Science Talk

Dan Clore · Guest

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

http://tinyurl.com/6mlfw2
G8 Dispatches: Dissent Blooms in Japan Despite Massive Police Represssion
By Marina Sitrin and David Solnit and Asha Colazione and Sarah Lazare,
July 1, 2008

Four simultaneous marches and rallies took place on June 29th in Tokyo
and Sapporo, characterized by vibrant and colorful voices of resistance
and a suffocating police presence. The marches in Tokyo weaved through
the streets, complete with rolling sound systems blasting protest music.
People chanted in various languages, waved flags from around the world,
and joyfully displayed banners and puppets exclaiming what they are
against as well as what they are for.

Eight puppets with heads of Group of Eight (G Cool

leaders and bodies of
skeletons moved through the crowds. Each held a yellow and red sign with
a word such as hunger, global warming, poverty or privatization of
resources, to indicate things the G8 is creating with its current
policies. At the same time, shimmering yellow birds made of painted
cardboard and satiny cloth symbolized freedom, each with a word or
drawing of something demonstrators desire in the world, from clean water
and air to freedom of expression to real democracy. People brought
banners and flags indicating the places and groups they are from,
including the CNT in France, the Freeters Union in Japan, and the
Wobblies in the US.

The street protests made apparent how little political breathing room
the anti-G8 organizers have in which to function. Many hundreds of
police flanked the demonstration route, crowding protesters into a thin
line occupying less than one lane of traffic, and physically pushing
those in the rear, as well as everyone who let more than a few feet of
empty space grow in front of them. Hundreds more "public security"
forces, a police agency in Japan that can work in an undercover
political police capacity, lined the sidewalks and peppered the march,
taking photographs, notes, and sometimes even setting up ladders to
focus a photo on the face of an organizer.

"All of these tactics are clearly part of an effort to intimidate people
and limit our imaginations as to what could be possible in organizing,"
one participant said. "The feeling on the street is one of being
constantly surveyed, and literally being pushed if you get out of line.
But despite the repressive tactics, people march and sing. We refuse to
allow the intimidation to silence our voices or our bodies."

Repression Against Local and International Activists

As the G8 meeting approaches, the Japanese government is waging an
escalating battle of repression and control against Japanese and
international grassroots organizations and movements.

Our first indication of the level of political police repression came
just after arriving in Japan last week, when we participated in an
alternative media seminar in Osaka. A tall, thin man in a suit visited
our laid-back guesthouse, asking to see a copy of our passports. Hostels
are required to keep a photocopy of each guest's identification, but the
manager declined to show them to the plainclothes police agents. They
did, however, tell them how long we were staying, as required by
Japanese law.

Local Repression

A wave of harassment and arrests of activists and organizers is taking
place throughout Japan. Stories proliferate of people being arrested and
held for many days under pretenses such as failure to inform the
government of an address change, or alleged bicycle traffic violations.

A little over two weeks ago, the police raided a day laborers' union
office and arrested a well-known organizer on absurd charges--receiving
social benefits several years prior without the correct paperwork. It
was one of the incidents that sparked the first riots in Japan since the
1990s in Osaka's low-income day laborer neighborhood of Kamgasaki.
During the riots, which spanned several nights, neighborhood day
laborers and youth fought to defend their neighborhood from
water-canon-wielding riot police.

Four nights ago, an organizer with G8 Action Network briefed a group of
international participants. He explained that they expected thousands to
participate in the anti-G8 demonstration in Sapporo on the eve of the
annual G8 meetings. He shared detailed stories about the excruciating
amount of negotiations, permits, and government control they had to
navigate to simply publicly express their opposition to the G8. Camps
for participants in Sapporo had to be cancelled because police demanded
to set up identity checks within the camp. Every demonstration requires
a police permit. He told the internationals, many of whom are veterans
of mass direct actions in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia,
just how little political breathing space there was for anything
remotely disobedient. As an organizer, his hands were tied by the
politically controlling and repressive government. At a public forum
yesterday, plainclothes police moved through the crowd taking notes.

Harassment of Internationals

Many foreign participants in the Counter-G8 International Forums and
protests have been harassed and detained. From Hong Kong to Europe to
the US, grassroots organizers and intellectuals--such as movement
scholar David Graeber--have been held and interrogated for a half-day or
more, and allowed to enter the country only after pressure and
negotiations by the local legal team. Lisa Fithian, a United for Peace
and Justice Steering Committee member and longtime labor and global
justice organizer, was detained and questioned for eleven hours in what
she describes as "blatant discrimination against global justice
activists." She and others have been ordered to leave the country before
the G8 meetings are to take place.

"What is the so-called democratic government of Japan so afraid of?" she
asked. The authorities told Lisa that she was held because she could not
tell them exactly where she would be every day.

Lecturer and policy expert Susan George was detained and questioned for
six hours. Activists and organizers from Hong Kong were detained
overnight, not receiving basic amenities such as food and beverages.
While many of the organizers from Korea are yet to arrive, a number of
those who have attempted to enter Japan have already been refused entry.

We Will Not be Intimidated

Each attempt to silence and intimidate local and international activists
is being met with organization and resistance by the local organizers of
the protests. A new generation of smart, creative, and dedicated young
Japanese organizers are building networks in the face of the repression
that some say may be the biggest challenge to Japan's elites since the
since the militant old "new left" of the 60s and 70s.

--
Dan Clore

My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/2gcoqt
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"

Visual Purple · Guest

Thank you sincerely for posting this very important article, Dan.

D2

Stan de SD · Guest

Stan de SD · Guest

On Jul 6, 7:25 am, Dan Clore <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote:

Dan Clore · Guest

Stan de SD wrote:

Stan de SD · Guest

On Jul 6, 11:39 am, Dan Clore <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote:

Dan Clore · Guest

Stan de SD wrote:

James A. Donald · Guest

Stan de SD wrote:

Dan Clore · Guest

Stan de SD wrote:

Stan de SD · Guest

On Jul 6, 5:33 pm, Dan Clore <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote: