japanese CP loads up

Hopefully sphinx will comment here since he probably knows a fair bit. The impression I get is they're about as left as the German Greens.

years ago i did some studying up on the JCP for a history class (for a report that lead me to learn about japanese *anarchism* and subsequently changed my political views in that direction)... one thing i read was a CIA-funded report about the JCP which gave their history and an assessment of their politics and the threat they posed to USA and anti-Communism. you'd imagine a book like that would've been voraciously hostile to the JCP, but the overriding message was "they've broken away from the Moscow/Beijing sphere of influence, they're independent, they've become very mild over the years, they're no threat to USA."

what sphinx just said vindicates my (hazy) memories of what i read about the modern JCP - they've basically become a Social-Democratic party.

yeah it would be cool to see some translated

Yeah, but they're not going to be social democratic cartoons are they? 'Chapter 1: Our hero tables a reasonable amendment on a difficult policy issue'. If any copies ever make it over here, we'll never see the end of the images on leaflets with new speech written in the bubbles.

Interesting, I didn't know the JCP was that bad. I remember reading a book by Tetsuzo Fuwa, the then Presidium Chairman of the JCP, named Stalin and Great-Power Chauvinism (published the 80s), a couple of years ago. It was about the national question in the USSR. Being a Trot at that time, I thought it was quite good. Some of the Japanese Marxist scholarship seems interesting, though I don't know if it's directly related to the Party.

'communist themed manga comics' doesn't mean "manga comics produced by the JCP".

Kago Shintarō has done some communist-orientated guro manga. I read one concerning Khrushchev and an affair with a young woman whom craves stress - Khrushchev seeks to impress his lover by creating as much conflict as possible - leading to the Cuban Missile Crises. It is very awful - and somewhat disturbing. Its available on-line. Google 'Dance! Kremlin Palace' There are torrents for it.

This is a statement on the JCP by the Zengakuren circa 1966:

ZENGAKUREN:
PERSPECTIVE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT OF JAPAN

The political and theoretical position of Zengakuren today has been attained through many years' hard struggle in the midst of the class struggle of Japan in recent years.

Zengakuren eight years ago was under the strong influence of the stalinist [Japan Communist] party. We had been known as the "leftist and militant wing" of CP through our incessant struggle against the government since the establishment after the war.

The revolt of the Hungarian proletariat in 1956 was the beginning of the transition period of Zengakuren from stalinist dominated movement to the revolutionary movement against both imperialism and stalinism.

There broke out a heated discussion over the suppression of the rising Hungarian workers by the tanks of the "red army," yet there, were very few students at that time who supported the uprising of the Hungarian proletariat against the stalinist oppression. It has, however, given rise to the criticism of the existing state of the USSR and other so-called socialist countries and the distortion of Marxism by the hands of the stalinist bureaucrats and it has gradually combined itself with the partial and tactical disagreement with the Japan CP that had existed before that.

Two years after that passed in the deepening conflict between Zengakuren and CP, and in 1958 many communist stUdents were excluded from CP because of "leftist adventurism."

The Ampo struggle (struggle against the amendment of Japan - USA mutual security act) 1959-60 was a stage of open conflict between CP and us. We opposed the policy of CP, according to which the struggle should be fought as that of the "patriotic and democratic" power against the "supporters of USA." For our part we insisted to concentrate our struggle against the Japanese capitalists who tried to strengthen their domination over us to prepare for the imperialistic aggression based on the accumulated power that they attained through the "development" after the war.

On the tactical problem we emphasized the militant demonstra-tion combined with the industrial action of the working class, while CP together with SP tried to confine the struggle in the "peaceful march" for petition to the members of the Parliament, being afraid of the vital energy of the workers and students ready to explode against the ruling class.

The conflict took place in every sphere of the struggle. When there was a demonstration around the Diet, for example, and Zengakuren wanted to join the demonstrating workers, the officials of CP came in haste and made a "cordon" between the workers' demonstration and that of the stUdents, saying that they were defending the work-ers from the "provocation" of the Zengakuren as a duty of a "vanguard party" of the proletariat. CP even formed a picketline in order to "defend the policemen from the 'violence' of the Zengakuren."

When the angry workers and students at the massacre of a girl stu-dent by the brutal policemen in the demonstration rushed against the Diet in which the act had been passed, the role of CP was to persuade the demonstrators to refrain from "provocative action" and to go home to sleep in the daily order of life. Moreover, CP excused themselves to the government that they had no intention of "disturbing" the society but it was Zengakuren that tried to "violate the order."

Many workers and intellectuals saw CP together with SP [Socialist Party] suppress not only the demonstration of Zengakuren but also every struggle when it took a militant character against their expec-tation. As a result, after the defeat of the Ampo struggle, CP lost sup-port of the workers and students who fought the struggle and experienced the suppression of the "vanguard" party.

In the general assembly after the struggle in 1961, we discussed over the problem which was sharply posed through the struggle, especially about the character of the existing leadership of the labor movement and found that its degeneration is connected with the policy of the so-called socialist countries. We also examined the history of our struggle dur-ing the period since the revolt of the Hungarian proletariat and through the criticism of our own experience adopted the fundamental line that we should fight against all kinds of suppression, whether it be capital-istic or stalinistic, with our own power and that the student movement should be closely connected with the struggle of the rank and file workers to overcome the false leadership of the labor movement today.

Anti-war struggle of the Zengakuren has been possible only through this discussion and we have been able to develop our fundamental line through actual struggle against the American and Russian bombs together with the young workers and in the international solidarity. Thus a new era has begun for the Japanese student movement to be anti-stalinist revolutionary mass movement.

The period starting in 1956 is characterized by the rapid rationalization and modernization of Japanese capitalism, and at the same time, by the heavy resistance of the proletariat against the mass discharge and aggravation of the working conditions accompanied with the process of the drastic transformation of Japanese capitalism. Especially the workers of railway, post office and coal mines fought the most militant struggle but they were compelled to surrender to the attack of capital under the pressure of the conformistic leaders of the trade unions.

In the railway workers' strike in 1957 against mass discharge, CP which is the minority in the labor movement assisted the socialist lead-ership in giving up the strike against the fighting will of the workers.
Many communist workers left the Party on that occasion In this situation the independent struggle of Zengakuren drew keen attention of the militant workers and in the Ampo struggle there was certain co-operation between the rank and file workers and the Zengakuren. In the anti-war struggle the co-operation was developed further and resulted in the "Anti-war Assembly of Workers arid Students."

The whole process of the Zengakuren from left-wing opposition in the stalinist party to a revolutionary wing of the Japanese proletariat for self-emancipation has been strongly influenced by the activity of an anti -stalinist revolutionary organization, the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (JRCL). This organization, established after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, has the support of militant workers through its uncompromising struggle in the factories against man-agement and labor bureaucrats at the same time, through denounce-ment of the Japanese Communist Party based on the sharp and exhaustive criticism of the distortion of communism and Marxism in the USSR, China and other so-called socialist countries. The JRCL has influence not only among the workers but also among students and intellectuals, and the recent struggle of Zengakuren has been developed through the concentrated discussion of stalinism suggested by JRCL.

Threatened by this situation unfavorable to the stalinist bureau-crats who had long pretended to be the only "vanguard party" of the proletariat, CP is trying to destroy the movement of Zengakuren. Their attempt to build up another student organization outside Zengakuren, and their abusive demagogy (such as "Zengakuren are paid by American imperialists," etc.), is confronted with the strong criticism of the majority of students.

Zengakuren is composed of self-governed body of the universi-ties and committees are elected by all the students in the university. The activities of Zengakuren are practiced through discussion in the class room of the university and the success of the struggle depends on the contents and method of the discussions.

Besides, Zengakuren is confronted always with suppression by the government not only by the direct attack of the brutal police during demonstrations (against this we have developed the unique tactic of link-ing arms of the demonstrators and the sit-down), but also by juridi-cal forms. Thus, we Zengakuren are surrounded by many difficulties and the hardest thing is our struggle against the general tendency of
the Japanese labor movement to go after the reformist and collabora-tive policy of the labor bureaucrats of the Western countries.

We regard the present stage of Zengakuren as very important, for now, through the exposure of the false character of the Moscow-Peking conflict, we can clarify the fundamental problems and the per-spective of the revolution in the world today.

We do not choose between Russia and China. Neither do we choose between East and West. These alternatives mean only to choose between different kinds of alienated class society. Our problem is not

to adapt ourselves to the existing societies, but to create a new soci-ety which adapts to ~s. Russian and Chinese stalinists force us to admit either of the two stalinist societies as "communism"-the one relatively developed, the other underdeveloped, but both of which are dominated by privileged bureaucrats, just as the western societies are ruled by the monopolizing capitalists. Thus the working class of the whole world is deprived of political and economic power and is reduced to the status of passive object in both West and East.

Communism, however, means essentially the abolishment of class and private property through combining the powers of production of all the world by means of the international struggle of the prole-tariat against the oppressors who possess all means of production in
their hands.

Russian and Chinese "communism" are far from communism. "Communism" that is dominated by bureaucrats? "Communists" that fight each other over their "national interest?"

The emancipation of the working class and human beings can be attained only through the overthrow of capitalistic and stalinistic domination by the working people's own power.

We are convinced that we are united with the revolutionary strug-gle of the Japanese working class and with the struggle overseas for the same purpose.
Joji ONADA, Toru KUROKAWA General Secretary, International Secretary.

Guro manga is really not worth recommending to anyone.

BTW, anyone interested, pretty ok Japanese communist blog here:
http://bund.jp/modules/wordpress/