Forwarded from John Manning (Japan)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Friends,

Before sending today's news I want to draw attention to something of much
importance that easily escapes notice.

The ruling Mori administration in Japan is in trouble with its people for
keeping its agreement with the U.S. military and wants in the worst way to
get rid of its opposition. The Clinton administration does, too. So why was
there no violence, no broken heads in Okinawa? The press noted, (small
type) that no arrests were made when the 27,000 linked arms around the
whole 10 kilometer perimiter of the U.S. Kadena Air Base. And that was just
the beginning of the demonstrations.

Not only that, but this struggle has been going on increasingly as more and
more civil liberties are outlawed and more and more workers dismissed and
discarded. Every week on television, in the capitals of Europe, in Germany,
Spain, and in Seattle, Washington and wherever, we see armored police
firehosing, beating and dragging off demonstrators - BUT NOT IN JAPAN. Why
not? It is having the same repression as all over the world. And it is not
because there is no resistance. The government only avoided being voted out
last month by a masterly and MASSIVE dirty tricks campaign combined with a
whole "sure thing" election setup: (Only ten days from election
announcement to voting, election rules twisted and seats reduced at the
last minute, introduction of the incumbent-favoring U.S.
plurality-takes-all system, and all sorts of limitations on campaigning).
Why then?

The reason is that the JCP has become the leadership of the whole movement
and the JCP has a conscious, careful and all-pervading policy of seeking
non-violent, rational, understandable, and if possible legal and
constitutional paths. The object is not to win this or that confrontation
but to win the ever-broader understanding, support and participation of the
people.

This started back 45 years ago when the JCP worked out its program after
the splits with Mao and the Soviets; in an advanced capitalist country, to
"seek the path to socialism with the least sacrifice to the people". And
that for their country and situation, violent revolution was out of the
question..

This is something communists and non-communists alike have ignored to our
own great loss. And why? Because on the left side, Lenin, in a special
situation in a special and backward country said (in his "State and
Revolution") that violence was the only way ahead and this was put forth as
gospel to countries far more advanced and where workers had at least the
possibility of expressing themselves by voting. And as for the Right, under
capitalism everything is confrontational and adversarial.

The great paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, discoverer of the earliest
humanoids, said, in 1982, when exasperated by talk that war for makind is
inevitable, that the essential quality of humans that made them human is
ability to cooperate, that men in modern war are more like sheep than wolves.

Since nine-tenths of humankind is being abused and exploited by one-tenth
or even one hondredth of their numbers, it follows that, if we can exert
reason, we can straighten things out. But, since our scientists, in the
service of this tenth or hundredth, have developed the means to destroy all
of us, and all animate life on the planet as well, we have to go GENTLY,
and consciously seek to exert reason avoid violence in all things.

There has been no violence in Japan - certainly NONE THAT COULD BE PARADED
ON TV, OR IT WOULD HAVE BEEN, in the whole past ten years for which I have
followed it most carefully. Not that the police and government don't want
to be violent, But that the policy of the opposition has been such that it
would be clear WHO is breaking the peace, and it would be counterproductive.

WOULDN'T THIS WORK FOR US, TOO?

We of the Left, particularly, have to resist the temptation to be heroes
and sacrifice for the cause, and INSTEAD stick to patiently explaining, to
those being hurt as we are but not yet clear, that the best course is to
resist, and the best resistance is to unite with our fellows. Marxists have
always tried to explain to all that individual violence, (called
"terrorism"), pathetically puny compared with the terrorism of mass bombing
or even "surgical" bombing or the threat of nuclear incineration, hurts the
people and helps the rulers since it gives the naturally violent an excuse
to be more violent and confuses and divides the people.

But this goes further than that. In our acquired combativeness from just
staying alive under capitalism, we tend to attack the person, rather than
the issue he is presenting or representing. .... The person can change, the
issue remains. From acquired wisdom, or from estimating the odds, he can
remove himself. So you have won, but the issue is untouched.

But, enough. This is a whole field to explore, when we get into
cooperation. The point is, we aren't even THINKING about cooperation. Just
which evil is the lesser. And neither onne is the evil, they are just
puppets of the evil, which is a system which can't control itself and which
has no interest in humanity.

The friends in Japan are patiently trying to build a collective security
for humanity, within which humanity can breathe, grow, and continue to
develop. So their news is full of all these bits about human needs, dangers
and problems which are boring to us because we are used to sports,
spectacles and excitement. But if you will follow it you will see that they
are trying to preserve ALL humanity, not just Japan.

But it should be clear to anyone by now, that they can't do it alone. No
one can. If more of us don't get in and help, the situation is very serious.

I had to try saying this.

I'll send Wednesday's news after, separately.

John Manning


Louis Proyect
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