VIETNAMESE COMPANIES FACE THE MARKET

What is the ''market socialism'' like that Vietnam has been practicing for about a decade now? The portrait gallery that emerges as this eth nological itinerary winds its way through a sample of firms defies too obvious likenesses. Syncretism is the rule in this country, which, li ke many others, has invented, in an emergency, survival arrangements h aving as much to do with ''wild precapitalism'' as with ''advanced neo liberalism''. We encounter : businessmen who deal in labor; new forms of alliances between the private and public sectors; original models f or partnerships (the ''necessary contribution'') and subcontracting; a nd accelerated processes that segment society and that make people poo r or rich. The best defenders of this ultraliberalism turn out to be n one other than the ruling categories who favor privatizing interests i n the name of the marketplace.