Fuwa: Three points on draft revised Program

On the third and last day meeting on June 23 of the Japanese Communist Party Central Committee 7th Plenum, CC Chair Tetsuzo Fuwa gave the concluding remarks.

Fuwa said that 40 members spoke and that about 8,600 people across the country monitored the meeting via communication satellite broadcast. There were some 1,300 letters and phone calls expressing approval of the draft revised JCP Program and confidence in the party's theoretical stand.

Fuwa explained the following three main points of the proposed revision.

First, the revision is intended to make the theory of a democratic revolution more realistic and rational.

When the JCP in its 8th Congress in 1961 adopted the present Program formulating the theory of a democratic revolution, most of the communist parties in developed capitalist countries advocated a socialist revolution as their immediate task.

Fuwa pointed out that the policy of a democratic revolution which the JCP set forth played a pioneering role. Without precedent in the world and without the experience of a fully-fledged struggle in Japan, however, the formula was no more than a theoretical concept, he said. Fuwa stressed that building on party activities in the past 42 years, the proposed draft improves the approach by outlining a more realistic and rational undertaking.

On the agreement between a democratic coalition government and the tasks which it should carry out, Fuwa said that JCP struggles and activities in the past 42 years have enabled the JCP to understand more realistically the possible revolutionary course. Fuwa stressed that the elaboration of a revolutionary course reflects the JCP's activities and achievements in all aspects. He described the proposed revised Program as a valuable asset of the JCP.

Second, creative quests have enabled the JCP to envisage a future society.

In the discussion of the Program in 1961, the main focus was on the characterization of the immediate task of the revolution, not on socialism and communism. The 1961 Program presented just a general and dogmatic theory established internationally at the time.

Referring to the circumstances in which the internationally "established theory" saw a revolution in two phases, from socialism to communism, CC Chair Fuwa said that one is the justification by the former Soviet Union as being in a period of transfer to communism, following Stalin's declaration of achieving socialism in 1936 at the time of the enactment of the new Soviet Constitution. Fuwa said that another reason is that because the theory took its basis on Karl Marx's "Criticism of the Gotha Programme", the two-phased theory that came to be accepted as an established theory, without undergoing much discussion. Fuwa said that the proposed draft has boldly overcome the so-called established theory and envisaged socialism/communism through creative quests.

Fuwa said that the revision was essential in light of the need to make clear what a future form of socialism will bring about to humanity and to the Japanese people.

Third, the draft puts forward a view of the world in the 21st century.

In 1961 when the present JCP Program was adopted, the JCP depended basically on the statement made by the 1960 conference of representatives of 81 communist and workers' parties in assessing the world situation. In that conference, which was the first and last international session for the JCP to have attended, the JCP delegation did its best to amend the draft statement by proposing more amendments than any other party to improve paragraphs concerning the world situation. However, the original text was drafted by the Soviet Communist Party, and the Soviet view of the world was dominant in the conference, Fuwa said.

Fuwa summed up amendments made to the JCP Program after 1961: it deleted the theory on the general crisis of capitalism, included the struggle against Soviet hegemony as well as an assessment of the Soviet society after its collapse. However, these efforts were far short of a comprehensive review of the world, he stated.

The new draft deals with how to view the world situation from a new and comprehensive angle based on the argument concerning the 20th century with a perspective covering the 21st century. Each of the new definitions reflects the results of JCP international activities over the years. This is not an armchair theory, Fuwa stressed.

In the last part, Fuwa stated that the discussion on the new draft is attracting public attention. Making efforts to discuss the new program will make the party congress a success and benefit the party's future tasks, he said.

He called on all party members to actively take part in the discussion on the draft revised program, and make both the current JCP membership/Akahata readership drive and a major party advance in the elections for both houses a success.

Fuwa concluded his remarks by saying that the JCP is called upon to again make a nationwide advance now at the beginning of the 21st century similar to the one at the 8th Party Congress in 1961, with a new and bold resolution and the ambition for remaking Japan foremost in our minds. (end)