DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN JAPAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5307, 21 January 1947, Page 2

DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN JAPAN

LABOUR ORQANISES LANDMARK REACHED IN POLITICAL HISTORY. TOKIO. The fcirst signs of a powerful popuJar front in Japan were visihle here when 250,000 of Tokio's labanr union workers marched on the Imperial Palace and on the Diet, whieh is now in session, says Gordon Walker in the •Christian Science Monitor. Singing- labour's international theme songs, the "Red Plag" and the "Internationale," men, women and children from the ranks of Japan's rapidly growing labowr-union movement vociferonsly demanded dissolution of the Diet and the overthrow of the Yoshida Cabinet. They maintained strictest discipline as they marched through Tokio's busy downtown area, flanked iby cordons of Japanese police and significant sprinkings of white Aamerican !M.P. jeeps. But they symibolised rthe popular discontent with the Government which is growing each day in intensity. The demonstration w^s not as ibig • numerically as the demonstration last May Day, when 500,000 marched along the same route just outside the Imperial Palace's inner moat. But it represented a far more articulate voi-ce of organised lahour. New Political Landmark. Not only did it mark the first time that iboth the right and left wings of labour have joined in a common front, but it was the first time that oi'ganised labour had received the ibacking of a political party coalition which finally has decided to take up its battle on the floor of Parliament. ■From this standpoint, the demonstration signals a new landmark in Japanese political history wherein it is at least certain that a segment oi the people have co-ordinated theii efforts with political parties in a fashion which eventually may hring about more xepresentative government. The haekground "of the demonstration rests primarily in a growing feeling in most circles that the Yoshida Cabinet is unable to cope with thc rapidly approaching economic crisis The first step in f orming the presenl loosely knit po.pular front came about when the Social Democratic Party— largest opposition party in the Diet — sought to bring about a temporarj merger of Japan's otherwise widelj1 spiit left and right wings of union organisation. The Social Democratic Party hitherto had been split into right and left wings. But in £Tie face of growinp. pressure for unified action, the party apparently managed to effect sonu sort of cohesion. The next step was formation of some sort of coalition within the Diet itself. The Social Democrats, with their 90 seats, were patently unable to fight against the 259 seats held by pro-Govemment parties — so-called ■Liberals and Progressives. So they sought and won a working coalition with the co-operative Democrats and the People's Party, thereby boosting their total to somewhere in the neighIbourhood of 180 votes. Discretion Stressed. Independents in the Diet hedged for many days, but at the last minut' they showed an inclination to side wich the Government, thereby virtually assuring a Government majority in any show-down decision. This was the D-Day for puttfng th new popoilar front to its test. From the floor of the wooden re viewing stand on the gravel driveway leading into the Imperial Palace, poli tical and labour leaders addressed thc milling throngs, exhorting- them to maintain. unity, and with one eye on the blue uniforms of the Japanese police and American counter-intelli-gence agents who weaved through thc crowds, they urged cautious discretion in presenting demands. While American and Indian Punjab guards stood in sentry boxes at th: entrance to the Imperial Palace with a somewhat disinterested attitude, Ihe demonstrators waved thousands of placards which ranged from moderaf j left wing requests for the overthrow of an "inept" 'Cabinet to Communist demands for the heads of "capitalisti • and reactionary" Cabinet diehards. Back in the austere Diet chamher, the Focial Democrats, meanwhile, made a poignant plea, amid raucous hecMing, for dissolution of the Die; and a new national election. Supported by similar speeches from the leaders of the other two partiev in the coalition, they pointed opt that the Yoshida Cabinet failed to preyent flkyrocketing prices, disastrous inflation and growing scarcity of goods stociks. Opposition Plea Fadfes. They pointed to disunity of views within the Cabinet over labour issues. And they demanded that the present Government ask the Emperor to dissolve the Diet "with a view to realising a truly democratic government." Pro-Government parties, however, tumed the plea into a strictly partisan debate. Claiming to be t)iemselves champions of labour and the people, they stated there was no xeason to make any ohanga - Confcident in the knowledge thejf commanded of the majority voting power, they ri^iculed the opposition parties' claims. When the-final Vote was t aken, they won.by a safe margin. Significantly silent during the debate were thelfive Communist representatives, who sat in their corner and merely watched' and1 listened with (undisguised interest. t They played a big part in the forming of the temporary labour coalition. But on the floor of the Diet th'ey continued to be pblitically ostracised by the powerful Social Democrats, who three months ago refused them a place in any coalition movement. Failure Is Seen. The Social Democratic leaders themselves felt that the effort to dissolve the Diet would not succeed. Biut they recognised the necessity for displaying unity in the ranks of at least three of the political, opposition parties. And they felt that even if suc-

celss were not a'sjhieved Ithis tim^, they at least had won a major victory in engineering some sort of unified support from the right wing National Federation of Labour and its left' wing counterpart, the Congress of Industrial Unions. The working coalition which has got iunder way will not continue to push for dissolution of the Diet. By means of further labour ofFensives, planned by most major unions coupled with increasing unified pressure in the 'Diet, it is believed that only a short time. will elapse before confidence in the Government can be put to a more deeisive test.