Japan Press Weekly

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2011 October 19 - 25 TOP3 [YOUTH]

4,800 Japanese youth bring 99%ers’ protest to Japan

About 4,800 Japanese young people on October 23 shouted, “End the disposable use of labor!” and joined in the worldwide 99%ers’ movement against poverty and social inequality that began on Wall Street.

Demonstrators gathered in Tokyo’s Meiji Park for a youth rally calling for the establishment of “decent lives and jobs”. The rally has been held annually since 2003.

After the rally, they marched in demonstration through youth-oriented shopping and fashion areas downtown.

Appealing for recovery from the 3.11 disaster and a withdrawal from nuclear energy, 90 youths came to Tokyo from the disaster-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima to take part in the rally. Six participants from overseas unions, a number of workers who are fighting in court against Sony, Japan Airlines (JAL) and Panasonic, and Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo also participated in the 2011 youth rally.

Shii pointed out that the rally is reaching out to the public with the slogan “We are the 99%” and the question “Why should we put up with the present society in which the richest 1% controls the 99%?”

From the United States, Autumn Martinez of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) said that the action that started on Wall Street in defense of working people’s human rights has spread to many cities around the world. She called on Japanese demonstrators to unite and rise up together.

Han Jihye of South Korea’s Youth Community Union said, “The world is not just for the 1%, but is ours, the 99%. Let’s join hands to open the way to a brighter future for all!”

JCP Shii after his speech talked with union workers from Sony, JAL, and Panasonic and encouraged them to continue to fight for a victory in their lawsuits.