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Vietnam Front Organizations
The purpose of front organizations is to mobilize and recruit
for the party and to monitor the activities of their members in
cooperation with local security agents. Organizations may be
segregated by sex, age, national origin, profession, or other
traits designated by the party. From members of front
organizations, such as the Red-Scarf Teenagers' Organization and
the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth League, the party is able to
select potential party members.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front, because it unites a number of
subordinate front organizations, is the most important. Its first
unified national congress took place in January 1977 when all
national front organizations, including the National Front for
the liberation of South Vietnam, informally called the National
Liberation Front (NLF, Mat Tran Dan Toc Giai Nam Viet Nam),
operating in the south, were merged under its banner. In the late
1980s, the Vietnam General Confederation of Trade Unions,
described by the party as the "broadest mass organization of the
working class," was also significant because its members, along
with party members, state employees, and members of the Youth
League, were included among the elite granted material privileges
by the state. Finally, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth League was
important because it acted to screen, train, and recruit party
members.
In the mid-and late 1980s, the party increasingly viewed the
front organizations as moribund and criticized them for being no
longer representative of party policy. Party General Secretary
Nguyen Van Linh, however, sought to revive and develop them as
important avenues for controlled criticism of party abuses.
Data as of December 1987
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