[News] Revolutionary Journalism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/19/revolutionary-journalism/


  Revolutionary Journalism

by George Burchett 
<https://www.counterpunch.org/author/george-burchette/> - April 19, 2019
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Journalist Wilfred Burchett at work at President Ho Chi Minh’s jungle 
headquarters in Thai Nguyen, March 1954.

On 4 April this year, I was invited to attend the celebrations to mark 
the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Huỳnh Thúc Kháng School of 
Writing and Journalism. Set up on the instructions of President Ho Chi 
Minh on 4 April 1949, the school was housed in a simple bamboo hut on 
the shores of Núi Cốc Lake (Hồ Núi Cốc) in Thai Nguen province, some 80 
kilometres north of Ha Noi.

In 1949, the Resistance against French colonialists, backed by US 
Imperialists, was facing difficult times. From 4 April to 6 July 1949, 
42 young students were trained by 29 lecturers, including General Vo 
Nguyen Giap, in Revolutionary journalism, so they could put their 
talents and newly acquired expertise at the service of the Revolution 
and contribute to their country’s struggle for Independence and Liberty. 
At the end of the course, they produced the first edition of their 
revolutionary newspaper, “Huỳnh Thúc Kháng”.

President Ho Chi Minh was not able to visit the school, but, as a 
seasoned journalist, editor and publisher, he sent letters in which he 
outlined his advice to journalists.

As we live in the age of fake news, of which there have been some 
glowing examples lately, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit 
Uncle Ho’s principles of revolutionary journalism. In a nutshell, they are:

    1. Know why you write and who you write for.

    2. Be succinct.

    3. Get your facts right.

    4. Don’t use complicated language and fuzzy ideas.

    5. Believe in what you write, especially if you are committed to a
    just cause.

In a Uncle Ho’s case, it was Independence and Liberty for his country 
and people, the end of French colonial rule and feudalism.

I would like to give as an example a practical lesson in journalism 
President Ho Chi Minh gave my father, journalist Wilfred Burchett, in 
his jungle headquarters in Thai Nguyen, in March 1954, on the eve of the 
battle of Dien Bien Phu.

Here’s how Wilfred Burchett tells the story:

    “What is this big action the French are talking about at Dien Bien
    Phu?” I asked. President Ho turned his sun helmet upside down on the
    table. Running his slim fingers around the outer rim, he said “This
    is the situation. Here are mountains and that is where our forces
    are. Down there is the valley of Dien Bien Phu – that’s where the
    French are with the best troops they have in Indochina. They will
    never get out. It may take some time, but they will never get out.”

    “An Indochina Stalingrad?”

    “In relation to conditions here, yes. In a modest way, it is
    something like that.”

    As I discovered in many subsequent meetings, this was an
    illustration of President Ho’s capacity for reducing complicated
    problems to a few words and graphic images. The idea of the cream of
    France’s operational troops in the bottom of Ho Chi Minh’s
    sun-helmet remained with me all the way to Geneva and at the
    conference itself as the historic battle raged to its climax.

    (Wilfred Burchett, /Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist/
    <https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521718260/counterpunchmaga>).

And so Wilfred Burchett could report to the world, in the first of six 
articles cabled from /Somewhere in North Viet Nam/, on 31 March 54: A 
GREAT DISASTER FOR THE FRENCH ARMY.

One month and one week later, on 7 May 1954, the French army was 
defeated at the historic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. And that was the end 
of French colonial rule over Indochina.

That historic victory was not due to the Viet Minh’s military 
superiority over the French army, supported by American money and arms. 
It was due to the dedication of millions of Vietnamese men and women, 
young and old, to the cause of Independence and Liberty. Revolutionary 
journalists, starting with Ho Chi Minh, played a fundamental role in 
Viet Nam’s long and heroic  struggle against colonialism and feudalism, 
and later American aggression.

I had the great honour to be seated among some of Viet Nam’s veteran 
Revolutionary journalists on the shores of beautiful Núi Cốc Lake in 
Thai Nguyen, watching young singers, dancers and actors re-enact on the 
stage episodes from those heroic times. I was thinking of the many lives 
and talents, including revolutionary journalists, sacrificed for the 
sacred cause of Independence, Liberty and Unity.

I was also thinking that Revolutionary journalism is only possible when 
truth is on your side. Then the word is mightier than the sword. When 
words serve a just cause, no army can defeat them.

/*George Burchett* is an artist and occasional writer who was born in Ha 
Noi and works and lives in Ha Noi./

-- 
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863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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