“Proletarianizing” Intellectuals: The Role of Educated Workers in the Power Transition from Intellectuals to Working Class in the Early Years of Vietnamese Marxist Party Formation

• In Event: 22. Forging Power and Space: Vietnamese Workers’ Acts of Resistance in an Evolving Political Landscape

Abstract

The concept of educated workers emerged within the context of French colonial educational practice. By the 1920s, the Vietnamese nationalist movement had become multi-faceted due to a number of factors: exposure to ideas and to theories of communism, the rise of a new intellectual class, and the growth of a substantial working class. Although the power and the influence of intellectuals remained important given the impact of a Vietnamese literati-respected tradition, the struggle for independence faced new challenges from this new Vietnamese work force which claimed its stake in this nationalist landscape and which also aspired to occupy the leading role in the revolution. Vietnamese Marxist intellectuals sought ways to promote and propagandize communist ideologies in order to reach the masses, and, in the process, they were also engaged in “proletarianizing” themselves. In order to prove their legitimacy, these students hid their intellectual origins by adopting a working class appearance and language. Meanwhile, in the internal affairs of the Party, they used the knowledge, industrial skills, and discipline they acquired in the colonial vocational school to facilitate their propaganda campaigns, thereby ensuring their leadership position. This paper therefore examines this binary power play in the Party. I draw on archival materials in Hanoi, Hochiminh City, and published and unpublished collections of memoir from formers graduates of colonial professional schools.

Author

• Hoa Thi Phuong Tran, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences