anti-base struggle

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

For development of nationwide anti-military base movements: exchange meeting held

Three hundred activists from all over Japan their shared experiences in the anti-U.S. military base movement in a meeting held in Naha in Okinawa on February 24-26. The meeting was called for by the Central Action Committee against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty (Anpo-Haki) and the Japan Peace Committee with the aim of increasing campaigns against the plan to strengthen functions at U.S. bases in Japan.

In the keynote speech, Japan Peace Committee Secretary General Chisaka Jun emphasized the importance of developing the movement with local governments to block the Japan-U.S. plan to strengthen U.S. bases in Japan for permanent use. He called on the forces demanding the dismantlement of U.S. bases and the abrogation of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty to take the lead in this movement.

A participant from Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture criticized the government plan to relocate a U.S. carrier-based airwing to U.S. Marines Iwakuni Air Station, a move that will combine the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps with the Iwakuni base as a pillar of the realignment of U.S. Forces in Japan and a stronghold for invasion forces. Anti-base movements all over Japan expressed their solidarity with the Iwakuni movement that is working for the successful rejection of the plan in the Iwakuni citizen referendum slated for March 12.

Reports were made from around the country, including Zama and Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture, where many citizens are taking part in the campaign; Yokosuka in the same prefecture where opposition is growing to the plan to homeport a U.S. nuclear carrier; and Nago in Okinawa Prefecture where a tenacious movement has been going on for nine years against the construction of a new U.S. base.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo made a special report to the meeting (see separate article). Okinawa City Mayor mayoral candidate Tomon Mitsuko spoke as a guest, and Ginowan Mayor Iha Yoichi sent a message.
- Akahata, February 24, 25, 26, 2006