Trần Văn Giàu was born on September 6, 1911 at An Luc Long Hamlet, Chau Thanh District, Tan An (Long An)Province into a rich landowner family in South Vietnam. He was called Mười Ký in his family, and also known as Sáu Giàu. In 1926 he went to Saigon to attend Chasseloup Laubat, a French High School. In 1928 he was enrolled at Toulouse University in France, but instead of finishing his studies there, he joined the French Communist Party in March 1929, and participated in the Party-led worker movements, and other protests by the Vietnamese students and workers in Toulouse. In May 1930 he represented the Vietnamese students and workers from Toulouse to join the demonstration in front of the President's Palace in Paris to protest against the capital sentence for the leaders of Yen Bai Revolt. Because of his protest, he was jailed at Loa Roquillis, then expelled to Vietnam.
Back in Saigon, Vietnam, he taught at Huynh Cong Phat, a private school, while participating in revolutionary activities in Saigon-Cholon. He became a member of the Indochina Communist Party, and, together with Hai Trieu, led the city's students and other revolutionary groups in the Southern Council of the Party.
He was sent by the Party to the USSR in the middle of 1931 to attend the University of the East in Moscow. In 1933 he successfully defended his thesis about The Land and Paddyfields Issues in Indochina, and returned to Vietnam. He joined the Party's activities in South Vietnam, and published The Red Flag, and The Communism Series. He became well-known with his eloquence and informative lectures which kindled patriotism in Saigon at the time.
The French government had followed him closely since the time he was a student in Toulouse. On June 25, 1935 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, and 10 years of house arrest for his activities to topple the government. In Saigon Grand Prison (Khám Lớn Sài Gòn), he was Number 6826 mpp, and the major leader who represented other prisoners to demand for better treatment and living conditions. As a punishment, he was separated and jailed in Bâtiment S until the end of his imprisonment.
On April 23, 1940 he was released, but only for a few days. He was again sent to Camp Tà Lài together with Tào Tỵ, Nguyễn Công Trung, and Trương Văn Giàu. Around the end of 1941 he organized an escape from Tà Lài for his comrades. He himself escaped the second time in early March 1942 with Châu Văn Giác, Trần Văn Kiệt, Dương Văn Phúc, Trương Quang Nhâm, Nguyễn Công Trung, Nguyễn Văn Đức, and Tô Ký.
They were dispersed in different directions, but Trần Văn Giàu managed to return to Saigon to resume his activities there.
From October 13 to October 15, 1943 many representatives of various communist cells in many provinces and cities in the South met at Chợ Gạo, Mỹ Tho, in order to form the Communist Party Branch in the South (CPB)again. Trần Văn Giàu could not come, so Dương Văn Phúc was elected as the Secretary. With the agreement of the CPB, Dương temporarily accepted the position, but would rather pass it over to Trần Văn Giàu when the latter was back.
End of Part I
Sources:
http://vi.wikipedia.org
https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/whoistranvangiau.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2010/12/101217_tran_van_giau.shtml
http://www.diendan.org/tai-lieu/hoi-ky-t-v-giau/
