Phan van Chanh

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Phan van Canh was a Vietnamese activist born in 1906 at Binh Truoc, Bienhoa into a wealthy family.

He completed his secondary education at Chasseloup-Laubat College and then left for France to continue his education at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. He collabnorated with Tran van Thach on the Journal des Étudiants annamites and then was active in the Annamite Independence Party with Ta Thu Thau. He followed Ta Thu Thau in joining the Trotskyist Left opposition in 1930. He was one of the 19 students expelled from France on 30 May 1930 for protesting the Yen Bay executions.

In Saigon he taught in private schools and participated in the formation the Indchinese Left Opposition (Ta doi lap). He was arrested in the roundup of communists on 8 August 1932 and received a four year suspended sentence on 1 May 1933.

He was a stalwart of the La Lutte group and followed Ta Thu Thau after the split of June 1937. He stood on the La Lutte platform in the Saigon Colonial Council elections of April 1939. Arrested on 13 July 1939 when the government moved to declare the communist movement illegal, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 16 May 1940, with a five year residence ban and a decade long loss of civil rights.

He served his time on the notorious prison island of Poulo Condore. During the events of 1945 Phan van Chanh served with the Tran Dau group and was apprehended by the Vietminh at Kien an, Thudaumot and executed in October.