(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
It is Vietnam activist Odd Erik Germundsson who says this in a conversation with Orientering. Germundsson is secretary of the FNL groups in Oslo. Now he is working hard and organizing the Vietnam Week in Oslo, so it is better as long as he has time for a conversation.
- We assume the situation in Vietnam as it is now. The events this year have seen the Liberation Front hire the people in a very offensive against the American occupants. In wave after wave, the people have stormed ahead and have new scans in the battle for self-standing. Prior to the offensive, FNL controlled well over 80 percent of the area in the south. Now the Americans have to touch a few big cities, their own bazaars and a few few strong points. Many of them have had to give up. Khe Sanh is not the only one.
- Strong terror leads to tougher resistance. How bad is the city?
- FNL has also made great progress there. Not least political. FNL has been strong for quite some time in many of the cities that the Americans are lucky. So find that quarter in Saigon where the Americans have never had control, and the fringes have been freely healed since 1963-64. Americans are bombing stronger than ever in North Vietnam, where province after province is being destroyed. Do they do anything similar in the south?
- Most of the villages and towns are bombed in one. People mostly live underground and in camouflaged areas inside the jungle. They undergo uncanny sufferings. But they did not give up. They fight for a fair cause. The whole thing develops so that the stronger the FNL becomes, the harder the terror becomes. Strong terror leads to greater resistance, and more and more end up on the FNL. The imperialists are now in need of a crow, becoming more and more like wild beasts. In spite of this, FNL stands closer than ever before.
The people lead the fight
- But not everyone agrees on FNL?
- Not everyone, but most of them. This is what we see at the Democratic Alliance, which is a parallel organization that cooperates with the FNL, and who collectively gather people in the cities; intellectuals, civic physicians and government officials in the puppet administration. All teams now end the match.
- The bourgeois press writes that the FNL is terrorizing the civilian people.
- This has nothing to do with facts, simply because it is the people themselves who are now leading the fight against the Americans. FNL has its foundation in the countryside, but now the people in the cities are also actively involved. This is the last phase of the people's war. And it is clear that the people are not terrorizing themselves. When operations are to be launched, the liberation forces always warn those who live in the area, so they can get away. But the Americans are bombing the villages and residential areas of the big cities because they cannot separate the people from the enemy.
Press underestimates FNL progress
- We do not notice much about Vietnam in the Norwegian press and broadcasting. Are people like-minded?
- Nel, people are not equal. They are not done with Vietnam, and there is widespread opposition to US warfare.
- But the newspapers must have forgotten Vietnam?
- The bourgeois press in principle disrupts US imperialism, and is itself a part of the system that is completely dependent on US imperialism. Therefore, it is natural when the press underestimates reports about the progress of the Vietnamese people in the struggle. This is also the reason why the Norwegian press has never tried to give an analysis of the Vietnam War.
- And this is Vietnam Week to fix?
- Yes, the purpose is to make people aware of the just struggle the Vietnamese people are waging, remind them of what is going on, gather the Norwegian people for the benefit of the Vietnamese people and to oppose US imperialism.
Many new FNL groups and Vietnam committees
- How is the plan for the week?
- The newspapers do not back up, nor does the broadcast. Therefore, there are general actions on the ground floor: lectures, brochures, flyers, standing demonstrations and fundraising outside large workplaces on pay days.
- And there will be events in many places across the country?
- It will be, and far more places this time than last time. During the previous Vietnam Week, there were shipments at 18 locations. This time there are 50 places that will join.
In the last six months, there has been a boom in Vietnam committees and FNL groups around the country. I can mention that there are new groups in places like Larvik, Gjøvik and Kongsberg, and now in the last few days seven new FNL groups have started in Trondheim.
- Førebuinga?
- Centrally, we print material of various kinds, and in addition to regular brochures, we have made a booklet with articles, speeches and poems by Ho Chi Minh, which we sell for 2 kroner. In addition, we come with a new issue of the magazine of the Solidarity Committee, "For Vietnam", which comes with 4-8 issues a year.
The local groups and committees set up the shipments themselves, so in more detail I can only answer for Oslo.
- Here it goes for a full whole week?
- There will be standing demonstrations every day, and we will be in all parts of the city. There will be sales at the doors of the FNL program, the Ho Chi Minh booklet, "For Vietnam" and the Vietnam brand. There will be an art exhibition with a hall of paintings and sculpture that well-known artists have provided for free. And we sell cheap. We also expect a lot of people at the film night on Thursday, where we will show the film "Inside North Vietnam" (North Vietnam from within), which is not shown on TV, and where we also have a Cuban color film that shows how the Vietnamese build that his country in between the bombing, under the motto: "Our hatred becomes creative power". We will otherwise have an open town meeting, we will sell posters and gramophone records with Freedom Singers, and we will end with a demonstration train on Sunday the 20th at 18.00 from Lysverket, in front of the US Embassy in Youngstorget, where there will be an open meeting in Folkets Hus with lectures on the latest developments in Vietnam, appeals, and song by the famous group Freedom Singers plus auction of artwork.
