The 22nd Party Congress of New Socialist Party (NSP) will be held on April 22 and 23. The Japanese society is severely hit by the neo-liberal storm and people are exposed mercilessly to poverty and discriminations. The phenomena are partly due to weakness of progressive political forces. We, members of the New Socialist Party, must make a new step forward, rightly responding to uneasiness and sufferings of the working population.


NEW SOCIALIST PARTY MUST MAKE A STEP FORWARD


We stand at a historic turning point: the Japanese society is split in two antagonistic spheres. Economy, which should bring happiness to people, forces an overwhelming number of people feel uneasy in the daily life and in the future, while the rich, which compose a tiny portion of the population, accumulate huge wealth but reject to fulfill social obligations. The society is cruelly divided into two.


The rich and their representative politicians conceal social contradictions, thwarting people’s attention with invented enemies. Thus, populism prevails and people expect an arrival of ‘hero’. Under these circumstances democracy and the human rights, including the right to live in peace, are eroded. History tells these trends will lead to totalitarianism and to a tragic war.

Maneuvers of Abe Government

The 3/11 Earthquake of 2011 has triggered an enormous rupture. Nobody can tell when colossal earthquakes occur. Consequences of the natural phenomena are catastrophic. The earthquake has caused irreversible calamity at the Fukushima nuclear power plants, a very rare but crucial opportunity by which people can learn to doubt common knowledge. Now voices of ‘No’ to nuclear power generation overwhelm the world which seeks for more ardently developing other sources of energy.


The coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito led by Premier Abe, which regained the state’s power after the earthquakes, has pursued a violent way to rewrite the Peace Constitution, pretending to deal rightly with people’s anxieties about livelihood and employment. It has sequentially enacted laws that undermine the constitutional rules, including the State’s Secret Protection Act, the war legislation and the Eavesdropping Act. It sacrifices Okinawa to reinforce the belligerent alliance with the United States. The government exposes its real nature, cruel power, to the eyes of people. It attempts to let people forget about Fukushima in order to recover the nuclear power program. The Abe government is a regime of dictatorship.


Struggles for Defending Constitution


Meanwhile we, the New Socialist Party, has withstood in spite of the overwhelmingly hostile currents. We have organized mass movements to protest the illegitimate laws which threaten democracy and encouraged the minority forces in the parliament. The enactment of brutal laws, as a result, encourages protest movements to lead to a coalition for new struggles. It fails in ending mass mobilization.


Consistent struggles of people in Okinawa tell us ‘victory lies in continuation’ and ‘don’t abandon’. People’s aspiration has been integrated into fielding a joint candidate in the small constituency under the current election system. People have won.


The lesson in Okinawa was conveyed to other elections as a people’s victory: elections of the House of Councilors last summer and of governorship of Niigata Prefecture. The NSP has shared the direction in common. The party’s efforts are proven to be right.


The 22nd Congress will propose the Intermediate-term Policy Program to tackle issues of poverty and increasing social gaps so that the party could assure people’s life.

Let’s prepare ourselves to make the congress successful: let’s debate enthusiastically so that every party member can make a step forward with firm determination to build up the future, learning from experiences.



March 28, 2017