 May Day: Workers resolve to increase efforts to defend Constitution and jobs Japanese workers and citizens held this 76th May Day celebration in 374 places throughout Japan. "Stop the adverse revision of the Constitution" and "defend jobs" were major slogans for the May Day at the 60th year of the war's end. In Tokyo, about 43,000 people attended the May Day Central Rally in Yoyogi Park, sponsored by the organizing committee that includes the National Trade Union Confederation (Zenroren). Zenroren President Kumagai Kanemichi in his speech on behalf of the organizers called for defending the Constitution which enshrines the principle that sovereign power rests with the people and provides for the basic rights of workers. In a speech on behalf of the Japanese Communist Party, Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo called for people to renew the determination to stop the moves to reverse history by discarding the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution. After the rally, participants marched in demonstration on three routes. Young workers from the postal workers union dressed themselves up as red postboxes in protest against the government plan to privatize postal services. - Akahata, May 2, 2005 |