Japanese workers resist repression as economy slides into recession
By
Gene Clancy
Published May 31, 2011 11:28 AM
As the Japanese economy reels from the combined effects of the recent tsunami
and human-made nuclear disaster, Japanese workers are facing increased
repression as they attempt to fight back against the economic effects of the
calamity and expose the nuclear industry for the danger it poses.
On May 20 more than 50 people who were peacefully protesting were forcibly
arrested and dragged out of the Tokyo High Court Building. This was an attempt
to intimidate a movement of Japanese workers who have protested the unsafe use
of nuclear power and the economic policies of the Japanese government and
business class.
This latest incident is only the most recent in a campaign of intimidation
which began shortly after a March 20 demonstration of more than 1,500 people in
Tokyo. They were protesting the government’s handling of the Fukushima
nuclear disaster and the general use of nuclear power in Japan.
In April, in the Suginami Ward in Tokyo, an incumbent City Council member who
has been campaigning for re-election on an anti-nuclear-plant platform and his
supporters were subjected to arbitrary arrests and harassment, despite the lack
of any material evidence against them. Police also raided two offices of his
election campaign and seized lists of supporters in order to intimidate them.
(International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro Chiba, the National Railway
Workers Union of Chiba, April 9)
The workers of Japan also face a deepening economic crisis. The worldwide
downturn had already weakened the Japanese economy. Now, following the tsunami
and nuclear disasters, the economy has plunged back into recession.
Kaoru Yosano, minister for economic and fiscal policy, said earlier that the
March 11 disaster had been the main reason for the fall in output and insisted
that growth would soon return. “The Japanese economy has a great deal of
resiliency,” Yosano said. (Financial Times, May 19)
However, the extent of the first-quarter fall — equivalent to a 3.7
percent decline on an annualized basis — underscores the scale of the
disruption caused by the natural disaster and resulting nuclear crisis at the
Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
Not only in the disaster areas but also in whole regions of East Japan, workers
face massive dismissals and unemployment. The earthquake and tsunami have hit
and immobilized thousands of workplaces in Tohoku and Kanto areas. Many
factories have had to stop operation all over Japan for lack of parts. This
happened because major auto manufacturers and electric machinery corporations
rely on outsourcing and their production depends on subcontractors or
sub-subcontractors for parts.
When these subcontractors are located in the disaster area, as many are, needed
parts don’t show up. Many workers with only irregular employment have
been thrown out of daily work without any financial support.
“The number of possible jobless people is beyond assessment. No rescue
measure has been offered or planned for those jobless workers. Japan is going
to be a huge unemployment peninsula as a result of the earthquake.” (ILSC
of Doro Chiba, April 9)
The May 19 Financial Times of London confirmed the economic impact of the
human-made Japanese nuclear disaster: “Japan’s devastating tsunami
and nuclear disaster pushed the economy much further into recession than
expected, raising doubts about the prospects for the world’s
third-largest economy. According to preliminary data released on Thursday [May
19], gross domestic product fell 0.9 percent in the first quarter of this year
compared with the previous three months. That was nearly twice the decline
forecast by economists. ... Japan’s economy has now contracted for two
quarters in a row, meeting the most widely used definition of a
recession.”
Frederic Neumann, economist at HSBC Global Research, put it succinctly in a May
19 report: “The ground is slipping.”
Japanese workers have been forced to fight back on two fronts. The first is to
recover from the effects of a devastating natural disaster and the accompanying
nuclear crisis caused by poor planning and disregard for safety on the part of
the Japanese capitalists. Second, they are battling the attempts of the
Japanese government and big business to force the workers to pay for the
physical and economic damage which were mainly caused by the capitalists.
The Japanese workers’ struggle is our struggle. They need and deserve the
support of poor, working and oppressed people around the world.
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