Our Path Over 40 Years and Today―― Activist Group SHISO-UNDO
Our Position for Creating Revolutionary Journalism and Struggling withthe AgeStanding Steering Committee
Activist Group SHISO-UNDO“How can we totally get over the capitalism modern? We set the single target as ourideological task in the contemporary society. It exists not simply as the target of theideologists or intellectuals, but as the task of the class of contemporary proletariat. We
call for deployment of ideology movement, which is tied with formation of classconsciousness of the working class, as we believe that the role of the task should beregained by the working-class masses. Also, we want to regain/form the Marxist
identity through facing the task squarely against the ruling trend of throwing away
the clear premise.”
The paper calling for formation of our Activist Group SHISO-UNDO in 1969 beganwith the paragraph quoted above. For more than forty years since then we have madeefforts for proceeding step by step in order to materialize the task, recalling the spiritof the “Call.”
The initial problem recognition and the cooperation beyond individual interests
1969, when our Group started activities, was a year of turmoil.
Socialism, which was materialized with the Russian Revolution of 1917 as its starting
point, had established the global system after World War II through people’s
democratic revolutions in the Eastern Europe and the Chinese revolution of 1949. The
world structure in which the two global systems i.e. capitalism and socialism appeared.
The capitalism camp with the USA as its center, however, set out for forming a neworder in order to cope with the global socialism system. Its key was the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) system with the US Dollar as its axis currency.
During 1960’s through early 1970’s the progress of national liberation struggles of thethree Indo-China countries including Vietnam and the upsurge of the international
solidarity activities by the working-class people of the world became a decisive crisis of
the U.S. dollar currency. It then resulted in cancelling its exchange with gold in 1971,
so-called the Nixon Shock. Simultaneously, the framework of capitalism reconstructionof the postwar years specified in the confrontation relation with socialism began toswing in the late 1960s. The high-economic-growth policy was stuck, the Vietnam
antiwar movement was developed against the background of the situation which thesocial contradictions spouted. The youth rebellion was connected with the labor
movement, the student movement, the anti-war peace movement, or the revolutionary
movement, and stood in a row in the global upsurge even in Japan. Facing automatic
extension of Japan-US Security Treaty in 1970, factions hung up their general planviews, branching and confrontation were repeated, and they devoted to barren strife
contending for the championship.
Contrary to this appearance that was gay and apparently fulfilled by upsurge ofsentiment, however, demolition and weathering of the working class' classconsciousness were advancing in that step. The ruling classes continued eroding anddestroying the working class' class-consciousness by a high-economic-growth policy,
and have planted their own-house consciousness which lives peacefully in everyday
life. The “New Left” factions were driving youth workers to radical street actions fromend 1960s to early 1970s, it was only the other side of a coin of the situation wheredemolition and weathering of class-consciousness advanced. It was such a time facing
the 1970s when our precursors initiated the Activist Group SHISO-UNDO.
In response to this "Call," got together were the activists in political movements, labor
movement and women's liberation movements, student movements, culture and art
movements, antipollution campaigns and scientist movements, and movement forprotecting democratic rights of Korean residents in Japan, etc., in order to create joint
struggles for anti-monopoly and defending democracy and social change beyond theirindividual interests.
Proletarian Internationalism throughout our activities
We have set the theory and its practice of proletarian internationalism as the axis of
our activities.
There was a generally circulated trend saying that "the existing socialism is anonsense" including the Soviet Union, when our Group was formed. However, we havecontinued to set our target of socialist revolution, while gazing at the weak points, thehistorical restrictions and difficulties which existed in the socialism system, and forinternational solidarity with the people of the world struggling against imperialism
and for national liberation.
This standpoint has been shown in our solidarity activities with the people in theDemocratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea and the Cuban
revolution, which are touchstones of internationalism of Japanese proletariat. It iscurrently connected to our activities against the government’s hostile policies against
the DPRK, and in solidarity with the Latin American peoples, including the Cuba
Revolution’s practice of socialism for five decades, and connected with it, Venezuela
where President Chavez took the lead, Bolivia, Nicaragua and others, where people’srevolution was in progress.
The socialism system of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was demolished in theyears from 1989 to 1991. Needless to say, we received deep blows in this, because thesocialist system was the axis of the three tidal currents of the world revolution withthe labor movement in industrialized capitalist nations, national liberation
movements of developing countries.
The bourgeois ruling class obstinately deployed its propaganda "End of History”(words of Francis Fukuyama, regarding capitalism society as the highest development
stage of history of man), or "No future in socialism," taking advantage of thisopportunity. Facing the ideological attacks of anti-socialism by the totally mobilizedbourgeois mass media and "intellectuals and men of culture," some of the politicalorganizations and activists who had made efforts for socialism, and people who had
worked together for democratic movements, threw away the banner of socialism, orturned it to their back, trying to find their hope in improvement in capitalism for themto survive.
However, we have not changed the position of searching the way to strengthensocialism, before or after the demolition of the World Socialism system i.e. victory ofcounterrevolution. Why was the socialism of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
defeated or why was it forced to be defeated? We have endeavored for analysis andelucidation of its objective and subjective factors. Of course, the primary cause ofdefeat was attributable to the Communist Parties and Workers' Parties of the socialist
countries i.e. the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. However, they were not the soleparties to be attributable.
This defeat was considered as defeat of the international communist movement andthe whole revolutionary movements and labor movements including those in thecapitalist states. The causes included division of the international communist
movement symbolized by the confrontation between China and the Soviet Union,
failure in establishing the theory of the global revolution under the conditions of the"peaceful co-existence" between the systems, theoretical and practical prematurity ofconstruction of socialism, relaxation of caution against capitalism, especially retreat
and defeat against the struggles with the bourgeois ideology permeating constantly.
etc. Our pursuit will be continued in the future, learning also to generalization by theCommunist Parties of various countries about this problem. We do this because thispursuit is made into the subject which cannot be bypassed in order to clarify how thesocialism should be reconstructed.
We recognize that the contemporary world holds a complex structure, whereimperialism and anti-imperialism contend to each other, and capitalism and socialism
contend to each other, under the current power balance which is in favor ofimperialism.
The countries that have defended socialism including China, Vietnam, DPRK andCuba are struggling hard to cultivate the roads of socialism, although they differ in
how they would take the distance with capitalism world economy. Especially, thepresent conditions of China and Vietnam are posing complicated problems to thefuture of socialism. From the position to reform the world toward socialism, we areresponsible for studying China and Vietnam and for dispatching our opinions actively.
For regenerating the class-conscious labor movement
The true change of the Japanese society would never happen without regeneration ofclass-conscious labor movement
Since 1980s the labor unions in Japan was defeated by assaults of “deregulation andprivatization” as administrative reform by the Extraordinary Investigation Committee
for Political Institutions setting it for getting over the crisis of capitalism. Sohyo(General Council of Trade Unions of Japan) was dismantled, and Rengo (Japan TradeUnion Confederation), standing for collaboration between capital and labor, wasformed in 1987. Given fresh impetus, the capital has put forward “fluidization” and“flexibility” of employment, through thorough cost reduction, profit maximization,
successive amendments to the labor law system, and created massive non-regular
workers with low cost, deprived rights and disposable. The working class as a whole,regardless of the organized or the un-organized, has been split into pieces in thebarbaric situation reminding us of the 19th century.
Current urgent need is to unite labor union activists who have been diverged andisolated, and to organize their cooperation. The post-War baby-boomers are massively
retiring now, and the succession of the history of labor movement and fostering theyoung and new activists is a question in the limited time.
From the struggles against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty of 1960 and throughdismantlement of Sohyo and victory of Rengo up until today, the citizens’ movements
emerged in various manners, and they are being reproduced. We support the struggles
against the appeared contradictions of capitalism, and positively join their movements.
The street movements of anti-war and for peace are important. It is also important tojoin the movements tackling the specific issues like denuclearization of powergeneration. The way which results in fundamental solution of individual subjects musthave the view of struggles for social change, connected to the working class. Whenlabor movement becomes weak as the whole, or even dismantled, the power of civic
movements will also be weakened. Today’s situation shows it vividly.
Also in order to make our struggles against amendment to the Constitution, which isfacing the crucial moment, truly effective, we would not give up the basic ideas noted
above but would endeavor for social change by the working class as its key mover.
Importance of struggles in culture and ideology, and criticizing mass media
Also, we have focused our efforts on struggles in culture and ideology and on
criticizing mass media.
While Marxism sets the three areas of class struggles i.e. political struggles, economic
struggles and cultural struggles, the struggles on culture and ideology tend to beregarded light. Since the formation of the Group we have believed that the culturaland ideological struggles are indispensable for regenerating class consciousness of theworking class and we have practiced it. This activity will enrich the reality ofsocialism which we aim at, and politics take wrong directions, it will form the subject
bodies which take over the active role to correct the error.
Overcoming nationalism and reinstating internationalism are urgent problems. We
have severely criticized nationalism with progressive appearance but one sided asignoring the “extremes” and accepting “things in health,” as well as chauvinistic andnationalistic statements. In the process of deepening crisis of capitalism and thebourgeois ruling class’ assaults to convert the crisis onto the working class and thepeople, surrounding us are the reactionary trends inciting chauvinism for them topulling the mass people’s consciousness to defend the established system.
Nationalism is the last fort of the bourgeois rule. The bourgeois ruling classes andright-wing forces have concealed the war crimes of the Japanese imperialism against
the people in the world including Asia, distorted the history, and become so arrogant
as to try destroying the post-War system based on the Potsdam Declaration won by theanti-fascist forces of the world, and the Constitution of Japan itself.
It is the ideological attack by mass media of the huge capital such as TV broadcasting,newspaper and magazines that is leading the reactionary trend of the Japanese society.
The mass people do not have working class consciousness and left defenseless, to beswung around by the mass media. It is our urgent problem to get over populism byenforcing activities to build up the class-conscious way of viewing and thinking,through deploying ideological struggles in close tie with the mass people’s struggles.
For formation of the united front to defend the Constitution
The national referendum act, which stipulates the procedure for amendment to theConstitution based on its Article 96, was established in May 2007. The act was enacted
three years later in May 2010, and the Deliberative Council on the Constitution wasestablished in each of the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors tostart practical examinations in 2011. In the general election in December, 2012, theLiberal Democratic Party exceeded the independent majority in the House ofRepresentatives and together with New Komeito and Japan Restoration Party, itsatisfies two-thirds of the seats meeting requirements for initiative of amendment tothe Constitution specified by Article 96. Furthermore, the LDP and others haveformed the strategy to relax the initiative for amendment to the Constitution by anadvanced amendment to Article 96. Ishihara Shintaro, joint representative of Japan
Restoration Party and former governor of Tokyo, despite of his obligation to respect
the Constitution, advocates abolishing the Constitution and establish a newconstitution, which is equating to a coup.
The Constitution of Japan is under a serious crisis. The amendment by interpretationof Article 9, renouncing war and armament, has been expanded, as can be seen in
hostile attitude to the DPRK, inciting “threat” by China, making the U.S. militarybases in Okinawa permanent, overseas dispatch of the Self Defense Forces, enforcing
the collective defense right, and materializing the joint military operation with the U.
S., Republic of Korea and Australia.
We are aiming at formation of the united front to stop amendment to the Constitution,as our current and urgent task. It is also to construct the front and the movement by
the workers and the labor unions as its axis and standing at the frontline, and tostrengthen/develop them. That is why we are cooperating with the people with thesame aspiration to undertake the movement against the national referendum act.
As the crisis of capitalism is deepening, the assaults by the monopoly capital are
getting vigorous. The scheme for amendment to the Constitution is a part of it. It is
nothing but making bet for the ruling class to make a breakthrough in crisis that it
would overthrow the principles of the current Constitution. Contrary to theconstitution by which the people bind the hand of the power, the power is now trying
to build up a constitutional order under the state power which controls the will andactions of the people. Through the struggles against amendment to the Constitution,
we would aim at establishing the sovereign power led by the working class and at

forming the body to explore the future of socialism.
Socialism or barbarism, the path is only one
Due to the dismantlement of the world socialism system during end 1980s and early
1990s we were obliged to experience a setback. However, the age’s basic character that“the contemporary world is in the age of general transition from capitalism tosocialism,” has not been changed. After the dismantlement of the world socialism
system, the capitalism world got drunk with victory. Soon after that it became clearthat its basic contradictions cannot be solved.
On one hand the monopoly capital is accumulating the unprecedented excessive
surplus in capital, on the other hand the workers and people’s hardships of poverty isdeepening. The basic contradiction in capitalism between the huge social production
power and the private ownership of prosperity is getting to an extreme. The
contradictions are clear to anyone. It is that the impoverishment of workers and thepeople is the only condition of existence of capitalism, and, the confrontation (collision)
between wage labor (wages) and capital (profits). However, capitalism does notcollapse automatically. The capitalist class would never step down from the stage ofhistory without compulsion by the working class. There is already no room
"improving" capitalism within the framework of the system. While rebuilding andstrengthening the struggles which press capital for concession, it is to get over thecapitalism modern and to form the body to aim at socialism---we gaze at this subject infront of us, and are trying to stand against the difficulties.
We hold fast the view on capitalism “Imperialism: the highest (last) stage ofcapitalism,” by V. I. Lenin. Because we stand on the basic position, we have stood on aconsistent position, learning about and trying to stand in the row of rebuilding theinternational communist movement, which has developed the international meetingsof communist and workers’ parties since 1999, with the initiative by the Communist
Party of Greece. We continue insisting, “Another world is possible. It cannot be,
however, anything but socialism.”
We call for cooperation and participation to our activities to people who want to share
the tasks in order to resist against the assaults by the bourgeois ruling class and toexploit the future for the working class and the people.
March 11, 2013