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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 5. 3rd April 1974

Unless you Struggle, you Die

Unless you Struggle, you Die

Menras recalled that the prisoners in Chi Hoa gaol were able to listen to the N.L.F. radio, that every important date in the history of the Vietnamese people's struggle for independence (such as the anniversaries of the signing of the Geneva Agreement and the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu) was celebrated by the prisoners, and that at 5. a.m., one hour before the Saigon anthem was played, N.L.F. prisoners would sing the N.L.F. anthem.

Menras said that there was an underground network throughout the prison that was so strong that he and others were able to illegally teach the children in gaol to read and write. "They were the best pupils I ever had", he added. "These children had learned at a very young age that if you want to survive you have to struggle, if you don't struggle, you die."

Menras' visit was important in emphasising to New Zealanders that the Vietnamese people's struggle for national independence and freedom has not finished and that the key to the success of this struggle, the Paris Peace Agreement, has not yet been implemented. At his meetings up and down the country resolutions were carried calling on the Labour government to recognise the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, to organise a broad-based delegation of New Zealanders to investigate the conditions of the political prisoners held by the Thieu regime, and to cut off all aid to Thieu.

Ravpoc, the organisers of the Menras visit, is stepping up its campaign to work for the release of South Vietnamese political prisoners. Donations are urgently needed to help pay for Menras' tour and to finance Ravpoc's overall campaign.

Contact Ravpoc, P.O. Box 9012, Wellington.