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"During
times of
universal
deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". George Orwell
 On
Thursday 3 April at 3:30pm members from NUGW-Nambu-FWC,
the National Union of General Workers, Tokyo South, Foreign Workers
Caucus went along to support their brothers and sisters from the
Highway Workers Union who have been battling the Metropolitan Expressway Corp. fighting for
years to protect
their wages from massive cuts and to improve horrible safety
standards that have led to injuries and even deaths of toll workers
on the roads here in Japan. The highway workers have actively supported
the struggles of the Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus, including
turning out in force for each year's March in March. At the gathering on Thursday
approximately 500 workers turned out to protest planned cuts and to
call for improved safety standards among other demands. A rally was
held for an hour outside the corporation headquarters after which a
march through Toranomon took place.
In an era of downsizing and
restructuring here in Japan, where lifelong employment is no longer
guaranteed and the introduction of temp agencies and short term
contracts along with widespread use of part-timers has taken root,
becoming a very real feature of the Japanese economy and consequently
having an effect on the everyday lives of ordinary people, it is
crucial that workers begin to fight back. While in the UK and the US
agressive neo-conservative or neo-liberal economic policies targetting
organised labour took effect in the 1980's as part of Thatcherism and
Reaganomics, Japanese trade unionists were not
 faced
with the task of fending
off the imposition
of such policies until recent years. Finally, as the governments of
Koizumi and Abe, succeeded by that of Fukuda have hit the Japanese
people with a series of privatisations - most notably that of the post
office, Japanese workers are having to face up to the fact that
Anglo-American management methods that go
Photo:The march in
Toranomon
along with the politics of plunder are very much at odds with
traditional Japanese collective values.In fact, much of the Japanese
populace is increasingly impoverished, with up to 25% of Japanese
workers qualifying as working poor - earning less than 2 million yen a
year. This patently has nothing to do with the work ethic of the
average Japanese employee.
As the gambare or gaman spirit ( exert yourself/try hard/endure &
put up with ) is prevalent in Japan and people
are loathe to complain
about their hardship or to seek help, the perceived passivity of the
working population by the government and corporations which have
leeched off honest working people for so long is fully being taken
advantage of as the ruling class is simply getting richer and richer
and richer. As the the time has come when they can simply not afford to
offer jobs for life with high salaries and good benefits due to global
economic and political pressures, Japanese
corporations have resorted to the brazen and unashamed strategies and
tactics of their American and British contemporaries.
 It is the
duty of the labour organisations and trade unions, along with
associated
political parties and grassroots organisations to make a concerted
effort in fighting back, using methods of old if necessary in
conjunction with newly devised tactics. Labour law needs to be actively
challenged and broken, plans for
strikes of all
kinds - sympathy and
wildcat, legal and illegal need to be Photo:Suits from the Quango
formulated while at the same time networks between the diverse left
groups of Japan need to be strengthened. However, nothing can be
achieved unless there is active recruitment and articulate, intelligent
and responsive leaders come to the fore. Further to this a regrouping
of the labour unions under one federation needs to be achieved, or at
the very least an agreement struck by which the three main
federations will
act as one in the future.
It has often been said that Japan is a classless society, however,
nothing could be further from the truth, capitalist societies are in
and of themselves based on class antagonisms.However, having said that,
when I first came to Japan nine years ago, I remember talking to an
executive of the Izuzu motor company and being told by him that Japan
was a capitalist-communist country. I simply thought that he was
confused at the time or was having trouble selecting the appropriate
vocabulary in English, but later I came to realise that he was
referring to the tight social networks and communities that existed in
the past where workers felt a degree of loyalty to their company and
when benefits that would have been the envy of western workers were
routinely provided.The attitudes that were fostered in the glory years
of Japanese reconstruction of loyalty and sacrifice for the good of the
nation and which were seemingly rewarded in the bubble years of the
late 1980's have left their mark.Workers are still reluctant to
challenge their bosses and to strike out at their greedy and
avaricious, cynical and exploitative employers and this is compounded
by press censorship, tripe on tv and radio and the unwillingness of
journalists and their editors to say no to their employers, as well as
the all pervasive consumer culture. None of these things are unique to
Japan and are to be found in different forms in different societies
around the world.The trade
unions have to have the courage to begin formulating and putting into
place militant policies coupled with systematic education with regard
to the nature of capitalism and workers rights. Lost ground needs to be
recovered and new ground gained.This does not mean ploughing headlong
into a series of ill timed and poorly thought out actions, it means
slow, steady, systematic building work with bolder and bolder small
scale actions gradually becoming more and more frequent as
circumstances allow.
 Foreign
workers have a big part to play in the upcoming struggles, particularly
as Japan has a serious problem with regard to its ageing population and
needs to recruit even more workers from abroad. The government has
already started preparing for this eventuality, taking advantage of the
boom in security technologies ( of which Israel and the US are leaders
Photo:Union members
listen to speeches and active promoters and
developers ) and the phoney "war on terror" to introduce biometric data
gathering programmes at ports of entry to Japan. In addition to this
they are planning
revisions to laws, rules and regulations at local levels with regard to
the registration of foreigners. As this is the case, foreign workers
need to start preparing to protect and defend themselves in the
upcoming exploitation fest. The groups representing the average working
Chinese, Korean, Brazilian, American, Australian, British, European and
Indian communities (along with everyone from other nationalities of
course) have a vested interest in working together, along with their
Japanese brothers and sisters.It is
essential for us to speak Japanese and to communicate with each other
through that language. In this work, the
unions have a big responsibility and an important role to play. Lets
hope they can rise to the challenge !
NB. Spring is not
affiliated in any way to NUGW-NAMBU and the views above are that of the
author alone.
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