JAPAN'S PUBLIC WORKERS FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO STRIKE

Japan's biggest labour organization is locked in a bitter struggle with the government in a bid to restore the right to strike for millions of publicly • employed The campaign has intensified with guerrilla stoppages and a prolonged work-to-rule c. mpaign by national railway workers which has created chaos on Tokyo's commuter lines.

Last month 4-million-strong General Council of Trade Unions (Sohyo) staged its first - ever half. - day General Strike to back the demands of government and public corporation workers. Another half-day strike has been set for next month.

The reformist-led Sohyo has also appealed to the International Labour Organization in Geneva to back its campaign for the right to strike. This right was taken away from Japanese public service workers in the years immedimbala. Callanian the and of tha lately tonowing we enu ur we war, while the country was under American occupation. Shortly after the war a labour law was passed which banned strikes by all but prison officials, police and firemen. But this law was soon found inadequate to control the working class in accordance General Douglas MacArthur. A meeting of striking railwaymen at Tokyo's Central Station, when they were on strike three years ago. with US imperialism's requirements.

After violent left - wing demonstrations, General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the allied occupation forces, ordered that a General Strike due to begin on February 1, 1947, be called off. He asked the Japanese government to review the union law.

Seventeen months later the government issued an administrative decree barring public workers from striking. Sohyo says that since then the annual rate of wage. increases has slowed down, labour injuries have increased and workers have been restricted in the freedom and right to speak up against severe restrictions and unfair contracts.

Most workers, particularly railwaymen, have stopped just short of striking by engaging in forms of action such as 'work - hour meetings' and work-to-rule campaigns. A prolonged campaign beginning in late February has caused the cancellation of hundreds of train services in Tokyo alone and resulted in chaotic rush-hour scenes at major terminals. Many passengers have been injured by being crammed into carriages carrying up to three or four times their designated capacity.

The authorities have usually struck back with sackings, suspension from duty or wage reductions that can affect a worker up to retirement since life-long employment and a seniority system are traditional in Japan.

Victimization has been very widespread among workers battling for basic conditions and wages against this legal strait - jacket. More than · 10 800,000 corporation workers were punished for taking illegal industrial action from Similar punishments were inflicted on more than 770,000 public officials, state and local, between 1956 and 1972, according to Sohyo. The government claims that strikes by public workers, if permitted would have grave economic effects.

A Labour Ministry official even claimed it would be contrary to article 15 of the Japanese constitution (also imposed by the Americans) which says: "All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof.

Three million workers -about one-third of the total organized labour force in Japan—are deprived of the right to strike under the USSR: SHORTAGES IN CROCKERY AND FARM MACHINERY The Council of Ministers of the Russian • Socialist Federal Republic has once again been occupying itself with weighty matter-a shortage of cups and saucers.

Despite the fact that production capacity in the crockery industry increased as much in 1970-1971 as in the previous five years, a shortage persists. The present level of crockery production, it is admitted, does not meet the growing demands of the population.

expansion of production an I the building of new pottery factories are running schedule. Instructions labour laws. Sohyo claims that the constitution backs up its case and not that of the Ministry of Labour.

Article 28 of the Japanese constitution states: "The right of workers to organize and to bargain and to act collectively is guaranteed.' In its annual spring wage offensive this year, Sohyo is seeking a promise that the government will not punish striking public But despite four rounds of talks on the question since last November, no formula has been found satisfactory to both sides. The government of Kakuei Tanaka is clearly planning to resist the public workers' demand.

Having taken away the right to strike from large sections of workers, the Japanese ruling class will not concede it without a fight. were given for the ings to be eliminated.

The same meeting also heard about serious shortcomings in the use of agricultural machinery in Siberia a factor in last year's disastrous harvest. Many tractors, sowing, ploughing and cultivating machines, and combines were idle because of lack of repairs.

The farm machinery organization was criticized for send. ing machinery to the collective farms with serious defects. The Council of Ministers ordered measures to be taken to improve the quality of repair work and preparation of farm machinery for the beginning of spring sowing.