In southern Vietnam the unions were not part of the state apparatus.Prior to1975there was no socialist ethos demanding that workers subjugate their intereststo the state.Instead ,southern Vietnamese workers and unions sometimes took aconfrontational stance against capital and the Saigon government.Strikes werefrequent,and labour activists and trade unionists were beaten up,killed or throwninto jail.This militant historical past is not yet a distant memory. 1 |