Weekly
"Zenshin" No.1965
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Weekly
"Zenshin" No.1965
|
Weekly "Zenshin" No.1965 Top Appeal
7,000 Okinawa people protesting against
the recent crimes committed by US soldiers and demanding
a reduction in US military forces in
Okinawa before G-8 Summit. (Ginowan, July 15)
Only a few days before opening the Summit Talk, Okinawa is burning with indignation of people against US bases and US military presence itself in Okinawa and also against Mori government who tries every thing to suppress protest action and demonstration opposing the Summit. People's anger is directed to the police who act illegally to hinder every kind of protest action and keep severe watch even over private life of Okinawa people.
It is reported recently that the Self-Defense Force decided to send to Okinawa a special troop equipped with anti-biochemical weapons to suppress demonstrators.
On July 15 in Ginowan 7,000 Okinawa people assembled to denounce repeated crimes of US military.
Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Kakkyodo) has won in the last general election 22,799 votes in Suginami, Tokyo (8th bloc) for the candidate Hidenori Hasegawa. This election campaign was the first attempt for JRCL to challenge a seat in the Diet: a severe confrontation against a reactionary politics of Liberal-Democratic/Komei coalition and Nobuteru Ishihara, a fascist candidate in Suginami. JRCL has succeeded in emerging as a new political party, a new political power on the stage of Japanese class struggle, launching a mass development of a struggle demanding abolition of newly enacted Care Insurance System.
On July 1 in the Extraordinary Congress of National Railway Union the fighting union workers headed by the Struggle Troops (of fired union members) crushed attempted acceptance of the so-called Four Party Agreement to settle the Labor-Management conflict in favor of the latter, exempting the Japan Railway Management from the responsibility for the discriminating mass discharge of railway workers on the occasion of division and privatization of the National Railways in 1987.
The struggle of the Korean people for the withdrawal of US Forces from Korea is developing, together with struggle of Okinawa people for the removal of US military bases in Okinawa, to overthrow the post-war system in east Asia from the bottom.
The struggle to smash the Okinawa Summit has become a fateful battle to decide for the coming 21st century where to go.
Let's stand up, in solidarity with the fighting Korean people and Okinawa people, for a huge demonstration to crush Okinawa Summit!
Dear friends all over Japan, your engagement in the struggle is eagerly expected by the people in Okinawa. Your action encourages surely Okinawa people and no doubt contributes to stop the aggressive war. Let's crush Okinawa Summit by the power of a huge troops of demonstrators of Zengakuren (All Japan Federation of Student Autonomies)!
For us Japanese working class and people it is now imperative to demonstrate our firm opposition against the upcoming Okinawa Summit, while just at this moment the Korean people have begun to fight for withdrawal of US forces from Korea.
The heads of US imperialism, Clinton and Albright, the State Secretary declare: "The US forces in Korea will never be withdrawn even after the possible reunification of Korea; the reunification of the North and South Korea is itself an exaggerated fantasy." Their declaration, materialized in the imperialist military forces, diametrically stands against ardent desire of the Korean people for the national unity, and the upcoming Okinawa Summit is going to approve this imperialist policy.
We, Japanese working class and people, should never wish for the success of the Okinawa Summit, which means positive engagement in the imperialist policy of maintaining division and separation of Korea; we are requested to rise up, in solidarity with the Korean people of both South and North, who are fighting for the reunification of Korea, for the struggle with the following slogans:
Crush the Okinawa Summit, a war conference!
Prevent the aggressive war in Korea and China of US as well as Japanese imperialism!
Solidarity with the fighting Korean people this is the only way for the self-emancipation of the Japanese working class and people who, on their part, have long been suppressed under imperialism and Stalinism.
One of the decisive conditions that determines the Okinawa Summit is the newly launched struggle of the Korean people for the revolutionary unification of Korea to overcome the division of this country into north and south. This struggle would inevitably lead to a fatal collapse of the post-war world system of imperialist and Stalinist domination and oppression, divided Korea constituting its vital axis in Asia. Owing to this new development, the conflict between US and Japanese imperialism over the hegemony in regard to Asian territory will be intensified and an aggressive war of the two imperialist powers in Korea and China becomes more imminent.
Recently in many places in the Korean Republic people's indignation against the US military presence is bursting out; in the suburb of Seoul last week peasants collided with police, trying to break into a US air base in protest against a recent casualty in which a lot of their fellow peasants were injured by a US bomber's mishap. It is evident for the Korean people that the US forces are stationed in Korea with a sole aim of maintaining forcibly the status quo of the Korean Peninsula the divided Korea.
The Korean people have been fighting for national unity under the dual domination of imperialist and Stalinist who divided Korea into South and North. Ardent desire of the Korean people for the national unity and self-liberation inevitably confront the post-war world system of imperialism and Stalinism. Since the collapse of the USSR Stalinism, imperialist powers have intensified violent competition among them over the redivision of the world, involving ex-Stalinist countries and Stalinist countries; the competition developed into armed confrontation over new territories, Yugoslavia conflict being its actual example.
In Asia, focus of the situation is Korea and China/Taiwan. US and Japanese imperialism have been intensifying confrontation over these areas.
They, both US and Japan, regard the Okinawa Summit as an important occasion to threaten fighting Korean people with imperialist military forces and declare to the world the will of continuing and strengthening imperialist domination over Asia. Such a meeting is nothing but a war conference of the aggressive imperialist powers.
During the Summit period, US president Clinton
is reportedly going to deliver a speech on the war memorial site, "Basis for
Peace" (Heiwa no Ishiji) in Okinawa and to “thank” Okinawa people
for
What are the US military bases in Okinawa? What have US imperialism and US Forces done to the people in Okinawa?
Mr. Yukio Gibo, ex-chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Defense of the Constitution, confesses: "What we experienced in the last war, World War II, is that it was the people, who was sacrificed for the sake of military, for the sake of the national interest. The US marines, stationed in Okinawa and dispatched to the battlefield overseas, have repeated what we had experienced in the past war. I can not tolerate the fact that the US bases in Okinawa have been utilized for the aggressive war. That is the reason why I have long committed myself in the anti-military base movement. The US soldiers and marines, who are engaged in war brutalities overseas, commit crimes, back in Okinawa, killing people here and violating our human right because of battlefield stress. Thus military crimes take places incessantly in Okinawa as long as the US bases remain. Repeated casualties and crimes oversea well as at home! We demand categorically definite withdrawal of all the US military bases from Okinawa and from mainland Japan as well."
The US president Clinton says that he is going to thank to the Okinawa people and to demand their further cooperation in maintaining and strengthening US bases in Okinawa, instead of apologizing to the people in Okinawa for the US bases there and disasters they have brought about.
On July 3 in Okinawa City, a US marine off duty assaulted a junior high school girl sleeping at her home. This is not an isolated case of the US military crimes there. Every one knows. It brings to mind another military crime in 1995, in which a primary school girl was kidnapped and raped by US marines. This brutal act and irresponsibility both of US and Japanese authorities concerned in facing this matter caused overall indignation of the Okinawa people against US military presence and resulted in an all-Okinawa protest rally on October 21 with 100,000 people participating out of 1,200,000 total Okinawa population a new starting point of anti-US bases struggle in Okinawa.
Five years after this, just a few weeks before the Summit talks people's anger has been renewed against US military bases in Okinawa.
Prime minister Mori says: "All the people in Okinawa prefecture should wholeheartedly welcome the Summit Talks there; no irregularity in front of the guests representing important countries of the world is allowed."
One of the important guests, US president Clinton comments in the meantime that the Okinawa Summit will be an adequate opportunity to show to the whole world the strategic importance of the US-Japan alliance. Japanese foreign minister, Kohno says, responding to Clinton, that we must emphasize in the conference the important role of Okinawa in keeping security in northeast Asia.
On June 27 the Mori government renewed forcible land appropriation in guise of the Special Law over US Military Site, approving prolonged land occupation of the private land of an Okinawa landowner in Yomitan for the purpose of a huge US radar center, called "Elephant Cage"
Again Mr. Gibo: "We appeal to everybody in mainland Japan to share our suffering, suffering because of US bases, and to rise up, together with us, to oust all military bases from Okinawa."
The Okinawa Summit is a road to war. Japanese proletariat is requested to answer whether they admit Japanese participation in a war of aggression in Korea and China.
The Korean situation has entered into a violent process of revolutionary agitation, aggravating political crisis of Japanese imperialism and crisis of the system as a whole. In the recent period, Japanese imperialism has made effort to develop influence over Asia to establish a Japanese territory, through concluding Japan-Korea Investment Treatment, bilateral trade agreement between Asian countries etc.
Japanese imperialist's attempt to make Asia a Japanese sphere of influence would be completely smashed if Japan can not respond to the fermenting Korean and Chinese situation as an imperialist power.
For the Japanese ruling class the Okinawa Summit is an important stage to appear as the most ravenous, ferocious, aggressive imperialism, in its desperate effort to <catch up with the international situation>.
Mori Government is trying to make Korean problem the most urgent agenda of the Summit: "We want to lead the discussion to support the movement in the Korean problem launched by South-North Talk of the state heads." Thus he is trying to take initiative in the Korean situation making full use of the position of chair country.
Japanese imperialism has no other choice, facing critical development in Korea, than to challenge US hegemony and to make Japan a country able to wage a war. Appearing in the Summit <as a sole imperialist power in Asia>, Japan tries to establish an anti-US Asian bloc under its influence through active participation in the aggressive warfare in Korea and China.
In order to achieve this goal the government attempts to materialize newly enacted New Guidelines of Security Co-operation, to legislate Emergency Law and to revise the Constitution. A military operation in guise of Anti-Disaster Training on September 3 in Tokyo, planned by the Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, mobilizing thousands of Self-Defense Forces personnels, is an open drive for a war state next imperialist attempt after the Summit.
Mori Government added to the agenda of the Summit a reform plan of the United Nations in view of possible nomination of Japan as a standing member of the Security Council in the autumn session of the UN. Its aim is to justify mobilization of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces overseas under the authority of the UN in name of <conflict prevention>.
The new development in Korea launched process of collapse of the post-war division of Korea into South and North intensifies US-Japan conflict and drives Japanese imperialism to a severer confrontation with the US imperialism.
Japanese proletariat is required to smash aggressive ambition of Japanese imperialism in the Summit. Stop aggressive war of Japanese imperialism in solidarity with the fighting Korean, Chinese and Asian people.
When the government says that US bases in Okinawa is indispensable for Japan-US Security Treaty, its underlying idea is that Okinawa should be sacrificed for the defense of Japan that is, mainland Japan. This idea is an open discrimination against Okinawa, the idea that brought about the battle in Okinawa at the last stage of WWⅡ. Japanese proletariat should never let the ruling class continue discrimination against Okinawa any more.
The struggle to smash the Okinawa Summit is to achieve in solidarity with the Korean people fighting for retreat of US Forces from Korea. Let's send a message to the whole world, a resolute will of the people for the complete withdrawal of US bases, through gigantic demonstration of angry people to surround Kadena base, the largest aggressive base in Asia.
Futenma base, another important military base in Okinawa, is also a target of huge demonstration with slogan: "For unconditional immediate return of Futenma base! Stop construction of new Nago base!"
The unflinching struggle of the people in Okinawa forced the construction of Nago base to be postponed after the Summit. An explosive struggle to smash the Summit will open up a perspective to stop planned construction of Nago base.
Japanese imperialism fears above all the struggle of the Korean people to join in the struggle of Okinawa people and to promote explosion of worker's struggle in Japan. For them Okinawa struggle constitute an obstacle to establish the New Guidelines System and to setup a war-shift. The people in Okinawa have long been fighting faithful to the bitter lessons in last Okinawa battle: the military does not defend people's life. The military and people are irreconcilable. Human life is an invaluable treasure.
Japanese imperialists have tried everything to suppress and destroy the heart of Okinawa in preparing the Summit. Inamine, the Governor of Okinawa and Kishimoto, the mayor of Nago City, have been utilized as tools of imperialist politics in order to welcome the Summit in Okinawa. Inamine together with the Mori-government attempted to falsify historical document of the Okinawa battle in the Memorial Museum to conceal discriminatory substance of the battle, a battle to defend “The State”, in other words, to save the life of the Emperor Hirohito at the sacrifice of Okinawa. Kurayoshi Takara, professor of the Ryukyu University, has gone so far to profess: "As long as Okinawa people are also Japanese, they should admit Japan-US Security Treaty and US bases as its indispensable element." He actually demands Okinawa people to be aggressive agents of imperialist.
For the proletariat and the people in mainland Japan it is imperative to fight against Japanese imperialist policy of discriminating and suppressing Okinawa.
Japanese Okinawa policy has long been practiced utilizing the mainland peoples as active bearers of Okinawa discrimination. Its typical example is fascist Kakumaru. They unduly attack our political line: Chukaku's policy of Okinawa struggle is anti-proletarian, for its policy is based upon opposition against discrimination of Okinawa and tends to maintain <Okinawa sentiment> as it is. Saying so, Kakumaru assaults fighting Okinawa people in vain.
The largest material bearer of Japan-US Security Treaty is US military bases in Okinawa, from which start US military forces for aggressive war of massacre to the battlefield all over the world.
Japanese imperialist policy depending upon Japan-US Security Treaty has been maintained only through shifting essential military burden, that is, US bases from mainland Japan to Okinawa discriminatively. It is therefore indispensable for the Japanese proletariat to fight against discrimination policy of Japanese imperialism against Okinawa, as their own task of class struggle, when they fight against Japanese aggressive war in Korea and China and confront Japan-US Security Treaty.
Surround Kadena base with mass demonstration with the slogan: "Withdraw all the US bases from Okinawa!"
It is high time for the Japanese proletariat to appear on the historical stage of class struggle as active subject to revolutionize the modern world. The struggle to crush the Okinawa Summit is its appropriate opportunity.
The agenda of the Okinawa Summit has nothing to do with the class interest of proletariat and people; every theme is for the world domination of imperialist powers. Our task is to smash them all.
1) It is said in the economic field: “To enjoy greater prosperity” which means in fact to force the countries belonging to the post-war new colonialism system further subjugation to the imperialist powers through so-called "IT revolution" Seven countries that constitute essential participants of the Summit occupy 60 to 70 % of the total wealth of the world. The Summit Talks are conference of robbers to occupy wealth of the world by imperialist powers for their ownprosperity at the sacrifice of other countries.
2) In the social field the key word is “Create peace of mind”. All the anxieties of today's society derive from the capitalist imperialist system itself: environment problems, safety of food etc., for example, are the typical products of overripe and rotten imperialism. Here underlies the problem of upturned relation of capitalist society in which the workers, though substantial executor of social production, are allowed to live only to increase capital value, instead of being the master of the society.
3) In the political field: “a world of greater stability” means nothing but to wage aggressive wars in order to maintain imperialist domination under the pretext of “conflict prevention”, as was evidently manifested in the brutal air raid on Kosovo/Yugoslavia.
A new situation has arrived: all the postwar frameworks that have sustained imperialist Asian domination are now collapsing with Korea and China/Taiwan as forefront. Launched revolutionary struggle in Korea, interacting with disruptive crisis of Chinese Stalinism, Russian deepening crisis, and crisis in the southeastern Asia (Indonesia etc.) inevitably accelerates war drive of US as well as Japanese imperialism toward Korea and China and intensifies imperialist competition over redivision of Asian territory.
On the other hand, national liberation struggle/revolutionary war of Asian people against imperialist aggression is going to explode from the root of the society. Todays world is filled with burning indignation of the working class and people of the oppressed nations against imperialism. Struggle of Korean people will develop into a powerful force to overthrow the postwar world system as a whole; the struggle of Okinawa people will inevitably hit the very bottom of the New Guidelines system of Japan-US Security Co-operation.
Against the common enemies to overthrow, imperialism and Stalinism, who have long enjoyed their world domination, international struggle of proletariat has been launched as a new popular insurrection, with proletariat emerging as a single troop. We can not live any further under imperialism and Stalinism it is a cry of life or death of the proletariat and people.
It is now imperative to defeat Stalinism who has for more than three-quarter of a century suppressed struggle of working class and people, opposing to the principle of self-liberation of the proletariat. This task is also important to overcome the defeat of class struggle in 1930's under the Stalinist political line.
Upcoming 21st century is a period in which historical alternative between world war or world revolution becomes burning issue. Japan Communist Party (JCP), however, put the problem as follows: "The choice is between <a world order of war and suppression> under US tyranny or an international order of peace based on the United Nation's Charter. This is the alternative in 21st century." (Shii, Chief of Secretariat).
Thus Japanese Stalinist presents a false choice before proletariat and people and act as an active agent of Japanese imperialism through its anti-US chauvinism.
As for the Okinawa Summit, JCP says: "It is a government's will to show the heads of the important countries actual situation in Okinawa and to dispatch a message for peace to the whole world." What is then meant by <peace> of the JCP? It is, as is mentioned above, nothing but a peace under imperialist order.
The Okinawa Summit struggle is a historical battle, on which depends the perspective of 21st century, whether we succeed in making upcoming century a period of the world revolution or not.
Let's organize a passionate struggle in order to convey our will of solidarity and determination to the fighting people in Korea and the whole world.
For a tremendous mass demonstration to the Summit hall!
Crush the Okinawa Summit!
For a victorious 21st century of proletariat!
Zengakuren will stand on the forefront of the historical struggle!
