This page is a list of Resources for building International Solidarity around issues of Education, Militarism, Globalization and Privatization.
DoroChiba, UTLA, and other Labor Resources
Trinational (Canadian, Mexican, and American) Conference & Puerto Rican Solidarity
International Student Groups (New Petition For Hosei Univ. G8 arrestees)
Here is a KPFK interview recorded at the NEA convention in July 2009 with :
Yoshie Yoneyama, Education Workers Division of National Community Center of Labor Unions
Etsuko Sato, Miura Peninsula District Union, Teacher
Eriko Kojima, International Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba Railway Union
Tetsuro Miyake, International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba Railway Union
Go to http://archive.kpfk.org
Morning Review Wednesday with Gabriel Gutierrez Wed. July 22, 7 a.m.
Click on PLAY- the interview takes place 37 minutes into the show (37 min to 44 min). There are many other guests on the show.
Sister Nezu Resource pages
"Never Send our Students to the battlefield again!" (Japanese Teachers Slogan)
Please send a letter to one of the addresses listed at the bottom of this entry to support Sister Nezu Kimiko.
Introduction: Following World War Two, the Emperor of Japan’s power was severely limited and a new Japanese Constitution based on the American model was created. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution states: Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
Article 19 of the Japanese Constitution states: Freedom of thought and conscience shall not be violated.
Present Situation: In October 2003 a directive was issued by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (TMBE) to force teachers to stand for and sing the Kimigayo, a traditionally nationalist and militarist song dedicated to the Emperor, with the raising of the Japanese battle flag Hinomaru. Teachers throughout Japan have refused to stand and sing this reminder of Japanese imperialist aggression and the horrors of war.
These teachers, particularly Sister Kimiko Nezu and Sister Junko Kawarai, have come under attack for their exercise of conscience. Over the years they have been subject to TMBE-imposed punishments, including docked pay, but they have also been joined with in their action for peace by at least 410 other Japanese public schoolteachers.
In May 2007 the Japanese government proposed overhauling the Constitution including Article 9.
In November 2007 CAMS, the Coalition Against Militarism In Our Schools received an invitation to visit Japan to show solidarity with these anti-war teachers. We traveled from Tokyo to Nagasaki meeting teachers from Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and other regions of Japan, and also teachers showing solidarity from South Korea.
In April 2008, due in part to a letter writing campaign organized by CAMS in the United States, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (TMBE) stated that they would not terminate Nezu and Kawarai, as everyone expected them to.
Currently we are seeking support for these teachers on this matter. The support we seek is in the form of written letters to TMBE and the Japan Teacher Union (JTU) officials. We hope this can form along the lines of creating a dialogue with JTU about the situation of Hinomaru and Kimigayo, and to request that all of the punishments be dropped with the reinstatement of employment for the teachers. The voice of American teachers, their unions, and professional organizations have a great deal of influence on these issues related to freedom of expression, collective bargaining, and social justice.
An article from UTLA's United Teacher November 2009
Keeping the Peace: Resistance and Teachers in Japan
-- Arlene Inouye
As a third generation Japanese American, I didn’t have much of a connection to Japan. It seemed much too expensive for a visit, and like others of my generation, my life was in America. However, in my late forties I applied for a Fulbright Scholarship for a month in Japan along with a team of 12 educators from throughout the United States. It was an opportunity for me to discover my cultural heritage and understand my life experience as a Japanese American woman. One of the moments that impacted me the most was standing on ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, imagining the 175,000 children and adults killed in an instant from the atomic bomb. I also had an “ah-hah” moment after seeing photographs of the young boys in Japan who were sent to war -- they looked nothing like the images that were depicted in America. Going to Japan put in context the experience of my family, which was forcibly incarcerated in the camps at Manzanar during World War II, and it gave me an understanding of who I am and where I’ve come from.
Five years later I began the Coalition for Alternatives to Militarism in our Schools (CAMS). I was employed as a Speech and Language Specialist at Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles and saw first-hand how military recruiters work in the inner-city schools. I felt compelled to take action and began an organized effort reaching out to nonprofit organizations, school communities and the teachers’ union, UTLA.
CAMS developed a multi-tiered approach to addressing militarism in the schools, including an Adopt-a-School Project at 50 high schools in the Los Angeles area. We also organized at the district level by monitoring and passing district policies that addressed student privacy, the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), equal access and JROTC. Through UTLA, a progressive union, we brought information and education around militarism through resolutions, workshops, conferences, dialogue and organizing strategies. We later became one of the founding organizations of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY).
By working through the union, we opened up the platform to inform the educational community about issues of militarism and the alternatives, seeking opportunities to influence our local, state and national teachers’ union affiliates. In 2007, I attended my first NEA Representative Assembly as an elected delegate from California. It was there that I met five Japanese people at the Peace and Justice Caucus table in the exhibit hall. I was shocked to learn that they had come all the way from Japan, hoping to share their plight and gain support for the struggle that the rank-and–file teachers were encountering. I learned that the teachers in Japan were facing suppression of their freedom of thought and conscience. Forced mandates required them to support new militaristic practices. Shortly after Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Japan decided to send its troops to the battlefield for the first time since 1945. In line with that move, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education issued a directive that secondary teachers stand during graduation ceremonies while the “Hinomaru” flag (which glorifies war) was hoisted and the “Kimigayo” hymn (a song to the Emperor) was played. Since this directive was given on October 23, 2003, 422 teachers and workers have been punished for disobeying in Tokyo (where the law is most strictly enforced), and more than 1500 throughout Japan. Their punishments have included pay cuts, fines, “reeducation sessions,” involuntary transfers, and the threat of firing. I was amazed that so many teachers refused the status quo in a society that thrives on conformity and obedience to authority.
Although those resisting called upon the Japanese Teachers Union to support their struggle, JTU has not only remained silent but has silenced the teachers, excluded them from union events, and even called the police to attack their own union members. JTU has not opposed the disciplinary measures imposed on the dissident teachers even though the union motto established after World War II is: “We will never send our students to the battlefield again.” I think that those of us in the U.S. may not fully understand the significance of the flag in Japan and the strong nationalism that prevailed as the Japanese people gave their unquestioning obedience to the Emperor. The flag not only represented pride in the nation, but also the slaughter of millions in the imperialist conquest that became the shame of Japan. Unlike the U.S. flag, which represents the freedom of the states from Great Britain, the Japanese flag represents imperialism and war.
Japanese teachers were, without a doubt, stunned to hear about the blatant and aggressive military recruitment in American schools. But they also learned that the educational policies of the No Child Left Behind Act are very similar to the political agenda that has hit Japan. “We are about five years behind you,” said one teacher who wanted to learn how our unions are addressing the attacks on public education, coupled with the increasing militarism.
Increasing militarism in Japanese society and the forced compliance of teachers is but one dimension of the attacks. A teacher wrote that in Japan the conditions and contents of education have been under strict control by the centralized state power. Since the beginning of the 1990s the ruling class has been striving to widen inequality in education -- more money for elitist education and budget cuts for others. In earlier years such as the 1960s there was a mass movement of protest and a teachers’ strike that prevented mandated nationwide achievement tests. But recently various tools have been forcefully re-introduced: standardized tests, school choice, evaluation and ranking of schools, union busting, wage cuts, “Hinomaru” and “Kimigayo,” revising Japanese text books, a revision of their Fundamental Laws of Education, and a new Licensure Reauthorization renewal requirement. Furthermore, Japan has experienced an economic crisis since the 1990s that has resulted in greater poverty, homelessness and lack of jobs while scandals and corruption have increased. The people have been protesting against the U.S. military bases and the privatization of the railway and postal service for more than 25 years. The results of the recent Japanese elections no doubt reflect the rising discontent and willingness of the Japanese people to demand change in their government, augmenting a movement of rank and file educators, workers, students and union leaders that has been growing for many years.
CAMS and many in UTLA have supported our Japanese sisters and brothers since hearing of their struggle. We have collected petitions regarding the issues facing the students and teachers, visited the Japanese Embassy in LA, and participated in their annual International Solidarity Rally of workers, unionists and teachers since November 2007. We spoke at the 2008 anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and led teachers’ workshops in various cities throughout Japan.
Last June, two years after our first encounter, a Japanese team of four teachers and labor union activists came to visit the NEA convention once more, this time in San Diego. We set up a series of informal exchanges with teachers, students and counter-recruitment activists from UTLA and Project YANO. It led to deeper and further connections.
In July 2009 the NEA Representative Assembly passed New Business Item #20:
Using existing communication vehicles (including the NEA Today and the NEA website) the NEA will work with Education International to publish updates on the attacks on academic freedom internationally in such places as Japan, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Mexico and other nations.
Presently we are arranging for a rank-and-file union leader, who led the boycott of the periodic assessment exams in UTLA, to travel to Japan as an international speaker for the International Solidarity Rally on November 1, 2009. She will also hold workshops for teachers and update them on our current struggles with privatization in Los Angeles Unified School District.
I am amazed that my personal journey has found its way back to Japan. It saddens me that the militarism in the “belly of the beast” -- the U.S. -- has devastating implications for the rest of the world. Yet I am grateful to be part of the solution in forging international solidarity and working together with sisters and brothers in our common struggles.
NEZU Statement To UTLA Meeting On 12/14/2007 In Solidarity With Japanese Anti-War Teachers
Brothers and Sisters, rallying in this meeting!
My name is NEZU Kimiko, a teacher in Tokyo.
The directive issued on October 23, 2003 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education under the control of the Fascist Tokyo governor Ishihara, ordered that the teachers of public schools should stand up to sing Kimigayo, Japanese national anthem, in schools ceremonies and that disobedient teachers would be disciplined. Kimigayo and Hinomaru became officially national anthem and national flag respectively by the law in 1999. A substantial number of Japanese people, in spite of this, are not willing to sing Kimigayo because this song wishes Reign of Emperor to last forever and was sung to mobilize Japanese people into the aggressive war in Asia decades ago. This was the reason why the government of Liberal Democratic Party had to wait until 1999 to make Kimigayo officially national anthem.
Punishment of teachers because of their refusal of Kimigayo worship evidently violates the "freedom of thought and conscience", stipulated by the Japanese constitution. When the punishment is repeated and cumulatively strengthened, it threatens even the right to live of disobedient teachers. I refused to stand up for Kimigayo in front of Hinomaru in the graduation ceremony on March 2007 and was suspended for six months from April to September. If I once again refuse worship Hinomaru and Kimigayo in the graduation ceremony in March 2008, I will surely be dismissed. No punishment on Hinomaru and Kimigayo issue! Under this slogan, we have been developing protest actions everywhere in Japan. Just at that moment came your help to us. We whole-heartedly thank you, brothers and sisters of UTLA, AFT2121 and OEA and other labor unions, for your support to, and commitment in, our struggle. International solidarity across the ocean is an enormous encouragement to us.
In Tokyo on November 3 and 4, we had a great opportunity to receive visits of Sister Arlene Inoue and Brother Gregory Sotir of CAMS who have been successfully developing brave activities to block military recruiters in schools as well as Brother Steve Zeltzer of TWSC.
Japan seems to be following examples of the US, her ally, behind 5 years. Therefore, it is easy to find out where Japan is drifting for when we watch the situation in the US. Inevitable result of the recent Japanese development, such as increasing number of working poor, nationalistic transformation of education through enforcement of Hinomaru and Kimigayo and punishment on disobedient teachers, will be NCLB, --, the poverty draft.
We share the cause and aspirations of Sister Arlene Inouye and Brother Gregory Sotir who have been fighting to stop sending children to the battlefield to die. They told us that they will never shut their mouth in front of unjust things and that it is their duty as human being to do what they thought right. It is exactly my own credo. I was shocked and moved when I learned from them that they are practicing education for peace and education to help develop students to perceiving reality and thinking independently and that they regard it the best lesson teachers can give to the students to rise up for struggle themselves. As the discussion went further and more intensely among us, I realized with deep emotion that we share common aspiration in spite of geographical distance. I felt almost happy.
I have been thinking for 36 years ever since I became teacher that it is our important duty as teachers to tell students the facts and truth and to appear as fighting teachers before them. As the situation has become severer, I have come to sense keenly its the importance of my belief. Just imagine my surprise and joy when I met them who share a common ideal. It is beyond expression.
Your struggle to kick out military recruiters from schools has changed the situation in the US and has given us precious suggestions.
Now I am telling as many people as possible that such political measures as the punishment of Nezu for the refusal of Hinomaru and Kimigayo ceremony will inevitably end in military recruitment of poor people just like in the US now. Students sharply react to my speech. It is because I have learned much from Sister Inouye, Brothers Sotir and Zeltzer and I am deeply convinced of the validity of what I speak to them.
Our counter-offensive is inevitable and necessary as the governments and corporations in the US and Japan together squeeze and throw away people as working tools for their greedy and selfish interest. Let us develop actions to refuse cooperation in war through strengthening solidarity among teachers.
I am determined to carry on struggle against unjust things together with you, rallying here.
Dec. 14, 2007
In Solidarity,
NEZU Kimiko
Sample letter below. Please highlight, save, print out, add your own thoughts, and mail.
SAMPLE LETTERS
Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (TMBE)
xxx xx, 2008
Tsutomu KIMURA
Chair of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education,
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office No. 2 Main Bldg.,
2-8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-Ward, Tokyo,
163-8001, Japan.
Dear Mr. Kimura,
I am a teacher in the United States of America. I have heard here in America about the unjust attentions paid to Sister Nezu Kimiko, Sister Kawarai Junko, and the 410 other Japanese teachers organizing for peace and justice in Japanese schools. Nezu's and Kawarai's acts and statements of conscience, and their refusal to obey the Hiromaru and Kimigayo directives, are a triumph of individual moral conscience and responsibility over the dangers of unreasoned nationalism. In America, we have our own First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which similarly guarantees all citizens the right to free expression, and is a bedrock of pedagogy within American public schools.
The teachers of Los Angeles support Nezu Kimiko, Kawarai Junko and the 410 other teachers. We will continue to monitor this situation closely. Their cause is becoming internationally known as an example of intellectual and academic freedom and a reaffirmation in the basic principles of peace, justice, and diplomacy.
As educators moving into the new burgeoning 21st century, a time that has already shown great capacity for fundamental change, we must stay aware of our conscious responsibility to build peaceful and harmonious world views, and to model for our students that which signifies an unflagging devotion to these moral principles. Please do not stand in these teachers way. Instead of punishment their devotion deserves careful reflection and support.
Sincerely,
<<>><><><>>
Masayuki OHARA
Superintendent of the Office of Education
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office No. 2 Main Bldg.,
2-8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-Ward, Tokyo,
163-8001, Japan.
Dear Mr. Ohara,
I am a teacher in the United States of America. I have heard here in America about the unjust attentions paid to Sister Nezu Kimiko, Sister Kawarai Junko, and the 410 other Japanese teachers organizing for peace and justice in Japanese schools. Nezu's and Kawarai's acts and statements of conscience, and their refusal to obey the Hiromaru and Kimigayo directives, are a triumph of individual moral conscience and responsibility over the dangers of unreasoned nationalism. In America, we have our own First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which similarly guarantees all citizens the right to free expression, and is a bedrock of pedagogy within American public schools.
The teachers of Los Angeles support Nezu Kimiko, Kawarai Junko and the 410 other teachers. We will continue to monitor this situation closely. Their cause is becoming internationally known as an example of intellectual and academic freedom and a reaffirmation in the basic principles of peace, justice, and diplomacy.
As educators moving into the new burgeoning 21st century, a time that has already shown great capacity for fundamental change, we must stay aware of our conscious responsibility to build peaceful and harmonious world views, and to model for our students that which signifies an unflagging devotion to these moral principles. Please do not stand in these teachers way. Instead of punishment their devotion deserves careful reflection and support.
Sincerely,
Japan Teachers Union (JTU)
xxx xx, 2008
Yuzuru NAKAMURA
President, Japan Teachers’ Union
Nihon Kyoiku Kaikan Bldg., 2-6-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-Ward
101-0003 Tokyo, Japan
Dear Mr. Nakamura,
As a teacher in Los Angeles, California, USA, I want to alert you to the situation of schoolteachers Sister Nezu Kimiko, Sister Kawarai Junko and the 410 other Japanese teachers organizing for peace and justice in Japanese schools. Nezu's and Kawarai's refusal to obey the Hiromaru and Kimigayo directives express a strong dedication to their children to live in a world free from craven nationalism and endless war.
Nezu Kimiko, Kawarai Junko, and all of these teachers, have my support as a teacher and an educational union member (UTLA-United Teachers Los Angeles.) Unions need to protect workers when they are being unfairly attacked. My own union, UTLA, will do that for me, and so I implore you: "Stand up with Nezu Kimiko, Kawarai Junko, and all teachers who fight for these basic issues of organizing and collective bargaining."
We also implore and urge you to take immediate and strong action to protect and support Nezu Kimiko, Kawarai Junko, their 410 colleagues, and all union member teachers in regards to the unjust and humiliating 'Guidelines to deal with school personnel who might deserve undesirable discharge or suspension'from the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (TMBE). An injury to one is an injury to all.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
SAMPLE LETTERS in PDF format
TMBE and JTU
Also please email or fax to: doro-chiba@doro-chiba.org
And please sign the Online Petition Drive to protect Sister Nezu
More Addresses To Send Support Letters To:
1. Masaki IGARASHI
President, Tama and Islands Area Education Workers' Union
Apartment SUI 1F West, 1-1-6 Kita, Kunitachi-City, 186-0001 Tokyo, Japan
Fax: +81-42-574-3093
2. Shin'ichi KIKUOKA
President, Machida-City Public School Teachers' Union
1-8-29 Kanamori, Machida-City, 194-0012 Tokyo, Japan
3. Tsutomu MARUKO
President, Union of Tokyo Metropolitan School for Children with Special
Needs
3-31-3-102 Koenji Kita, Suginami-Ward, 166-0002 Tokyo, Japan
Fax: +81-3-3223-2660
Also please email or fax to: doro-chiba@doro-chiba.org +81-43-224-7197
Links To Videos & Information About This Issue
Sister Nezu's Blog
Against Coercion, a video about Sister Nezu's struggle
Online Petition Drive to protect Sister Nezu
A flyer by the National Coordinating Center of Labor Unions on Nezu's Struggle
Biographical piece on Sister Nezu Kimiko
Article on the November 3-4, 2007 rally by Steve Zeltzer
San Francisco Action video in support of sister Nezu October 5, 2007
Tokyo Teachers Action October 5, 2007
Hinomaru and Kimigayo article from Japan Times
Wikipedia entry on Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA)
DoroChiba Railway Workers Union
Trinational and Puerto Rican Resource Pages
Trinational Conference on Education
Puerto Rican Teachers are organizing!
December 22, 2009: Last night, three of eight students who had been detained for 8 months
in solitary confinement were finally released. We won a great victory
over the unprecedented repression, and we are now fighting to release
the remaining five students.
Their "crime" was free speech, and the Violence and Others of 1926 .
This law was also applied to the me prosecution applied the Law
Concerning Punishment of Physical ilitant National Railway Workers'
Union (Kokuro) members who had been arrested in 2002 and detained for
15 months after they handed out flyers to the representatives of the
Kokuro convention. However on Nov. 27, the Tokyo District Court has found the
Kokuro members "not guilty" in applying the above law and in
authorizing "conspiracy". This is also an unprecedented historical victory, and the
unconstitutionality of the law itself has been exposed to the light of
day.
April 24, 2009 1500 students of Hosei University and from around the
country and workers of Doro-Chiba and other militant unions held a
free speech rally.
Please visit following web sites and see photos.
http://08bunren.blog25.fc2.com/
http://hosei29.blog.shinobi.jp/
Six students, including vice president of Federation of Cultural
Clubs, Onda, were arrested. Since March 2006, 94 students have been
arrested in Hosei.
Previous articles on Hosei student activists::
Appeal to US workers and students from fighting Japanese students of
Hosei University and ZENGAKUREN:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/houdaikyuuenkai/files/0817tousa2.htm
Free Speech Campaign and Struggle Against G8 Summit
38 arrested in Hosei University:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/houdaikyuuenkai/files/0806english01.htm
Violence and torture in jail:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/houdaikyuuenkai/files/violence.htm
Tokyo Detention Center robs Hosei Students of T-shirts given by US teachers:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/houdaikyuuenkai/files/t-shirts.htm
Students from Hosei University protesting the G8 Gathering of Criminals in Japan 2008 were arrested. Here is a petition for their release. Please download and circulate. Here is more information:
Appeal to US workers and students from fighting Japanese students of Hosei University and ZENGAKUREN
August 17, 2008
Hosei University’s students
ZENGAKUREN (General Federation of Japanese Students’ Autonomous Bodies)
Brothers and sisters, workers and students of US!
We are writing to you on behalf of the fighting students of Hosei University against neo-liberal offensive of the university authorities.
War drive and neo-liberal policy have rapidly brought about a transformation of universities. In recent several years the Hosei University authorities have deprived students of their right of freedom of expression and violently suppressed independent activities of students on campus, such as organizing various student clubs, in cooperation with police. 88 students were unjustly arrested and 22 of them were indicted in these two years because of their activities on campus. We are unflinchingly fighting back this outrageous repression.
Now it has become no more possible for the capitalist class to tolerate academic autonomy and freedom that they used to admit for times. In face of this situation, we are determined to carry out our struggle to crush neo-liberal offensive and to get back education in our hands in solidarity with workers and students round the world.
How Hosei University has changed its character
Hosei University used to be called ‘democratic Hosei’ and numerous Marxist economist professors were lecturing. In days of the struggle against Vietnam war, Hosei University was one of the strongholds of student movement. There was a Student Hall as a center of students’ autonomy, in which more than one hundred independent student’s clubs were located, such as music, arts, scientific activities. The Student Hall was completely under the control of students and was full of laughter of students and sounds of musical instruments’ exercises night and day. Not only Hosei University students but also students of many other universities in Tokyo often gathered to the Student Hall of Hosei as a meeting point.
The year 2000 marked a turning point for Hosei University: under the name of ‘University Reform’, a project of redevelopment of the campus was launched with successive construction of high-rise buildings and abrupt raising of university fees. In the course of this project, control over students was gradually strengthened. Notwithstanding, in March 2003 when the war on Iraq was going to break out, the Student Hall still played a great role as a bastion of the anti-war struggle with workers, students and citizens rallying from across Japan. An accidental fire in 2004 gave the Hosei University authorities a pretext to intervene in independent students’ activities and finally ended in dismantling the Student Hall as a center of students’ clubs.
The repression on March 14, 2006 and our struggle thereafter
After the demolition of the Student Hall, the University authorities escalated its repressive measures against students, even trying to prohibit to put out billboards and to distribute flyers on campus. Students’ billboards used to be symbols of animated independent activities of student’s clubs to show that students are in charge of campus.
On March 14 when the university authorities openly declared the prohibition of billboards on campus, we stood up for a protest action. Hosei University authorities introduced a large number of police including security police and let them arrest all students present on the spot amounting to 29.
Our struggle on campus has entered a new stage since the repression of March 14, 2006. The University authorities resorted to repeated punishment on disobedient students, including expulsion and suspension. In spite of this offensive, the students who were punished have been fighting against the university authorities, entering into campus with a determined statement that the punishments on them were invalid.
In April this year the University authorities decided to hire personnel who are muscular professionals specially trained to assault on students. They are called ‘Jersey troop’ and hang round the campus to find out students who distribute flyer and to drive them violently out of campus. Now all students’ activities on campus needed to be admitted by the university authorities and they are constantly watched by surveillance cameras installed on over 60 spots. Without physical confrontation against the violent ‘Jersey troop’, one can’t put out flyers or make a speech on today’s Hosei University campus.
On May 29, we carried out, with the help of students from other universities, a protest demonstration on campus in defiance of severe repressive system in a decisive attempt to liberate Hosei University. Upset by our action, the university authorities dared to introduce police on campus. We did not retreat in face of violent attack of security police and fought out the confrontation till the end. 38 students were arrested in all (including ones on the day before) and 15 out of hem were indicted.
On the following day, angry at the news of mass unjust arrests, a large amount of students and workers gathered in front of Hosei University campus and one of the students went into a 170-hour hunger strike for protest. In spite of violent suppression by means of mass arrests, the struggle on Hosei University campus has been going on.
Struggle in detention (jail)
The total number of the arrested students on Hosei campus amounts to 88 since the start of the struggle on March 14, 2006. At present moment, 20 students are held in Tokyo detention center. Japan pretends to be a ‘democratic state’, but in reality it is a brutal, repressive state. Once arrested, police can detain him or her for 23 days at most without any visitors except lawyer. In case of indictment, detention can continue for more than half year. During investigation, police attempts every means to have arrested people converted, urging them to quit the ‘movement’. We make it our principle to keep complete silence in front of police and to refuse conversion from the instant of arrest. We are proud to tell you that all of those arrested 88 students carried out this principle in their struggle against police investigation, that is, “no word, no conversion”. Even though significant numbers of major activists are in detention, Hosei University struggle is being fought courageously as fighting student movement and is gaining wider popular support. Among others, fighting lawyers are helping the arrested students in detention in their struggle against the university authorities, police, prosecutor and court. Thus the Hosei struggle is threatening the social order imposed by the capitalist class.
October 17 Day of Hosei Liberation Struggle and November 2 National Workers’ Rally
A series of political repressions on the student movement in Hosei University evidently constitutes an integral part of the neo-liberal offensive of Japanese imperialism on working class. It goes also parallel with its reactionary attempts of revising the Japanese constitution (elimination of the 9 article of prohibiting war) and of unrestricted dispatching Self-Defense Forces overseas.
To meet these offensives, we, fighting students of Hosei University and fighting students of ZENGAKUREN who squarely confronted the brutal repression on May 28 and 29, carried out a militant demonstration in Shibuya, downtown Tokyo on June 29 against G8 Summit in Hokkaido (North Japan) together with angry workers in our earnest hope of building up solidarity with the fighting workers all over the world. We are now convinced that our struggle has been steadily driving not only the Hosei University authorities but also the Fukuda administration into bankruptcy.
On October 17, we, fighting students of Hosei University together with fighting students of ZENGAKUREN are going to rise up for a decisive struggle to liberate Hosei campus.
Succeeding this struggle, we are joining November 2 National Workers Rally sponsored by Doro-Chiba with a great mobilization of fighting students nation-wide.
Let’s fight in solidarity against neo-liberal offensive, our common enemy!
Now the working people round the world are rising up for strike and food riot, shouting, “We must live”. In US, on May Day, ILWU shut down all ports on the West Coast to stop the war on Iraq. In response to this action, Iraqi port workers stood up for one-hour strike. Those are the really historical great struggles.
CAMS succeeded to stop several hundred students to be delivered to the military by driving out military recruiters from school. UTLA waged on June 6 one-hour strike to protest against the cut of education and social welfare expenditure.
Japanese education workers who are fighting against Hinomaru and Kimigayo headed by sisters NEZU Kimiko and KAWARAI Junko are receiving supporting statements and resolutions from CAMS, UTLA, CFT and CLF. This is really amazing.
We, fighting students of Hosei University and fighting students of ZENGAKUREN, pledge to continue struggle in solidarity with the working class of US and the rest of the world for our common cause.
We are now organizing signature campaign for petition to get back our comrades from the jail. We ask you, US workers and students, to help us in our struggle to win back the arrested and indicted 20 students in detention by the repressions on May 28 and 29 in Hosei University and other occasions after that. Please give your support for our petition drive.
Let’s fight together arm in arm!
In class solidarity!
KUKINO Kazuya, student of law faculty of Hosei University, arrested and suspended indefinitely for the struggle on March 14, 2006
ODA Yosuke, president of ZENGAKUREN (General Federation of Japanese Students’ Autonomous Bodies)
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There is a wonderful message for our demonstration from "School Students Against War" in England sent to us by a student leader in Japan.Their homepage is here
Here is the solidarity message from school students against war. I hope to work with you closely in the future. In 2003 when Iraq was invaded 30,000 school students walked out of school in disgust over what the British government was about to do. Outside the British parliament thousands of school students congregated. We said that if an invasion of Iraq took place there would be untold carnage. We said hundreds of thousands of innocent people would die and millions of lives would be destroyed, we were proved right. We said there would be a racist backlash where muslims would be targeted, we were proved right. We said this was an imperialist strategy that was going to be extended, we were proved right. We said the world would be made a more dangerous place, we were proved right. And we have proved that young school students know how to run the country better than the politicians. Because of these hugely unpopular wars the military in the UK is facing a crisis in recruitment. This has meant the armed forces are coming into schools on a regular basis to recruit. School students and university students have been campaigning to stop this.
Already we have managed to get the teaching unions to take action over this issue. The military have been forced out of many campuses because of our work and we are fighting to ban recruitment in all schools, colleges and universities. This demonstration marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of iraq and millions of people will be demonstrating around the world. The continued strength of the anti-war movement has had a huge effect on governments around the world. In Britain Tony Blair was forced out of office 2 years early and in the US George Bush is the most unpopular president in history because of the wars. On behalf of School Students Against War in the UK we send our full support and solidarity with this demonstration. It is so important that we keep up the pressure and show the strength of the international struggle in the face of the international imperialist aggression. The anti-war movement has been proved right so far and we will be proved right when we said we will win.
Sam Fairbairn School Students Against War
