Hard Time for the left in Japan

[ikita@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Iwao Kitamura)]

To my post: Excess of monetary capital,

On Thu, 24 Aug 1995 17:35:34 BST will brown wrote:

>Hi Iwao...
>thanks for the post...its
>good to have someone from Japan
>posting.What's the left up to
>in Japan? I'm sure the
>readers of the list will
>appreciate a brief review.
>thanks again
>
>will brown  bristol england
>
>
>     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

Hard time began in the late '80s when Rengo was founded.
Rengo is a national center of unions that comes from merging
Souhyou and Doumei. Untill the late '70s, Souhyou was mostly
led by marxist leaders. At least, they didn't deny class
struggle. After the 11 days strike by National Railroad
Union(NRU) in 1975, Capitalists began couter-attack on the
leadership of militant unions. They supported and stood
their agents, mostly terminal managers, to the leadership
of union local, informally but widely. The good example is
Zendentu (Union of Nippon Telecom), one of largest unions
in Japan. This union was relatively militant, our colleagues
got seats in the central commitee. The most militant local was
Chiba and attack by management was centered to this local.
Our colleagues were replaced by right wingers in mid '70s.
Similar phenomenon have widely spreaded over the country.
In this process, Souhyou moved to right and right. Then came
the foundation of Rengou.
Our task is to rebuild union movement from down side through
resistence to rationalization.

I have much more to write. Next time I will introduce you
our socialist movement.
in solidarity,
------------------------------------
Iwao Kitamura
a member of theoritical study group
Socialist Association (Japan)
E-mail : ikita@xxxxxxxxxxxx
personal web: http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~ikita/


     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

     ------------------