RALLIES
Signs of increasing tension on the Japanese political scene, due to the escalation of the war in Vietnam and an economic depres-~ sion, continue to mount.
On October 1, for instance, Hiroshi Arai, chief of the country's police, instructed prefectural police chiefs at a national conference in Tokyo to step up their preparations to meet mass ral lifes being planned in the campaign of unions and radical political parties against ratification of the Japan-South Korea "“noralization" treaty.
Depending on developments in Vietnam and the annual drive this fall for wage increases, the head cop said, the antiratifica~ tion campaigners may incorporate strike action in their drive.
He instructéd the local police chiefs to strengthen their stoolpigeon networks and to work out plans to quell all "unlawful" actions in the campaign against ratification of the treaty.
The police chief was particularly alarmed about the tendency of the Socialist party, the Communist party and the giant General Council of Trade Unions of Japan [SOHYO] to unite in common actions. This was occurring, he said, not only against the Japan-South Korea treaty but against the efforts to revise Japan's constitution so as to make it legal to build a modern army and declare war. This showed a growth of Communist "influence," in his opinion, requiring “serious attention."
Meanwhile, on September 30, the powerful Japan Socialist party decided to press for the downfall of the government headed by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato as part of the campaign against the infamous treaty. The central committee of the party also called for dissolution of the Diet.
Chairman Kozo Sasaki told the assembled leadership that the party must make the struggle as broad as possible. It would be necessary, he said, to take up slogans ranging from opposition to the war in Vietnam to advocacy of higher wages and opposition to price hikes,
The proposal was also made to initiate a series of rallies, to begin on October 12.
24
THE BLACKPOOL CONFERENCE
London
The annual conference of the British Labour party has no parallel in the labour movement elsewhere in the world. It is a kind of parliament of labour, reflecting a wide cross section of the views, anxieties, disappointments and hopes of the working men and women of Great Britain. Dominated numerically by the trade unions, it is nevertheless the constituency parties which set its political tone. Bureaucratically controlled from the platform, the voice of socialism still speaks from the rostrum and finds echoes in the applause from delegates and visitors.
At the five-day