Phu-Zieng Strike of 1930

a strike by rubber plantation workers in Bien Hoa Province, Cochin China, that took place in February. The strike, which was led by Communists, occurred during a period when the onset of a world economic crisis was bringing about an upsurge in the Vietnamese working-class movement. The strike was initially economic in character, with the workers presenting demands for higher wages, a ten-hour workday, and an end to corporal punishment; it quickly developed, however, into an armed workers’ revolt. Power on the plantations passed into the hands of a strike committee. The revolt was crushed by the army and the police, and its leaders were sentenced to death. Strikes at a cement plant in Haiphong and at a textile mili in Nam Dinh in March and April 1930 were inspired by the Phu-Zieng strike.