Workers World Party salutes the 50th anniversary of the stunning victory of the long struggle in Vietnam for national liberation and an end to imperialist occupation.

On April 30, 1975, the last U.S. collaborators, contractors and advisers fled Saigon, literally hanging onto the skids of U.S. evacuation helicopters as the victorious National Liberation Front forces marched into Saigon (then the capital of South Vietnam, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City). The powerful images of U.S. defeat changed world history and gave a surge of new hope for other oppressed peoples. By May Day, Vietnam was liberated.

Here and now, in the center of U.S. imperialism, the issues, slogans and dividing lines in the powerful solidarity movements inspired by heroic struggles of the oppressed and colonized Palestinian people are remarkably similar.

By 1969, more than a half million U.S. troops occupied Vietnam, while the U.S. Air Force incinerated entire villages with napalm and white phosphorus bombs. The sheer horror of it swept millions of people into action.

During the 1960s, the leadership of the major anti-war coalition in the United States restricted its demands to “Negotiate Now” and later to “Peace Now.” U.S. politicians and celebrities were the headline speakers at mass rallies.

This is remarkably similar to the program of some forces in the movement in the U.S. for Palestine today that too often limit the demands to “Ceasefire Now!”

The moderate slogans seem to draw an equal sign between the oppressed peoples fighting for liberation and the imperialist aggressor. By the mid-late 1960s, tens of thousands of activists identified the U.S. as the aggressor, and many were in solidarity with the armed liberation movement. It is similar now.

Workers World Party and its militant youth group, Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF), throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s were part of large contingents in the massive demonstrations and militant confrontations with many occupations. They consistently raised the slogan, “Bring the GIs home now!” As the movement began to identify with the oppressed fighters, YAWF called for “Victory to the National Liberation Front!”

Consistent with its long history and past conduct, Workers World Party now raises in the pro-Palestine movement the slogan, “Victory to the Resistance in Gaza!” and other slogans in support of the Axis of Resistance in West Asia.

Daring to cover the resistance

WWP was determined to elevate the role of the leaders and the organization of the liberation movement in Vietnam who were demonized and only referred to using racist slurs. It carried pictures of the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and chief negotiator Nguyễn Thị Bình, also known as “Madame Binh,” and raised the full name of the National Liberation Front.

Similarly today, it is important to defend the right to resistance and honor the heroes of the resistance, from Leila Khaled to Yahya Sinwar, while circulating the statements of Hamas, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Islamic Jihad and other resistance groups.

In 50 years’ time, technology has dramatically changed communication and information. It is no longer possible to silence the facts coming from the liberation organizations.

Some 50 and 60 years ago WWP activists helped to reprint statements and smuggle newsletters and short videos about the Vietnam War into the U.S. despite constant threats of confiscation and prosecution. Today we remain determined to publish the statements of the armed resistance in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Yemen, despite constant social media shutdowns.

Embracing Palestine and oppressed nations within the U.S.

The anti-war movement shifted again in June 1967 during the Israeli invasion of Egypt, Syria and Jordan and the resulting seizure of Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. WWP was the first multinational left party in the U.S. to come out against Zionism and stood out among political parties in the U.S. by confronting the liberal dominance of the anti-war movement and denouncing Israel as an occupier of Palestine. 

Solidarity with struggles of the oppressed peoples within the U.S. remains the most important link. Massive rebellions against racism and poverty shook all urban centers of the U.S. through the 1960s. Concretely connecting these struggles and opposing U.S. domestic repression became the acid test for principled revolutionaries. Some major organizations were determined to exclude solidarity with the oppressed at home or the expanded occupation in Palestine by insisting on a “single issue” movement.

Opposition within the U.S. military’s own ranks became one of the biggest challenges to continuing the war. By aiding and advising an organization of rank-and-file U.S. soldiers, the American Servicemen’s Union, and its anti-war publication, The Bond, WWP helped promote resistance within the U.S. military.

Over these years of intense social turmoil, Workers World Party helped assemble major coalitions to counter efforts to limit the political challenge and to step-by-step build a more inclusive and class-conscious movement.

Expanding wars – in Southeast Asia and now West Asia

The liberation struggle in Vietnam spread throughout Southeast Asia into armed resistance in Laos and Cambodia. Wider U.S. saturation bombing was relentless.

Recognizing the wider liberation struggle of that era is as important as building solidarity today with the entire Axis of Resistance and the struggles in Yemen and Lebanon, opposing the overturn of the Syrian Arab Republic and defending the Iranian Revolution in West Asia today.

Workers World Party remains proud that Ho Chi Minh publicly saluted its effort in initiating the first public demonstration against the Vietnam War in the U.S. in 1962.

This is a different era of the world struggle. Today, U.S. imperialism is in a downward spiral that it can’t reverse with more wars or bigger military budgets, more sanctions or new rounds of tariffs.

Let’s continue here in the belly of the beast to build unconditional solidarity! Let’s remember the Maoist original slogan that the Vietnamese liberation fighters popularized: “Dare to Struggle! Dare to Win!”