JUNICHI Hirai, a Japanese supporter of the Fourth
International, spoke to Colin
Meade about the development of the anti-war movement in Japan. The interview took place in early
February.
H
OW big a shift of policy has involvement in the war represented for the
Japanese bourgeoisie?
Soon after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Japanese government decided to cooperate with the UN military intervention and they decided to send S4 billion to support the multinational troops in the
Middle East. After that, in September, the government attempted to change the clause in the Japanese constitution forbidding it to send troops abroad (see /V 195).
They argued that if Japan did not send troops it would be internationally isolated, that it was necessary for international cooperation to maintain the international order. But this proposal was defeated in because in the upper the parliament, house the government does not have the majority, so they abandoned their plans.
But soon after the Gulf War began the government immediately paid another $9 billion to support the multinational forces and they decided to dispatch an aircraft
So the law has been changed carrier.
through a cabinet decision.
• How did the opposition respond to this?
parliament
In the
Socialist is the
Party biggest opposition party.
They said that it was necessary to cooperate with the United Nations, but opposed the sending of aircraft carriers. Only the
Japanese Communist Par-
(JCP) opposed this ty:
government decision, but the position of the JCP is that the main responsibility for the Gulf War is with Iraq so they demand
Iraqi withdrawal from
Kuwait.
So this has meant that
6 the Communist and pacifist initiatives in the trade
International Viewpoint #201 • March 4, 1991 union movement and the mass movement are completely paralyzed. When I left Japan in early February no demonstration had been called by trade union national centres or the Socialist party, only by independent solidarity groups and social movements.
Of course the Communist Party has called demonstrations against the war but they can only mobilize their own members, and members of trade unions led by the JCP. • So there is no united anti-war movement?
Now we have begun to organize a mobilizing committee against the war. On January 26 the first major demonstration in Tokyo mobilized only 1200 peo-
In February student groups organized a demonstration against the war. We also supported this demonstration and it attracted about 3000 people. • Are these demonstrations reportthere is a public discussion. According to the opinion polls about 60% of women oppose the Gulf war and the dispatch of the aircraft carrier and sending of money, but about 60 or 70% of men approve the government position. In the newspapers some people support the government position, arguing that Japan is now an international power so that if we don't cooperate with the US we cannot maintain economic activity. But the other opinion is that the Gulf war is not our war, but a United States war, so it is not necessary to cooperate.
• Who puts forward the second view?
Almost all the bourgeoisie support the government position, there are no splits inside the bourgeoisie, but some bourgeois intellectuals and scholars, and some famous bourgeois critics, oppose the govemment position.
• Using nationalist or humanitarian arguments?
The latter. After the Second World War there was a very big pacifist sentiment among the Japanese people. The Communist Party can no longer mobilize such pacifist sentiments but they still remain.
• There seems to be a big gap between the sentiment of the population and the anti-war mobilization.
Compared with the 1980s mass movement I think the reaction to this war has been fairly good.
• Do the anti-war actions get a good response from ordinary people?
Yes, but the main problem is the lack of any nationwide initiative to mobilize people. In several regions there have been many small demonstrations and meetings organized by regional groups, but it is very difficult to unite these actions.
• Why is this?
I think the problem is that the Japanese mass movement after the Second World
War was totally organized through the trade unions and the JCP, but now this has been paralyzed and no national initiative exists.
• What about anti-war activity in the trade unions?
Some leftist trade union groups exist but they are not very active in the political sphere. However, they held a demonstration on January 25 which mobilized about
20,000 workers, but I think that if the trade union womens' groups groups, and anti-nuclear groups united and called demonstrations and mass meetings this would mobilize more people.
• What about student reaction?
In Japan there has been a very good reaction from the high school students, who have participated in demonstrations and organized small meetings, but amongst university students there is complete political apathy. *
Political trials continue, as does
CHINA ening up. The bureaucracy has also tried to re-centralize itself. There were decrees passing power back into the hands of the remains that of seeking the help of capital- centre. Nonetheless the main trend ist forces to prop up their rule.
The bureaucrats are hanging on and waiting for the death of Deng Xiaoping opening to the West
THIS year has seen a new wave of political trials in
China. International Viewpoint asked Yang Hal, editor of October Review, a revolutionary Marxist journal published in Hong Kong about the background to the repression. This interview took place at the beginning of February.
OULD you give some details about the current wave of repression? Martial law was declared on May 20, 1989 and it continued for eight months. Nonetheless, student demonstrations continued throughout these months, partly under the influence of events in Eastern Europe.
For example the downfall of Causescu was celebrated by the breaking of a lot of small bottles - a reference to the party leader Deng Xiaoping, whose name can be read as meaning small bottles. Wall posters were also put up.
Even after one and a half years it seems that there is still a strong social resistance to the regime. This does not express itself sentences handed down to the students and intellectuals are relatively mild, which suggests that the regime does not want to provoke international outcry.
Thus, the main student leader got four years in jail. But it is quite different for the veteran democracy movement activists and for the workers. One of these,
Ren Wanding, got seven years. The govemment has refused to make public the sentence on the leader of the workers picket line group, Han Dongfang. There are further trials going on now in Beij• Is there continuing evidence of divisions in the bureaucracy? At the time of Tiananmen Square was much talk about a leader of a faction in the party, Zhao Ziyang, giving at least tacit support to the
There was a power struggle which was accelerated by the democracy movement. After June 1989 one faction wanted to put the blame for the events on Zhao Ziyang. But nothing has in fact been done to him. He has not been put on trial.
To put it another way, there have always been differences, but the differences are over who to blame, who will be the scapegoat, and whether political control should be tightand not knowing what will come after that. Despite all the directives, individual bureaucrats are fighting for their own interests. There is all kinds of Chinese shadow boxing going on. Sometimes there is more or less open resistance from provincial bureaucracies. For example, the chief of Guangdong province has resisted attempts to move him back to the centre for over a year. Nobody can make him go. • Can you tell me about the campaign to oppose these political trials?
After Tiananmen Square many students went into exile. They formed the AllChinese Students Federation and other groups outside the country. In Hong Kong, part of the work is coordinated by the Hong Kong Alliance, which was set up in May 1989. This brings together 200 organizations, including October Review. There is also an international campaign launched by the Tiananmen University of Democracy (see box). They have collected signatures from many countries. They governmental organizations, trade unions and political organizations.
Also, people have been sending delegations into China. For example, students in Hong Kong sent an official delegation to ask about the trials — with no success. There was a four day hunger strike by students in Hong Kong, with delegations to
The crime of subversion through public acts such as demonstrations, but it shows through in the speeches of the party leaders. In March 1990, for ened more or less, or whether there should be control over bureaucrats who engage in profiteering and so
CHEN ZIMING and Wang Jungtao, example, at the people's congress, two leaders of China's pro-democracy representative of the People's Liberation movement were sentenced to 13 years Army (PLA) said that a lot of soldiers are each in jail on Tuesday February 12, confronted with humiliation and insults 1991. They were found guilty of bringfrom the people, and this has caused ing together illegal organizations and unrest within the army itself. He said that conducting "a series of activities to some comrades in the army were consid- subvert the government". These trials erably perplexed by questions such as: come after those of nine student leadwhat is the future of the Socialist system?
Given the repression, precise informabetween 2 and 4 years on subversion tion is hard to come by, but besides occasional student protests, there are also reports of protests by workers. For example, at the end of 1989, there was a con- made public. The human rights' organiflict over wages in the biggest steelworks zation Asia Watch has a list of 960 in Beijing, where there are 220,000 work- political prisoners, but claims that famers. They were angry at the stopping of ily members often do not dare seek bonuses and the fact that the management help from foreigners for fear of repriforces them to buy state bonds. sals (International Herald Tribune, Feb-
With the present wave of trials, it seems that the bureaucracy is trying to bring an end to the unrest. At the same time the on. These are tactical differences. control, both over the bureaucracy itself and over the population. there is much emphasis on Socialism and the defence of Socialism. They say that the country should not move towards capitalism and that we need a Socialist market.
On the other hand, the opening to the West has not been stopped. This means that there are contradictory statements. At the they are talking about strengthening Socialism, they are appealing to the West to come to Shanghai, saying that we are going to develop the Eastern, old, part of Shanghai. This will be the biggest
After 1989 there has been a tighters who recelved sentences of
Many trials however have not been ruary 15, 1991).
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