Tokyo, Japan, July 13 — Thousands are rallying here every week to protest ruling-class plans to expand the country’s military.
Led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s leading bosses hope to intensify nationalism and its military powers. China and North Korea’s rulers have recently tested the waters long dominated by the U.S. military with island building and military tests. Japan’s bosses are using fear about these growing confrontations to revise Japan’s constitution and long-held position as a “pacifist” country with a tiny military (“defense force”).
Since World War II, Japan has been home to many military bases for the U.S., and provided funding for their imperialist efforts. But workers in Japan are refusing to accept the local bosses’ war plans. Young and old, women and men, rain or shine, they are in the streets saying no to Abe & Co’s plans.
Many of the youth at the rallies connected the growth of war with racism and fascism. Some working-class women took leadership at these marches by giving speeches and distributing fliers.
There needs to be millions of workers in the streets, on strike and refusing orders in the barracks. And even then, capitalism’s relentless drive for profits will lead to war. That’s why from Japan to Iraq, this whole system must be smashed.