We live in an era in which harsh class struggles go on. It is a historic period. The capital side wages fierce attacks in order to survive, furiously engaged in offensive. We, the New Socialist Party (NSP), are put to test in the struggles and raison d'etre. Our task is to organize counterattacks. Party's 17th National Congress will be held in April to discuss on further advances. Let's prepare for the annual event.


LET'S TAKE ACTIVE PART IN DISCUSSIONS TO GO FORWARD!


A series of neo-liberal structural reform policies have come to a deadlock. Governments alter quickly. A pledge of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), 'People's Life is the First', has been transformed to be the same taken by the previous government, returning like a boomerang. The DPJ is passing beyond the boundary that the coalition governments of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito could not go over while they were dominant. That is reflected in the issues, like the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement) and a reform package in which a reduction of corporate tax rates is combined with an increase of the consumption tax rate and budget cuts of public services.


Voters who expected, at the time of government change, a solution of poverty and social gap and wished democracy in politics are betrayed by the DPJ government to be pushed back into deeper distrust.


Under this circumstance a new political trend has emerged; it is to propel structural reforms, taking advantage of the chaos. Giving a side-long glance at people's dissatisfaction, its advocates have formed Osaka-Ishin-No-Kai, a group led by Mayor of Osaka Hashimoto Toru, who insists on 'reforms'.


The Hashimoto's reform ideology cannot be overlooked as political bubbles, but must be considered, most seriously, as revival of Nazism. Adolf Hitler won in the elections to attain power, and then he had Enabling Act of 1933 passed to obtain plenary power to suppress the opposition forces. Reforms which Hashimoto insists, represented by the controversial two ordinances and questionnaires for city workers which compel them to reply, thrill us as they remind of Nazis.


Let's Get United beyond Political Differences


Behind the Ishin-no-Kai, we are aware of invisible power of the nation's financial group. It is this group that demands budget cuts so that the capital side may win in the global competitions: they urge politicians to reduce wages of workers, decrease own tax burden and abandon responsibilities for social and administrative services.


Their ultimate goal is to amend Constitution as it guarantees the rights of people, including the right to unite, which help the labor to stage offensive but hinder the authority to cut costs. A would-be administration will need enhanced military force to defend corporate interests abroad and nationalist ideology. It will contain people's dissatisfaction into the moral criteria, taking advantage of the emperor system. The Hashimoto's group asserts that Emperor should be a head of state.


While the capital side attacks deliberately, the labor has a sole option - to resist in unity.


The NSP has fought with this idea, getting united with the working population since its foundation in 1996. As attacks of the capital have become violent, human values of workers have been eroded. The NSP must exert utmost potential.


The NSP has reinforced itself as well as enhanced common notions of working people. People reject competitions, poverty and gaps. People refuse to be imposed self-responsibility.


A Chance to Go Forward


Organizations of workers and citizens are made divided and weakened. Offensives of the capital seem certainly strong. However, it is the capital that has only way of survival in the competitions by means of imposing poverty on the working population and robbing of safety and hopes. In Japan due to the severe accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant the ruling structure has been undermined.


Anti-nuclear movements will go on with daily activities. Working people enter locally-based labor unions. Under the circumstances people get to know the NSP, which will contribute to our election campaigns and mass movements.


The National Congress will be held on the same day of the mayor election in Ibaragi City, Osaka Prefecture, in which our party member will run to contest a candidate from the Osaka-Ishin-no-Kai. The congress is a place to exchange activities staged across the country to integrate us. Let's advance movements and enhance party organization.


March 13, 2012