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| February 15, 2011 |
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| Struggles for Victory in Local Elections |
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Elections of local assemblies are approaching. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has breached pledges specified in the Manifesto. It has revealed itself today more clearly: to take policies of structural reform. Voters have lost reliance in politics and political parties. The New Socialist Party (NSP) will face the local elections in April under these circumstances. During the campaign we will stress peace and the human rights to consolidate movements from the bottom, or the closest assembly to people. It is crucial for the NSP to stage the maximum struggles.
LET’S UNITE PARTY’S ACTIVITIES!
The government party, DPJ, is in confusion and vacillation. Simple criticisms do not mean anything because the DPJ is a group to take advantage of election victories to become a ruling party, characterized as another conservative. The party just reveals its real face today.
The NSP was founded 15 years ago with an anticipation of political scenes we face today. The NSP’s raison d’etre is put to test. A right policy gains legitimacy and strength when it is accepted.
The NSP does not have a delegate in the Diet at the moment. Voters are unaware of the party’s existence. But that is not deplorable. The NSP was founded with enthusiasm to criticize the former Socialist Party to overcome its structural vulnerability.
Change A Municipal Assembly – Primary Task
Even when the Socialist Party occupied one-third of the Diet seats, conservative politicians overwhelmed local assemblies across the country. A local assembly is the closest to people, and therefore this political instrument must be changed first. Without this basis democracy becomes a tower built on sand. It is essential for every citizen to engage in electoral campaigns, instead of leaving politics to somebody else, to acquire political experiences.
Local elections will be held simultaneously across the nation. A big chance is coming. The NSP is in the midst of pre-competition stage and registers approximately 60 candidates certified with the party’s approval and nomination. Sixteen of them are new candidates. Though the number of municipal governments has reduced due to the rounds of merger carried out by the previous governments, local elections are the biggest political event.
In other words, local politics shares the same body with national politics. For instance, the controversial health care system for the elderly over 75 years old and the Act for Disabled People are to be abolished and the elderly care insurance system may be changed from April 2012 when the fifth-round of plan will begin. The National Health Insurance Program will be partially put under jurisdiction of local governments.
Child care and education: day care centers/kindergartens will be unified into one ministry’s jurisdiction and the service will be put partly on the contract basis. We see again competition and chauvinism against the vulnerable in the education sector.
Employment aggravates: citizens seek Life Protection Service and go more frequently to job consultations.
Now the government suggests, abruptly, joining the free trade TPP (=Trans-Pacific Partnership) scheme.
As for financial resources, the DPJ government combines collecting taxes with providing social services. An increase in the consumption tax rate, which strangles the poorer, is anticipated and a common coding system will be introduced, by which the government will be able to control over each citizen with a specific number.
Experiences of Struggles and Our Perspectives
Article 25-1, which says that all people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards wholesome and cultured living, was incorporated in the constitution by the efforts of then-Socialist Party of Japan immediately after the WWII, though the concept was not contained in the draft compiled by the US occupation authority led by General MacArthur.
The New Socialist Party inherits struggles of the former Socialist Party in defending the constitution’s Preamble and Article Nine, defiantly resisting the ruling class and ardently pursuing the principle of non-armed neutrality. It has been and is fighting in the struggles waged by workers discharged when National Railway Corporation was privatized. The company’s privatization constitutes a starting point of disintegration of the whole employment system.
In the April elections the working population has a chance of ‘offensives’ in the policies. However, as is seen what happens in Osaka Prefecture and Nagoya City, the ruling financial elite has taken advantage of populism to lead the country to the ultimate goal of structural reforms, the Do-Shu Initiative, a policy of reorganization and merger of prefectures to a fewer provinces.
General situation is not in favor of the NSP. It has policies to redistribute social wealth to get rid of poverty and social gaps. In order to repel difficulties the NSP must exert all of its potential and work together with colleagues surrounding the party.
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