The tragedy of the far left Interview with a leader of the RCL in Japan We publish below an interview with Konno Motomu, a member of the leadership of the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), the Japanese section of the Fourth International, in which he traces the evolution of the Japanese left and the workers' movement, as well as presenting the situation of his own organisation.
The Revolutionary Communist League was born out of a split in the Communist Party at the end of the 1950s, in the context of a radicalisation of the student organisation, Zengakuren. This rupture in the CP in fact gave rise to the emergence of several far left currents which were originally all in the same organisation. That is why several of the organisations referred to in the interview still have the same name, that of the Revolutionary Communist League, and are usually differentiated through the initials of their particular faction. Apart from the section of the Fourth International (Daiyon Inta), this applies to Chukaku (the central faction) and Kakumaru (the Marxist-revolutionary faction).
Supporters of the Fourth International in Japan (1) were unable to develop a policy for involvement in the huge rise of political struggles in 1960 against the Japanese-American military treaty and the activity around economic issues. The group therefore split up into several regional formations.
In 1968, our movement was actively involved in the struggle on the campuses. This enabled it to reunite at a national level. The reunited organisation was heavily involved in the peasants' struggle against the construction of the new international airport on their lands in Narita, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Its influence was gradually strengthened because
Its activity in the trade-union movement, based on a previous implantation in the Sohyo (2) and the Socialist Party, began to develop again.
However, a process of sectarian degeneration hit what were then the main far-left organisations, starting with the Kakumaru and the Chukaku. Along with Kaiho ('Liberation' from the Socialist Youth (3)), they became involved in those terrible internecine wars which cost the lives of so many militants. These conflicts were known as the 'Uchigeba'
The Japanese section of the Fourth International has always refused on principle to resort to physical violence in the workers' movement. In constag te of the 5a ol a eas 10 i thee threch all their fa panto the trast to this sort of thing, in 1978, they threw all their forces into the ly important battle against the opening of the airport at Narita. were several members of the section among those who managed to get into the airport, which was guarded by thousands of police, and occupy the control tower. They suffered severe repression as a result and several are still in prison. (4)
The Sanrizuka Peasants' League was thrown into crisis at the end of 1983, hit by a split supported by the Chukaku. In January 1984, this same Chukaku organisation launched the first wave of aggressive physical action against supporters of the Japanese section of the Fourth International, using the criminal practices of the 'Uchigeba' which had already done so much damage to the Japanese far left. (5)
A second wave of attacks took place last July, as a result of which one activist had to have a leg amputated. The Chukaku commandos operate at night, bursting into people's houses to grab them when they are still sleeping. They break their bones (usually the legs) and, in the case referred to above, they hit the kneecaps with an icepick.
The Chukaku are attacking an organisation that itself has always refused to use violence against other groups, and has never physically attacked any of the Chukaku's members. Such cowardly practices do great damage to the whole of the Japanese far left in a situation where it has already been weakened by the evolution of the political situation in Japan.
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Question. How do you see the political developments within the Japanese workers' movement? And, first and foremost, what is happening to the Socialist and Communist Parties? (6)
Answer. The Socialist Party is the largest workers' party in Japan. Since the Second World War it has been a particularly left-wing social-democratic party. In this, it was probably unique. But at the moment the Socialist Party is clearly beginning to lose this specific character.
International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
And this development reflects the political drift to the right, which is working its way through the trade-union movement in the framework of the unity offensive. (7)
Let's take some examples. President Reagan came to Japan at the end of 1983 and gave a speech to the Diet (parliament). In the past the SP would have organised action against the visit of the chief representative of American imperialism. But this time it did nothing. The times during which the SP was opposed to American imperialism are almost over. The same problem will arise with the visit of the South Korean dictator, Chun Doo Hwan. Before, the SP was violently opposed to the South Korean regime. Nowadays, they are trying to establish new relations with South Korea.
In the 1950s and 1960s on the international level, the SP used to put forward an anti-imperialist position. They more or less maintained the position throughout the 1970s. Now that is over. Confronted with popular movements in strug gle in East Asia, the SP has modified its policies and has adopted in reality more classic social-democratic positions.
On the national level, the SP established official relations with the trade-union federation, Zenmin Rokyo, which came out of a right-wing fusion within the trade-union movement. Its main objective is to enter into a centre coalition government, and their main problem is to work out how to pull it off. The political trajectory of the new SP president, Ishibashi Mashashi, who was elected in August 1983, illustrates very well that of the party itself. He used to belong to the left of the SP, but now he symbolises the 'new' realism and did not hesitate to make an official visit to the United States.
On its side, the Communist Party now finds itself isolated in the framework of the right-wing fusion of the trade unions. It has reached a political impasse. They lost out more than any other party in the last elections. In this context, their sectarian orientation has been reinforced. They are, for example, consolidating their hold over Gensuikyo, the peace movement linked to them. In order to do this, they changed the secretary of the organisation.
Q. What is happening with the Chukaku? What is the context in which they are carrying out their criminal attacks on your members?
A. The Chukaku organisation is set on a course of sectarian isolation and physical attacks on our members are part of this general direction. There are several examples of this development that are very revealing. In the 1970s, the Chukaku had some influence in radical democratic circles. These links are now almost completely broken. The group of lawyers that used to defend Chukaku members arrested under the anti-subversion laws at one time numbered about 25, including law professers who were sometimes quite well known. Today International Viewpoint 28 January 1984 there are no more than four.
Another example was the intervention of the Chukaku in the Women's Democratic Club. This feminist organisation was set up after the Second World War, and during the 1950s it was dominated by the Communist Party.
In the early 1960s, the bulk of the group broke with the CP and the SP founded its own organisation. The Women's Democratic Club thereafter became a component part of the independent, democratic left. Within it there were radical democrats, socialists and sections of the 'new left' , independent of the SP and CP. Some members of the leadership were ex-members of the CP.
Chukaku's activities within this organisation began in the 1970s. Last June at the national congress of the Women's Democratic Club, Chukaku members physically halted the progress of the conference from the outset, and were ultimately excluded from the organisation. This action by the Chukaku is explained solely in terms of the fact that the Women's Democratic Club is supported by the Sanrizuka Peasants' League (majority).
Chukaku's orientation in the trade-union movement is a further illustration of their political evolution. The Chukaku believe that it is vital to defend the Sohyo against the rightward moving Zenmin Rokyo. But this is only a verbal commitment, and in practice their members do not actively participate in building an independent left current in the trade-union movement. The main stay of their local trade-union support is in the Chiba section of the train drivers' union - Doro. [This section eventually split from the national union.] Chiba is the region that covers Narita airport and the village of Sanrizuka. The Chiba train drivers' union organises more than a thousand members. Chukaku have not, however, been involved in any trade-union opposition at a national level or in the framework of the regional unions.
The Chukaku are preparing in fact for a fundamental compromise in the trade-union movement. That is why they attack the independent left currents, and why they label as 'provocateurs" both 1. In 1960 there was no Japanese section of the Fourth International but two recognised sympathising groups - the RCL and the Internationalist Communist Party. The two groups supported the FI unification in 1963 and they united in 1965 to form the Japanese section. 2. Sohyo is Japan's major national trade-union confederation in the public and private sector. Its majority current is the SP and the CP is the minority current. There are two other national trade-union federations -Domei and Chiritsu-Roren. Domei is the trade-union base of the Democratic Socialist Party of the right-wing social democracy. Chiritsu-Roren is the federation of unions in the private sector. 3. Socialist Youth is the SP's youth organisation. Liberation was established inside Socialist Youth in the 1960s. It has a self-styled Luxemburgist stance. The group split from Socialist Youth at the end of the 1960s. 4. See International Viewpoint, No 7, May 24, 1982.
See IV, No 49, March 26, 1984. 6. The Japanese Communist Party supported Peking against Moscow at the time of the Sino-Soviet split at the beginning of the 1960s those unions set up by our members who were expelled from Sohyo in the telegraph and telephones industry and on the railways and other small unions.
Finally in the Movement for the Liberation of the Buraku (8), which is led by neo-reformists and social democrats, the Chukaku attack the left current that is emerging within this movement rather than any other.
The Chukaku's political direction is therefore extremely sectarian. At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, we had formed a bloc with Chuk-
We broke off relations with them publicly in 1972 when they had already begun an internecine war with Kakumaru. We were opposed in principle to any use of physical aggression within the far left and we could not therefore maintain relations with the Chukaku. From 1972 to 1976 Chukaku was a prisoner of its "war' with Kakumaru, and they had no other systematic political activity.
In 1977, when the number of physical confrontations declined, Chukaku took up their intervention in the mass movement again. The key axis of this was the mobilisation in Sanrizuka, and they started to politically oppose our organisation in this field. Meanwhile, although in a less intense fashion, they continued to pursue their violent internecine wars in this period. Last year they found themselves in a political minority in Sanrizuka. (9) They therefore provoked a minority split from the Peasants League, denouncing the League majority as 'capitulators' and us as 'counterrevolutionary.
In January 1984, we suffered the first wave of nocturnal attacks, with the Chukaku breaking people's legs while they were in bed.
In July, came the second wave. It hit us very badly. One of our members had to have his leg amputated, whilst the other will probably be permanently paralysed. It was at this time that the majority of the legal group that had defended the Chukaku left them, and also the time when they were expelled from the Women's Democratic Club. and then broke with Peking at the time of the cultural revolution in the second half of the 1960s. Since then the Japanese CP has re-established somewhat distant relations with the Soviet bloc.
When these splits took place, pro-Soviet stalinists and pro-Chinese members went to the Socialist Party, the main organisation of the Japanese left. The SP traditionally organised several different currents such as the Kyokai faction (sometimes called Kautskyist) and the current for 'structural reforms' which was influenced by the positions of the Italian communists in the 1960s. 7. See IV, No 62, October 29, 1984. 8. The Burakumin are an oppressed people in Japan. On the racial, cultural, religious and linguistic level they do not differentiate themselves from the majority population. But, in the past, they specialised in the preparation of butcher's meat, in the slaughtering of animals for meat and in treating animal skins, all work which is looked down on within Buddhism. The Bukrakumin are still today subjected to discrimination in several areas like employment, marriage, access to education. 9. See IV, No 49, March 26, 1984.
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The Chukaku's - guerrilla struggle' against our supporters is under the command of the Revolutionary Army, their secret command structure. We believe, but we are not certain, that there were some internal disagreements about this last turn. But it appears that their 'Revolutionary Army' has seized control of the national leadership of the organisation.
A political struggle must have taken place within the national leadership of Chukaku betweeen the open wing involved in mass work and the underground wing. But the latter group seems to have carried the day, judging by the very serious attacks carried out last July. Unfortunately, we will have to prepare ourselves for further physical attacks on our members.
Q. What has become of the other far-left organisations in Japan?
A. Along with the Chukaku, the most important of the organisations is the Kakumaru. Since the beginning of the 1970s, the Kakumaru have become the left wing of Japanese social democracy and of the reformist apparatus of the trade-union movement. They control the 40,000-strong national union of train drivers, Doro. The Doro leadership decided to cooperate with measures for rationalisation in this sector, supposedly "in order to defend jobs' . For this they are ready to surrender certain rights gained in previous struggles by railway workers.
In following this path, the Kakumaru is in the 'Mindo' (10) tradition of the Sohyo bureaucracy. Members of Kakumaru in Doro have joined the Socialist Party. In Sendai, an important urban centre in the northeast of the country, members of that union who were fighting against government plans for rationalisation were expelled by the leadership and forced to set up their own union.
Another motive for expulsion is the support given by worker militants of our organisation to the Sanrizuka struggle, which the Kakumaru and the leadership of Doro did not support. The attitude toward Sanrizuka was the main source of conflict, especially in 1979, within the train-drivers' union, between the Kakumaru, who controlled the national leadership and the Chukaku, who form a majority in Chiba, where Narita airport is.
The Kakumaru decided to stick with the Sohyo leadership as a means of surviving the difficult' period that the trade-union movement was going through.
The situation of the Japanese far left is not brilliant. Our organisation is smaller than the Chukaku and the Kakumaru. There are other far-left organisations, but they are smaller than us.
Q. How do you see the situation in the trade-union movement developing?
A. The Communist Party has never formally recognised Sohyo as the only central union federation of the workers' movement. More than ten years ago, the CP, whilst remaining in Sohyo, founded 20
Confrontation at Narita airport, March, 1978 a United Trade-Union Coordinating Conference (Toitso Roso Kon). Four national unions in the health, transport (lorry drivers), building workers' and state employees' sectors were members of this one federation. Local branches of other Sohyo unions or of the area structures also participated in Toitsu Roso Con, which according to its supporters had over one million members.
Within the framework of the rightwing fusion of the unions, there is a dual process going on. It combines a rejection by Zenmin Rokyo of the unions supporting the Communist Party in response to a more and more sectarian stance by the CP itself. It must be noted that those unions that support the CP, support it actively on the political terrain — during elections for example - but as far as trade-union action is concerned, the unions led by the CP are usually passive, and in many cases even more passive than other unions in relation to strikes, etc.
The CP is also strong in the teachers' union, among municipal workers and on the railways. These three national unions are key to ensuring the Socialist Party's majority in Sohyo, and they were traditionally led by the social democratic left (the Kyokai faction). But they have found themselves on the defensive when confronted with measures for increased productivity and reorganisation adopted by the government.
Q. And what do you think of the position of the trade-union left, and especially Rodo Joho, the class-struggle current?
A. The position of Rodo Joho today is confused. (11) This current, which our trade-union militants participate in, fought hard in 1981 and 1982 against the right-wing fusion of the trade-union movement. But they could not prevent the fusion that put the workers' move. ment under the control of an extremely right-wing bureaucracy. This threatened the unity and effective operation of Rodo Joho.
The confused nature of the situation came out in several different ways. For example, over the Sanrizuka peasants' struggle and the split in the Peasants' League, Rodo Joho did not find it easy to adopt a clear position. Regarding the physical attacks on our members by Chukaku, Rodo Joho obviously condemned such criminal activity but not, in our view, with sufficient force.
Political debates have also had a destabilising effect on Rodo Joho. The main issue was whether to construct a workers' party jointly between this current and other far-left organisations. In 1982 and 1983, a discussion also took place on the possibilities of differences developing within the Sohyo bureaucracy and within the Socialist Party. In our opinion, some members of Rodo Joho overestimated the possibility of such a differentiation.
The debate is continuing now around the possibility of differentiations occurring within the CP and the organisations that they lead, such as the peace movement, Gensuikyo. There are certain objective factors which help to encourage such expectations. A split did develop between the CP and a radical current in the lorry drivers' union, which is traditionally led by the Communist Party. But we are afraid that such examples are not grounds for great optimism.
On the perspectives for radicalisation within the reformist organisations: Since its creation in 1977 and up until 1982, Rodo Joho, which organises several very good trade-union cadres, has played a very positive role in uniting a class-struggle current. But the overall situation has changed a lot in the last few years and Rodo Joho has not yet found a place for itself. Of course, we have some respon10. Mindo is the dominant force in the Sohyo trade-union apparatus, consisting of SP members. 11. Rodo Joho (Workers Information) is the name of a periodical which puts forward the positions of a current of the trade-union left.
International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
sibility in this situation. But our forces are limited, and we are mainly implanted in the Sendai region, in the northeast. We have some problems in working out a concrete orientation for our intervention.
It will not be easy to overcome the differences which have emerged within Rodo Joho, or to resolve the problems we are confronted with and to consolidate a united leadership. It will require a united leadership. It will require time. The situation of Rodo Joho is a reflection, in its own way, of the weakness of the trade-union left as a whole in confronting the right-wing bureaucracy's offensive.
Q. What are the perspectives for intervention today for the Revolutionary Communist League?
A. We are fighting against the stream. This struggle, in the context of the drift to the right on the political terrain, began with the 1977-1978 campaign in Sanrizuka against the opening of the Narita airport. The struggle of the Sanrizuka peasants constituted a radical, left and unitary pole of opposition. We were wholeheartedly involved in this, along with other currents and groups. It culminated in the oceupation of the control tower on March 26, 1978.
As a result, we became the targets of member severe repression. One hundred and fifty cases for two to three years. Some are still in prison today, having been given sentences of six to ten years imprisonment. A sort of national bloc against the March 26, 1978 demonstration was formed involving the Kakumaru, the SP, the CP and right through to the government's party. At this time a number of our members were expelled from the Sohyo unions, for example, in telegraphs and telephones, where the trade-union apparatus is the most right-wing of all the public sector unions.
In 1981, those who had been expelled along with those who supported them formed a small independent union. The same thing was done on the railways in March 1984 by expelled militants and their supporters.
The construction of these small independent unions is an expression, in some ways, of the state of the Sohyo bureaucracy and the degree of demoralisation of the mass of workers. Several small independent unions also exist in the private sector and we are working towards coordination.
Our orientation at the base is to aid in the construction of a current pledged to fight against Japanese and international imperialism — a current that solidarises with the struggle of the peasants and workers in East Asia and which is involved in the fight against the process of capitalist rationalisation of the Japanese economy. At the moment, the forces committed to such goals are very small.
We hope to be able to fight for this perspective within the structures of the International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
Sohyo and the Zenmin Rokyo unions. But owing to the repression introduced by the union bureaucracy we are forced to work in very difficult conditions. All class-struggle tendencies within the unions face the threat of expulsion, as in the case of groups of militants in telegraphs and telephones and on the railways.
Our general orientation is to try to take up two central tasks in a combined way. To create a class-struggle tendency within the large unions and to collaborate with the small radical independent unions. But we have to work out a medium-term perspective. The general political situation in Japan is very difficult. The role of the revolutionary organisation is, therefore, all the more important when there is so little to expect in terms of the spontaneous movement of workers in the near future. In order to resist the pressures there has to be a solid political foundation.
The trade-union left used to be accustomed to working within the left reformist trade unions. It was a framework for action within which the left currents and the combativity of the masses could find expression. The union structures were sensitised to pressure from the rank and file, and there was a certain dialectic between mass activity and the left reformist union structures.
The far left found here a milieu inclined toward action. But today this has disappeared. We were a component part of this left within this youth and working-class movement. We were able to develop activity within the framework of the rise in the struggles of the youth, students and workers at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. But this radicalisation, this new combativity, remained within a reformist framework, imprisoned within a reformist perspective in relation to the government question, in relation to parliment and to economic development.
When the economic recession came, accompanied with the betrayal of the reformist leaderships, the workers did not know how to respond. There was an inevitable decline in spontaneous activity, and the reformist dynamic of the mobilisation ended. In this situation we tried to maintain our activity within Sohyo, but we have been threatened for several years now with expulsion.
The general political situation has therefore changed a great deal, as compared to how it was in the 1960s and 1970s. All the forces on the left of the workers' movement have to reevaluate their perspectives as a result. How should we resist, and what new orientation can we draw up? That is what we are discussing in the organisation at the
We must go through a period of political reorganisation.
In a new context the struggle which is unfolding at Sanrizuka against the construction of a second runway at Narita Airport is, in our opinion, taking on a central importance on the national level. The forces of the left in the workers' movement should rally behind this struggle. It is effectively the only struggle that actually directly challenges the government and also has a national signficance.
Q. At what stage is the antinuclear movement against US missiles in Japan?
A. The Communist Party is the most influential group in the antinuclear movement and the one against American Tomahawk missiles. It is oriented towards the struggle for a neutral and pacifist Japan. The CP is very Eurocommunist, but Japanese-style of course. The CP campaign does not have a real anti-imperialist aspect to it. This fits in with their parliamentarist orientation and their refusal to confront the government and the state directly. It is strictly a legalist campaign.
The 1981 mobilisations, which were led by Sohyo were huge. There were hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, including about 300,000 in Tokyo, but without a clearly defined class character.
The SP's drift to the right this year meant that Sohyo did nothing to con front the issue of the Tomahawk mis siles. There were, certainly, some in dependent mobilisations against Toma hawk, but with very little participation of organised sections of the workers movement. It was the intellectuals and the radical peace activists who got these actions going. The dominant characte of these demonstrations was rather like that of the 'Greens' ecology movement, with support from civil rights groups, community organisations and peace activists. But the antinuclear movement has shown a lack of unity in the face of'important challenges like the visit in September of the South Korean president, Chun Doo Hwan. This is to mark the culmination of a process of normalisation between Japan (an old colonial power) and the South Korean regime, a process which formally began in 1965.
We are participating in the antinuclear and anti-Tomahawk movement with certain key objectives. Firstly, to develop an anti-imperialist dimension, and then •to rebuild an anti-imperialist current within the workers' movement itself. Only such a current will be able to rally to the support of the struggles of the workers and peasants in the Philippines, the struggles unfolding in South Korea or to the Thai workers, who are going through a very difficult time.
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URUGUAY-