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.
OW big a shift of policy
H 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 $4 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 the parliament, because in the upper 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 carrier. So the law has been changed through a cahinet deci_ through a cabinet decision.
• How did the opposition respond to this?
In parliament the
Socialist Party is the 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-
Japanese Communist Party (JCP) opposed this 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 the Communist and paci-
6 fist 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 people. In February some independent student groups organized a demonstration against the war. We also supported this demonstration and it attracted about 3000 people. • Are these demonstrations reported in the press?
Yes, there 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 geois intellectuals and scholars, ana sonne 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 groups, womens' 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. *
CHINA
Political trials continue, as does opening to the West ening up. The bureaucracy has also tried to re-centralize itself. There were decrees passing power back into the hands of the centre. Nonetheless the main trend remains that of seeking the help of capitalist forces to prop up their rule.
The bureaucrats are hanging on and waiting for the death of Deng Xiaoping and 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
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. C 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 through public acts such as demonstrations, but it shows through in the speeches of the party leaders. In March 1990, for example, at the people's congress, the representative of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) said that a lot of soldiers are confronted with humiliation and insults from the people, and this has caused unrest within the army itself. He said that some comrades in the army were considerably perplexed by questions such as: what is the future of the Socialist system?
Given the repression, precise information 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 conflict over wages in the biggest steelworks in Beijing, where there are 220,000 workers. They were angry at the stopping of bonuses and the fact that the management forces them to buy state bonds.
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 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 government 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 Beijing. • Is there continuing evidence of divisions in the bureaucracy? At the time of Tiananmen Square there was much talk about a leader of a faction in the party, Zhao Ziyang, giving at least tacit support to the protests.
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 tightened more or less, or whether there should be control over bureaucrats who engage in profiteering and so on. These are tactical differences.
The trend at the moment is towards strengthening political control, both over the bureaucracy itself and over the population. So there is much emphasis on Socialism and the defence of Socialism.
there is more or less open resistance from inere 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 have been collecting from nongovernmental 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 subvert the government". These trials
They say that the country should come after those of nine student leadnot move towards capitalism and ers who recelved sentences of that we need a Socialist market.
between 2 and 4 years on subversion
On the other hand, the opening to charges.
the West has not been stopped. This
Many trials however have not been means that there are contradictory made public. The human rights' organlstatements. At the same time as zation Asia Watch has a list of 960 they are talking about strengthening Socialism, they are appealing to political prisoners, but claims that famthe West to come to invest in ily members often do not dare seek
Shanghai, saying that we are going help from foreigners for fear of reprito develop the Eastern, old, part of sals (International Herald Tribune, Feb-
Shanghai. This will be the biggest ruary 15, 1991).
free trade zone in China.
7
After 1989 there has been a tight-
The crime of subversion
CHEN ZIMING and Wang Jungtao, two leaders of China's pro-democracy movement were sentenced to 13 years each in jail on Tuesday February 12, 1991. They were found guilty of bringing together illegal organizations and conducting "a series of activities to
CHINA the official Chinese Xinhua News Agency. Campaigns have continued at various levels throughout the world. For example, before the Hong Kong delegation, there was a joint delegation of people of Chinese origin from a number of countries, such as the USA, Britain and so on. They went to China, where they were treated roughly and told to leave. There has also been a delegation from the French Médecins Sans Frontières group. This kind of unspectacular action has been going on all the time, but it has been overshadowed by the Gulf War. • Are there differences inside the defence campaign, for example, efforts at manipulation by the Taiwanese government?
There have always been pressures from the Taiwanese government and rightwing forces overseas, but this is a broad movement.
The main sentiment is for democracy in China and liberal intellectuals play the predominant role. But there is also a significant oro-socialist current. When there nificant pro-socialist current. When there is an action, people of all political persuasions, and none, mobilize. • What impact do you think the blatant American collusion with Beijing has had on pro-democracy public opinion?
At the moment the focus is still on the Chinese government, which has been using the Gulf War to cover up its own misdeeds. There were hopes in pressure from the Americans. But partly as a result of the American government's actions over the past year and a half — top level contacts with Beijing, maintenance of most-favoured nation status — people are reflecting. • What are the feelings among defence campaign activists concerning the situation in Tibet and in the West of China generally?
The state of emergency there has been lifted. But in reality there is still a state of siege. At the same time the Beijing regime has made approaches to the Dalai Lama, who is in exile in India, concerning talks.
In 1989, at the Geneva UN Commission on Human Rights, there was some cooperation between the Tibetans and the Chinese democracy people. But it is not so conspicuous at the moment. In Hong Kong, people want to signal to the Chinese people that they are not isolated, to stop them from becoming demoralized. There is still a good turn out on the demonstrations — 3,000 came out to protest against these recent trials.
The main aim of the signature campaign is to let people inside China know that they have support outside, so that they do 8 not just hear from Bush or Major or whoever. * International Viewpoint #201 • March 4, 1991
On behalf of imprisoned pro-democracy activists WE PUBLISH below the preamble to an international petition from non-governmental organizations against the repression in China. It was written before the outcome of the recent wave of trials was known (see box on p. 7). The text of the petition reads:
"We the undersigned individuals and organizations, hereby make the following urgent appeal to the Chinese Government:
"To release, immediately and unconditionally, all those currently imprisoned in China on account of their peaceful exercise of the rights of free expression, association and public demonstration during the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and also all those imprisoned on these grounds prior to 1989.
"To cease forthwith carrying out any further acts of repression against China's peaceful pro-democracy movement, and to take all necessary measures to return China to the rule of law and democratic process."