Japanese left defends `peace constitution'

By Catherine Brown

TOKYO -- In June 1992 various independent left groups formed a broad alliance against the passage of the PKO (United Nations Peacekeeping Operation) Bill. After much heated debate in parliament the unconstitutional bill was passed allowing the Japanese Special Defence Forces to operate abroad, in contradiction to Article 9 of the Japanese constitution.

With their party's leadership abandoning support for Article 9 in the lead up to the July 18 election, the left-wing of the Social Democratic Party of Japan is organising a meeting on September 4 around the theme “keep the Japanese peace constitution”.

Eto Masanobu, editor of the union journal Rodo-Joho, says he believes that the SDPJ left-wing will split, after the SDPJ's betrayal of Article 9, to form a new socialist or workers' party, though he concedes this will be a difficult process.

The Japanese Communist Party, which maintained its vote of 8% in the recent elections, also staunchly supports the retention of Article 9, although it didn't campaign as strongly on the issue as some had hoped for. The JCP has its own daily paper with a circulation 500,000 and a Sunday magazine with a readership of 2 million, with which to campaign on Article 9.

The PKO Bill was only offered token resistance by Rengo, the main trade union federation. Rengo declared it would support the bill if members of the JSDF were “on leave of absence” when dispatched overseas. While Rengo concedes the JSDF is unconstitutional, it nevertheless supports it existence as representing Japan's “right to self-defence.”

Another group, the Socialist Alliance, which developed out of the coalition against the PKO bill last year, involves a number of different left groups from varying traditions. “Many differences exist about its political orientation and perspectives for socialism, but we agree it needs to be a broad coalition”, Kenji Kunitomi, a leader of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League, told Green Left Weekly.

The alliance's common standpoints are to defend Article 9; to fight against dispatching Japanese troops to foreign countries; to broaden democratic rights, for example, to grant rights to immigrant workers; abolition of death penalty; protection of the environment and oppose building atomic power plants.

The current debate within the Socialist Alliance is on the prospects for a new party though no agreement has been reached. Many stress the need for the alliance to provide an alternative political force in the next elections.

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