In 1926, because of participating in the public mourning the death of Phan Chu Trinh, a prominent Vietnamese scholar-patriot, and mobilizing the students and young people in the neighbourhood to protest against French colonial rule in Vietnam, Trần Tử Bình was expelled from the seminary.

At that moment, without yet knowing it, Trần Tử Bình joined the ranks of the young patriot intelligentsia, a group destined to play a critical role in modern Vietnamese history.

[1] This decision was another blow to the family because, even without a school diploma, with his education Trần Tử Bình could have found a respectable job as a village clerk or landlord's agent.

The movement was repressed by French, Phú Riềng strike leaders were all imprisoned, nonetheless it forced the Michelin company to make certain changes to improve labor's working and living conditions.

After the Phu Rieng Do incident French colonial government sentenced Trần Tử Bình to 10 years on the infamous Côn Đảo Prison, where he met many communist revolutionary leaders of Vietnam, i.e. Tôn Đức Thắng, Hoang Quoc Viet, Phạm Văn Đồng, Le Van Luong, Pham Hung, Ha Huy Giap, Tran Xuan Do, Nguyen Van Phat and took advantage of this opportunity to improve his knowledge of communist ideology and nationalism.

After being amnestied from Côn Đảo he returned home to work as a clerk in Bình Lục District and secretly continued to take part in communist activities against French.

After he returned to the rear, Trần Tử Bình was appointed as a standing member of Xu Uy Bac Ky and was in charge of establishment and development of Hoa-Ninh-Thanh military base for the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh).

The leaders of Viet Minh decided to act promptly to seize the power from the weak and helpless Trần Trọng Kim's pro-Japanese puppet government before the French returned.

After the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Trần Tử Bình was appointed as Vice Rector, Political Commissar of Tran Quoc Tuan Military Training Academy.