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| October 25, 2011 |
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| Labor Consultation Campaign |
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New Socialist Party (NSP) will launch a two-week campaign of labor consultation from December 1 to 14. This is a third round of Party's efforts to open offices to provide free-of-charge legal advice to those who make a telephone inquiry on troubles at their workplace. To those who need help will be given support. In the two previous occasions Party's presence was appealed in the communities and its political line was understood among workers. Certain troubles were settled in the concrete manner. On this third occasion we hope to organize workers into the unions.
LET'S PREPARE FOR LABOR CONSULTATION CAMPAIGN!
Economic Gaps Grow
Economic chaos which comes from Greece now extends and reaches many corners of the world. Borrowing a concept of Spring of Mideast, the financial crisis of the United States is called Autumn of US, which destroys employment to devastate living conditions of US workers. In the US and Europe workers express dissatisfactions in the street actions. The capitalist system deepens contradictions.
In Japan economic gaps are growing. Workers voiced and criticized in the recent national level of meetings of local and community unions; 'employers do not observe the Labor Standard Act', 'cancellation of employment is rampant across the country', 'workers remain uneasy, while employers excuse of the March 11 Earthquake and high-Yen appreciation in the exchange market', 'the Workers' Dispatch Act must be revised immediately', and etc..
'Poverty rate among children' is 15.7%, which is the worst in the history. The percentage indicates harsh living conditions of children younger than 18 years of age. Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare analyzes that it is because of an increase of elderly citizens older than 65 years old and a growing number of irregular workers. At the moment a percentage of casual workers exceeds one-third of the total workforce and over 11 million workers live with an annual income less than two million Yen (Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications).
In September the said Ministry announced the increase of minimum wage in the fiscal 2011 for each prefecture, and the average was less than 6 Yen per hour. In the 38 prefectures the increase was only by one Yen. A worker who earns 800 Yen an hour has an annual income of 1.5 million Yen approximately. Looking into the content of income below 2 million Yen, we come to a surprising conclusion that an overwhelming number of workers have less than 1.5 million Yen. This year suicides count 23,731 up to September, which means the trend has not yet ended: over 30 thousand people a year have killed themselves for consecutive 14 years.
Participation of All Members in Consultation Activities
NSP is a small party. It is small, and therefore, we should work on many tasks. One of them is consultation on labor issues: to advise and help workers who face difficulties. A nationwide consultation campaign will begin on December 1 and last till 14. Let's hoist a party's banner during street oratory at the railway stations and other spots. Let's organize activities to appeal to people in the local communities. Such actions will encourage ourselves to get more tightly united and gain higher aspiration. This is a clear message to workers.
A first round of consultation campaign was held in the 22 prefectures and the second was in the 24. In some prefectures members could not take part in the event due to local constraints. To stage a simultaneous campaign across the nation - it is important because the party's presence and policy are made known to the public.
Good results were reported in the previous two occasions. The outcome will help this time to organize local unions. Every member of the party should participate and have experiences. This strengthens the party. Let's make preparation during the month of November. Let's discuss objectives to achieve and plan activities to get involved.
At the moment party members work in the 38 of local unions in the country. Every member should learn how to respond and answer to telephone inquiries: you can learn it in the meetings with local union leaders and members. Discuss problems in the concrete way. Preliminary study meetings are necessary. Through these activities we overcome difficulties and concerns.
Let's join a third round labor consultation campaign! Let's stage actions in many districts of the country.
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