Summary of the formation and development of the working class and the Vietnam Trade Union organization (part 2)

1. Period 1930 - 1936

As soon as it was born, despite the strict control of the French colonialists, the Red Trade Union still actively propagated, mobilized, and organized workers to continuously fight against oppression and exploitation, leading workers to unite with the working people to enter a vibrant and continuous revolutionary struggle to gain independence for the nation. The beginning of that glorious struggle period was the revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 with the first launch of workers of Truong Thi railway factory, Cua factory, Ben Thuy salt factory (Vinh city - Nghe An) right on May 1, 1930, towards establishing the Soviet of workers and farmers in two provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. During this time, the Red Trade Union sent more than 300 cadres to rural areas to coordinate in struggle and build a worker-peasant alliance in combat.

In 1930, there were 98 struggles with over 60,000 turns of workers participating. At Nam Dinh Yarn Factory, the number of members increased from 400 to 1,000 people. In Vinh - Ben Thuy, there were 15 Red Trade Union groups with 125 members. In the Saigon - Cho Lon area, there were 12 Red Trade Union facilities with 700 members. The struggle movement of workers and the development of the Vietnam Red Trade Union organization were praised and encouraged by the 5th International Congress of the Red Trade Union in Moscow on August 15, 1930.

In October 1930, the Indochinese Communist Party convened the first Central Conference, adopting the Party's Political Doctrine. On January 20, 1931, the Central Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party opened an Indochinese Public Works Conference in Saigon chaired by Comrade Tran Phu. The Conference identified worker mobilization as the top central task of the entire Party, setting out rules for organizing Trade Unions according to industry sectors, each provincial sub-department, Provincial Unions of Trade Unions, each region to the Indochinese General Confederation of Trade Unions. The Conference elected the Central Public Works Committee headed by Comrade Tran Phu.

From the beginning of 1931, the French colonialists intensified the suppression of the struggle movement of Vietnamese workers. The white terror of the French colonialists arrested and shot dead tens of thousands of communist soldiers and revolutionary masses participating in the 1930-1931 movement and the Nghe Tinh Soviet. By the end of 1931, most of the Party and Red Trade Union cadres had been captured by the enemy, causing the connection between the Party and the masses, between the Red Trade Union and the workers' movement to seem to be broken. In addition, the economic crisis was still serious and prolonged, causing 80,000 people to be unemployed, and the wages of workers who still had jobs were constantly being cut back. Capitalists used all kinds of tricks to exploit workers.

Thanks to the efforts and resilience of the Party and the revolutionary enthusiasm of the working class, from 1932, the revolutionary movement throughout the country began to be restored. In 1932, the French labor inspectorate had to resolve 230 cases of struggle for wage increases, reduced working hours, and anti-terrorism by workers. In 1933, there were 244 cases. In Bac Ki alone, from 1931 to 1935, there were 551 cases. The struggles attracted workers from many sectors to participate, notably the struggles of plantation workers planting industrial crops. From June 1932 to January 1933, there were 5 struggles of plantation workers in Bien Hoa, Ha Tien, Pleiku, Gia Dinh, Quang Nam provinces... From mid- 1934, the working-class movement recovered, starting with a wave of strikes by Saigon - Cho Lon workers. The June 1934 Central Conference of the Party and the 1st Party Congress (March 1935) set out the task of the Red Trade Union to develop and consolidate Trade Unions, and advocate bringing trade union officials to penetrate factories and businesses...

2. Period 1936 - 1939

From 1936 to 1939, the Vietnamese workers' and trade union movement had major changes. In 1935, the world revolutionary movement had to confront fascism, the most extreme form of imperialism, and the risk of world war was approaching. That situation required a change in the strategic direction of the Communist International for the communist and workers' movements in the world. In Vietnam, the working class established friendship organizations (1936-1937) mainly professionally, acting as an intermediary step towards demanding trade union freedom.

The Red Trade Union organization changed its name to the Friendship Association, moving to a semi-public period of operation. The goal of the workers' movement during this period was to demand union freedom, to demand the implementation of civil democracy, in order to widely gather the masses, the Friendship Association advocated recruiting all workers as long as they accepted the Charter of Union activities. Many flexible forms of organization such as: Friendship Associations, Mutual Assistance Associations, Professional Associations... were established.

Thanks to flexible, appropriate, public and semi-public organization, the workers' movement developed strongly. From 1936 to 1939, there were tens of thousands of workers' struggles forcing the French colonialists to accept a number of demands: increasing wages, reducing working hours, freedom of trade union activities, freedom of meetings, opposing employers' dismissal and beating workers. By 1938, the whole country had 120,000 trade union members, mainly in Bac Ky and Nam Ky. Some places with strong workers' movements such as: Hon Gai, Nam Dinh, Hanoi, Vinh - Ben Thuy, Phu Rieng Rubber...

In summary, the Friendship Association organization in the period 1936-1939 directly led the struggle movement of the Vietnamese working class, expanding the mass nature of the trade union organization. Under the leadership of the Party, the Friendship Association organized a vibrant campaign in the workers' movement, combining public and semi-public struggle, expanding struggle in the parliament, forcing the French colonialists to implement some social reforms unprecedented in Vietnamese society. During this period, Marxism-Leninism was publicly disseminated among workers and laborers, directly educating millions of masses in politics, creating a revolutionary rise in the Vietnamese revolution.

3. Period 1939 - 1945

In 1939, under the pretext of serving the war, colonial reactionaries issued many policies of forced labor. Workers were forced to build strategic roads, fortifications, and trenches. On September 28, 1939, the French colonialists issued a decree dissolving the Friendship Associations, arresting over 2,000 members. On November 10, 1939, the Governor-General of Indochina issued a decree increasing working hours, 60 hours for male workers, 54 hours/week for female workers and children, and also threatened to increase to 72 hours/week for some industrial workshops related to the war. The meager benefits of labor and freedom, democracy that workers gained in the 1936-1939 wave were eliminated by colonial reactionaries.

Faced with that situation, the 6th Conference of the Party Central Committee decided to establish the "National Anti-Imperialist United Front of Indochina". The "Anti-Imperialist Workers' Association" advocated organizing groups of 3 people called "Tam che" (Three Systems) in charge by a party member, with the task of fighting to protect the daily interests of workers, carrying out revolutions to overthrow the colonial and feudal governments, and liberate class and nation. In those conditions, strikes still broke out; from mid-1939 to mid-1940, workers also took advantage of the Mediation Council to legally fight against the acts of exploitation and repression by capitalists. According to statistics, the Mediation Council had to resolve 1,647 individual conflicts and 100 collective disputes.

At the end of 1940, Japan launched troops into Indochina, the revolutionary situation shifted to a new step. The 8th Conference of the Party Central Committee (May 1941) decided to establish "Vietnam independence, ally" (abbreviated as Viet Minh); "Association of Anti-Imperialist Workers" changed its name to "Association of National Salvation Workers". Under the leadership of the Party, with appropriate organizational forms and clear struggle goals, the national salvation worker movement developed strongly in Bac Ky, Trung Ky, especially in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hon Gai...

Entering 1941, pre-armed forms of workers appeared everywhere. In addition to the struggles against economic exploitation by capitalists, the workers' struggle movement carried anti-fascist, anti-war content towards establishing armed self-defense organizations to prepare for the general uprising when the opportunity came.

In 1942, some large-scale strikes such as: The strike of 700 workers at An Loc and Xuan Loc rubber plantations (Bien Hoa), the struggles of workers at Viet Tri paper factory, workers at Gia Lam airport construction site... Besides slogans demanding wage increases, reduced working hours, resisting beatings... slogans demanding France - Japan to sell more rice appeared.

In 1943, the lives and jobs of workers faced many difficulties. However, with a resilient revolutionary spirit, the working class and the National Salvation Workers' Association still developed. The struggle movement in key areas such as Hanoi, Viet Tri, Nghe An... was organized on a large scale. With the combination of political and semi-armed forms of struggle in groups.

By 1944, many secret ordnance workshops had been formed, with the core being national salvation workers in Dong Trieu and Vinh - Ben Thuy war zones, and at this time, the total number of members of the National Salvation Workers Association was over 130,000, becoming the core force of the revolution.

In early 1945, the Association of National Salvation Workers led the struggle to destroy Japanese rice warehouses in Bac Ninh, Hanoi... distributed to the poor. From mid-March 1945, the political struggle movement developed strongly combined with armed struggle, partial uprisings in many places. In August 1945, the working class under the leadership of the Party, together with the people of the whole country, overthrew the Japanese fascists and the feudal government, gained national independence, and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the first worker-peasant state in Southeast Asia.