Soldiers (who traditionally accompany them sar). Most, however, are forced evacuees en along by the panic-stricken troops for lection. Now they are being stuck in centration camps outside Saigon as a am barrier to the liberation forces. Many are also genuinely afraid of the PRG. he areas still controlled by Thieu antimunist propaganda is constantly pumped A favourite theme is the myth of the mass cations supposedly curried out by the NLE in they occupied Hue in 1968, At that time the bighest figure of executions ated was 300. Now the figure has grown to alleged 5000. Correspondents who were ually in Hue never found the mass graves It were supposed to house the victims 0D who were killed by US bombs at the same le are never mentioned.
Even Time magazine admits that the vast dority of the refugees are just fleeing to ape the fighting. This is hardly surprising, the liberaled areas were immediately clared tece fire zones subject to intense mbardment-by the military commanders the South.
As a result of all these factors, there is un sosphere of sheer panic cynically enouraged the Saigon regime. Many refugees do not en know why they are fleeing or what from. the International Merald Tribune reported 27 March, the most common reply in the estion 'why are you fleeisg was bocause eryone else is There is a clear division amonest the 'ugees. The first to go are the local beaucrats, the officials and the ruling classually on the air-flights. Thieu's family, for tance, have already Jell Sajgon, In Tay nh the rich fled to Saigon, the pour to the IG.
The "baby lift and the cvacuations were The National Liberation Front has won mass support in the countryside by taking up the fight against the rural capitalists.
The root cause of the peasants poverty and oppression has been the system of landownership. Absent landiords own vast arcas of land, for which they charpe huge rents and impose crippline interest rates on their tenants. Furthermore, the forced acquition of Land into the hands of a small group of capitalists, which was begun by the French, has been tremendously accelerated by the so-called. "Green Revolution', This has driven thousands of peasants off their land and pauperised thousunds more.
Because the rural capitalists are completely tied to the Government and the native urban capitalists often they are one and the same-the class struggle in the countryside is directly intertwined with that in the cities. The NLF, by raising to the fore the class strugale in the countryside and showing that it is a key element in the national struggle, have bulit a massive base amongst the peasantry and won the leadership of the struggle In the liberated areas the clan of rural capitalists have been overthrown, their power smashed, and the exploitation of the peasants ended for ever. The social transformation of the countryside therefore provides the material and political basis for all the other gains of the liberated areas-and these are considerable.
All observers, even the most reactionary ones, agree on the high quality of life in the liberated seized on by the capitalist press to cover up the powerlessness of imperialism in the face of the Insurgents' audacious victories, and also to cover up the enormous influx of arms and ammunition not food or medicine, of coursefrom the US into Saigon But the consequences of imperialism go far deeper than the uprooting of millions of people. The cconomy of South Vietnam is grossly distorted, being completely geared to the needs and enrichment of a few petty capitalists. It is wracked by inflation with no stable base or infrastructure.
US Senator J. Walter Fulbright was not lar wrong when he called South Vietnam 'a society of prostitutes and mercenaries'. transforms itself into arms and grail. Last week a US newspaper revealed that some 200 million dollars in American equipmentincluding no less than 46 ships had gone astray Most, it was indicated, had been stolen. by officials in Saigon and sold to the North Vietnamese and NUE!
In Saigon the cultural distortions nave reached their worst extremes. drug peddlers, black-marketeers and prostitutes live piratically off the USA's handouts. Conscription has destroyed whatever social cohesion remained.
Added to this is the misery of starvation. unemployment and hard repression arising out of the rot caused by imperialism. No wonder the liberated PRG arcas are such a magnet of attraction for the poor in the South.
LIberation TOrces CHEEr HU duce being pooled.
etc. 64 per cent in the last year other areas, Aid magically SECE TITSEL Thousands of were illiterate.
stilling patriarchal bold.
omy: at district level. areas. Every peasant family has their own piece of land. In addition every village has communal land. This is shared out, the labour and the proAs yer there is no generalised collectivisation of agriculture, but it is being owly built up through the development of 'mutual aid' teams. the emulation of exemplary collectives and the councils. collective clearing of land and building of dykes The immediate results of even this minimal reforn can be seen in some figures published in the PRO's paper South Fietnem in Struggie, In almost all the liberated areas there are now two or three crops a year sown instead of one. In Vinh Thuan an extra 5000 acres are now under cultivation. In Binh Dinh Province, agricultural produce is up 20 per cent. In Kontum the acreage cultivated has increased by 30 per cent. The rice and maize yield is up 40 per cent and domestic animals have incroased by 20 percent. The P'RG were able to claim an approximate production increase of PHYSICAL RISK al its success This has been achieved on land previously thick with mines, barbed wire and bombs that needed 10 working days per acre to clear, excluding the terrible physical risk involved.
-In all the PRG areas there is no shortage of food. Many poor peasants get a subsidy and any surplus is pooled to oftser usasiers in There are two markets in existence. There iS the 'free market and the state market. The state market has a monopoly of all goods in short supply and rutions them out accordingly Goods on the state market are sold at three-quarters or half the price of those on tho Nearly every PRG village has a school, and education is given great emphasis. In the Mekong Delta 300 such sciouls were opened last year. In Con Man province every village has three or four schools with attendances in the region of 80 to 90 per cent. In Quang Tri province everyone can now read and wilte whercas previously 88 per cent of the people Special emplasis i given to the education cot wornen and creches are universal deliberate effort is made to organise women into women's organisations to bresk the Special help is also given to the ethnic minories such as the Klumers in thie Mekong and the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, who are encouraged to develop regional autonHEALTH CENTRES In neatEn were was ocean calcure conne togrther of traditional and modern medicine. Extensive medical facilities exist throughout the bberated areas, with medical posts in every village und mujor hospitals and maternity homes Seventy-five per cent of the treatment is free Mobile medical teams regularly tour the villages. and there are frequent immunisation and bealth drives. Most of the endomic discusea Le TB and malaria are on the way to being eradicated.
Regular area conferences are held on all aspects of life in the liberated zone. For example mass meetings were held after the Paris Peace Accords were signed so that the people could debate their significance.
Finally, an integrated system of self defence exists throughout the liberated zones, with everyone permanently armed. All the population take their turn in the people's militia and the self-defence groups.
Of course there is still a shortage of full information about the organisation of the liberated zones. The structure is certuinly hierarchical, and heavily dominated by the PRO-although organised through village HARSH LIFE Life in the liberated zones is still harsh However there is no longer any hunger. Most of the population can not only read and write, but they are now planning and building roads and bridges as well as playing their role in developing even more complicated technological devices, They have adequate health care. Most important they are rapidly developing political consciousness The liberated zones are at the same time the result and the extension of the class struggle in Vietnam. They are the revolutionary bases from which that class struggle is now being extended into the puppet-controlled areas This is the base of the PRO, and the basis Education is given great amphasis in PRG zones
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es er different causes. Many are the families