No. 1253 Less Than Three Months Left before Balloting
The election for the House of Councilors is scheduled to vote July 10, with campaign launching June 22. The New Socialist Party (NSP) fields a candidate, Okazaki Saiko, who is registered in the common name list with the Social Democratic Party (SDP). She is Director of the Committee on Youth and Women of the NSP. A leaflet of the candidate is available. By using it NSP members are ready to extend her determination to voters and organize mass movements so as to defend the Peace Constitution.
LET’S HAND LEAFLETS OF OKAZAKI SAIKO OUT TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE VOTERS!
Perilous phase hits Pro-Constitution forces
As you readers all know very well, the Constitution will be left unprotected to a grim attack of amendment, if the pro-revision politicians gain enough seats in the Diet through the coming Upper House election. Simultaneously, the SDP stands at a brink whether it may keep the status of a political party that meets the government’s requirements.
Rewriting the Constitution is commanded not only by the rightist group of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Ishin (=Renovation Party), the reactionary forces, but also by the economic and financial circles which desperately need the government’s protection and assistance; these forces ardently seek for a wide-ranging shift of the Japanese society toward a neoliberal body both in nominal and real terms.
Employers’ organizations have engaged in several tactics, including accepting and meeting wage hike requests by labor unions of big private companies, which are of the cooperative labor-management sort, in order to disperse the constitution-defending opposition parties. The management side is fervent to build up a political scheme for the July election so that the Constitution may be revised.
If the pro-Constitution opposition forces, including the SDP, lose in the election, not only the Constitution will be thrown in a danger of amendment, but also a Third Pole of pro-Constitution forces will have to withdraw from the state-level politics. Lawmakers defending the Constitution may thoroughly be undermined.
The SDP’s status as a political party
The SDP will have to clear that hurdle in order to maintain the current status as a political party. Last October the SDP gained a million votes in the general election, but the number does not mean its basis, for the SDP had split, many local assembly members and secretariat staffs grossly leaving the party to wane organizational capacity.
Some of the former SDP members have joined the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and they established a ‘Social-Democratic Forum’ faction, but due to the epidemic its activities were seemingly obliged to retreat last year. In any way the local assembly members will run from the CDP in the local elections scheduled in April, 2023. We must see that voters who used to support the SDP will be separated each from another. The SDP has to deal with to secure the status.
Third Pole of Pro-Constitution forces is vital
The Upper House election is a right opportunity when we can talk about a path of the nation to exchange opinions with many voters. According to the opinion surveys conducted when the state-level elections were held in the past decade, pro-Constitution forces, or those who feels sympathy with the Constitution, are not by any means the minority.
On the contrary, several polls have proven that 60% of abstention votes are in favor of liberal forces. Politics based on the constitutional principles are demanded by women and casual workers, who are potentially on the pro-Constitution side. They count an overwhelming majority. The CDP and the Communist Party solely cannot organize and cultivate these voters.
Today voting rates remain around 50% or below. If a Third Pole of Pro-Constitution disappears, people’s involvement in politics will decline and democracy will sink deeply in crisis.
Less than three months are left before balloting. Let’s do our best to build up a frontline to change politics. Let’s go together with Okazaki Saiko, who runs at the head.
重大局面の護憲派
読者の皆さんに申し上げるまでもないが、今次参院選で改憲派に改憲議席を許せば、憲法は改悪へ待ったなしの状況を迎える。同時に、社民党が政党要件を確保できるかどうかの瀬戸際の選挙である。
改憲は、自民党右派や日本維新など復古的改憲派だけでなく、グローバル市場で勝ち抜くために政府の全面的な保護・支援を求めている財界も名実ともに新自由主義国家への転換を求めている。
財界は今春闘で、労使一体の大手民間単産に満額回答を与えて立憲野党分断に介入し、参院選で改憲の政治体制作りを本格化させている。
この選挙で社民党など立憲野党が敗北すれば、憲法が改悪の危機を迎えるだけでなく、「護憲の第三極」が国政の場に存在できなくなる。そして、護憲派が根底から切り崩される恐れすらある。
社民党の政党要件
社民党が政党要件確保するには、高い壁がある。昨年10月の衆院選で得た１００万票は、現在の社民党にとって基礎票ではない。社民党は昨年、自治体議員や専従者など組織力を大きく減衰させた。
立民党合流組を中心に結成された「社民フォーラム」も、昨年はコロナ禍で活発な取り組みができなかったようだが、来春の統一自治体選は立民党公認で臨むことになる。社民党の支持層は、大きく切り崩されると考えなければならない。政党要件確保には大変高い壁がある。
護憲三極が不可欠
参院選は、私たちが求める社会像について多くの皆さんと意見交換する絶好の機会だ。ここ十数年の国政選挙動向分析によれば、護憲派＝憲法に共感を示す層はけっして少数派ではない。
それどころか、棄権票の６割は「リベラルに共感を示している」という調査・分析もある。憲法の理念に立脚する政治を必要とする女性・非正規など潜在的護憲派も含めて、立民党・共産党だけではこれら多数の護憲派を結集・拡大することはできない。
今でも投票率が50％を割る事態になっているが、護憲の第三極が失われれば政治参加がさらに低下し、民主主義の危機は一層深刻になる。
投票日まで３カ月を切った。おかざき彩子さんを先頭に、政治を変える戦線構築へ総力挙げよう。
英訳版↓
No. 1253 Less Than Three Months Left before Balloting
The election for the House of Councilors is scheduled to vote July 10, with campaign launching June 22. The New Socialist Party (NSP) fields a candidate, Okazaki Saiko, who is registered in the common name list with the Social Democratic Party (SDP). She is Director of the Committee on Youth and Women of the NSP. A leaflet of the candidate is available. By using it NSP members are ready to extend her determination to voters and organize mass movements so as to defend the Peace Constitution.
LET’S HAND LEAFLETS OF OKAZAKI SAIKO OUT TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE VOTERS!
Perilous phase hits Pro-Constitution forces
As you readers all know very well, the Constitution will be left unprotected to a grim attack of amendment, if the pro-revision politicians gain enough seats in the Diet through the coming Upper House election. Simultaneously, the SDP stands at a brink whether it may keep the status of a political party that meets the government’s requirements.
Rewriting the Constitution is commanded not only by the rightist group of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Ishin (=Renovation Party), the reactionary forces, but also by the economic and financial circles which desperately need the government’s protection and assistance; these forces ardently seek for a wide-ranging shift of the Japanese society toward a neoliberal body both in nominal and real terms.
Employers’ organizations have engaged in several tactics, including accepting and meeting wage hike requests by labor unions of big private companies, which are of the cooperative labor-management sort, in order to disperse the constitution-defending opposition parties. The management side is fervent to build up a political scheme for the July election so that the Constitution may be revised.
If the pro-Constitution opposition forces, including the SDP, lose in the election, not only the Constitution will be thrown in a danger of amendment, but also a Third Pole of pro-Constitution forces will have to withdraw from the state-level politics. Lawmakers defending the Constitution may thoroughly be undermined.
The SDP’s status as a political party
The SDP will have to clear that hurdle in order to maintain the current status as a political party. Last October the SDP gained a million votes in the general election, but the number does not mean its basis, for the SDP had split, many local assembly members and secretariat staffs grossly leaving the party to wane organizational capacity.
Some of the former SDP members have joined the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and they established a ‘Social-Democratic Forum’ faction, but due to the epidemic its activities were seemingly obliged to retreat last year. In any way the local assembly members will run from the CDP in the local elections scheduled in April, 2023. We must see that voters who used to support the SDP will be separated each from another. The SDP has to deal with to secure the status.
Third Pole of Pro-Constitution forces is vital
The Upper House election is a right opportunity when we can talk about a path of the nation to exchange opinions with many voters. According to the opinion surveys conducted when the state-level elections were held in the past decade, pro-Constitution forces, or those who feels sympathy with the Constitution, are not by any means the minority.
On the contrary, several polls have proven that 60% of abstention votes are in favor of liberal forces. Politics based on the constitutional principles are demanded by women and casual workers, who are potentially on the pro-Constitution side. They count an overwhelming majority. The CDP and the Communist Party solely cannot organize and cultivate these voters.
Today voting rates remain around 50% or below. If a Third Pole of Pro-Constitution disappears, people’s involvement in politics will decline and democracy will sink deeply in crisis.
Less than three months are left before balloting. Let’s do our best to build up a frontline to change politics. Let’s go together with Okazaki Saiko, who runs at the head.
April 13, 2020