., when everyone had gathered, two groups of bicycles were deployed to patrol the roads leading to Vinh and Ben Thuy, from which French troops could arrive, while another group surrounded the crowd and sang the Internationale. The order..."a moment of silence”Suddenly, it was brought out. The person presiding over the ceremony read the eulogy. Afterwards, representatives from the Trade Union, the Farmers' Association, and the villages gave speeches.

One delegate proposed: The following day, all markets in Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc would be closed.

The suggestion was met with enthusiastic support. The next day, true to their word, all the markets were deserted.

While the ceremony was underway, the workers cut off the power, causing the entire city of Vinh - Ben Thuy to be submerged in water for 10 minutes in darkness.

III

Bombs, machine guns, arson, military outposts (28 new outposts were erected in Nghe An province alone), government propaganda, the press...evenpowerless to suppress the revolutionary movement in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces.Therefore, the French imperialists devised a new tactic: organizing counter-revolutionary demonstrations and forcing the city's inhabitants to participate.

On January 19th, the people of 24 neighborhoods were dragged out into the streets, marching in groups to the rhythm of drums, carrying five yellow flags with three colors pinned to the corners. The yellow flag was the national flag of the Kingdom of Annam. These "submissive" groups (the French gave them this name, even though these poor Annamese people had never fought) were led to the royal palace (where officials often went to pay homage to the king, even though he never went there). They were greeted by the governor-general, dressed in ceremonial attire. The high-ranking official said to them: “Now that the people of the city have apologized and submitted to the Southern Government and the French Government, you must maintain order and security in the city. Do not listen to false propaganda and do not commit reprehensible acts” (the governor-general was referring to revolution, but he did not dare use overly harsh adjectives when speaking of revolution before the people). The governor-general told everyone to bow three times before the king's portrait to show their loyalty. Then he led the people before the embassy and forced them to bow three times to show their loyalty to the French empire.

The imperialists and feudalists of the Southern Dynasty viewed that demonstration of loyalty as a great success, and the news was widely reported in the newspapers the following day.

They intend to continue organizing such demonstrations in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. However, it is difficult to organize them in villages and communes with revolutionary peasants, unlike in the cities where they can only gather a few foolish people.

February 19, 1931