important industrial regions.
On 25 June last year, it is reported, 10,000 people rioted for two days in Dniprodzerzhinsk, a city with a population of 270,000, The rioters stormed the KGB (Soviet state securityl and MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairal buildings and caused considerable damage. All political documents, passport registrations and private files of citizens were destroyed. Eventually KGB and militia units were called to the some and opened tire on the people. Estimates of the deed and injured range from 7 dead and 80 injured to scores of dead and injured. The riot was sparked off, according to one report, by the arrest of several youths who had been taunting a militia men, Large strikes for better living standards are also report ed to have taken place last September in Dnipropetrovsk, a major industrial city in southern Ukraine land Brezhnev's "home town"). Five persons were reported killed, and many wounded, Nevertheless further riots are reported to have taken place in the same city int October, with workers demanding food produce, better living conditions, and the right to choose jote instead of being assigned to them. That month also saw more riots in Dniprodzerzhinsk, where & were reported killed, many wounded, and scores arrested. Thee strikes and riots of workers in Ukraine came at a time when the Soviet bureaucracy wes carrying out a campaign of mass arrests against Ukrainian oppos tionists who opposed the continuing Stalinist nationalities policy. Fourth International, was refused entry into Hong Kong on 13 May 1973 by the Immigration Depart ment of one of British imperialism's few remaining colonies in the world. On his arrival at Hong Kong, Comrade All wis taken into custody by the Immigra tion police and served with an expulsion order. When he asked the police the reasons for his exclusion from the British colony, he was told, "We don't need to give you or anyone else any reason. We have been instructed by higher authorities that you are not to be allowed inta Hong Kong.
This is not the first ceasion on which members of the Fourth International have been denied entry. Only a few months ago a Japenese Trotskyist, Wistaru Yakushiji, was questioned in detail on arrival and refused entry.
This new series of restrictions on inading members of the Fourth International may not be totally unconnected with the fact that a non-Macist left has been develaping rapidly in Hong Kong, which refuses to respect either the Macist buresucracy or its numerous doals and arrangements with the Hong Kong authorities. The existence of a 'new left type Chinese journal, The Bi-Seventies Weekly, which has been trans lating and publishing texts by Ernest Mandel on Trotskyism, Tariq All on South Asie and various other articles from Rouge and The Red Moie, is obviously viewed with distaste by both the British authorities in Hong Kong and the Maoists. From TARIQ ALI in TOKYO The largest mass mobilisation in Tokyo since the anti-US riots which shook the city in 1960 took place last Tuesday, 15 May.
The day's activities were part of a national mobilisation called by the Japanese Communist and Socialist Partics to protest against the electoral changes proposed by Prime Minister Tunaka and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. These would allow the Liberal Democrats to hold office even if in a minority. Recent successes in local elections by the Socialists and Communists had convinced the ruling party that changes of this sort were an urgent need. However, the massive opposition to Tanaka's plans forced the Liberal Democrats to retreat, declaring that the proposals would not be put forward in the present session of the Diet (Parliament). It was last Tuesday's demonstration which dearly had the decisive effect.
Throughout the day hundreds of students and workers had been assembling at points all over Tokyo, preparing to march to a gant rally in Mei Park. By the evening all roads leading to the Park were swathed in a sea of red flags, the Socialist Party youth organisation with their yellow helmets and linked arms providing a flashback to the student battles of recent years. The revolutionary left, unfortunately, was divided; some groups refused to participate in the main rally, holding separate mectings instead. The Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), Japanese Section of the Fourth International, instructed all its trade union members to march under their respective trade union banners with the main rally, whie the student wing arrived with its own banners, including a flag of the Vietnamese NIF (the only one to be seen on that day). They were immediately surrounded by helmeted riot police and preNew radicalisation of working class has been evident in big strikes like that of portal workers, see neve picketing Tokyo posr office 182 Pentoaville Road, London N.I Name:
Occupation: rented from marching with the demonstration at the request of the Socialist and Communist leaderships.
These last saw the turnout as a masaise exercise in 'pressure politics", designed to further their own electoral plans. What they would like is a common programme and a coalition regime, modelled on the strategy of the "left' in Chile and France. The overthrow of Japanese capitalism is the furthest thing from their minds.
The crucial question is whether the CP and SP will succeed in diverting this mass mevement against the Tanaka government into parliamentary and reformist channels, or if it will break out into the well-established course of militant direct action, One important factor in determining this coune of events will be the ability of the revolutionary left to resist the rapidly developing repression aimed against the workers move ment by the Japanese ruling class. At tbe moment it is the revolutionary forces who are bearing the brunt of those attacks; an averag: of 2000 militants from the revolutionary groups are arrested each year. The extreme sectarianism of much of the fur left is a serious obstacle to effective united action. But the RCL is waging a big campaign in the lete on this question, particularly through its activity in Red Help, a committee set up to combat state uttacks and defend the victims of reThe radicalisation that has taken place inside the Japanese working class over the last few years means that any struggle now will have a qualitatively different churacter from those of the past. At the least it could certainly pro duce one of the biggest political cries in the long history of the Liberal Deniocratic regime INTERNATIONAL MARXIST GROUP {British Section of the Fourth International)
1 would like more information about the IMG.
Red Weekly 25 May 1973 Page 7