460 workers discuss local economy and jobs

More than 460 people from throughout the country, including trade union leaders and small business operators, attended the National Exchange Gathering to Save Jobs and Local Businesses from September 3-4 in Atami City in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Participants discussed grassroots efforts and experiences in places of work and local communities, and pledged to strengthen grassroots efforts to increase common actions in communities to defend jobs and local economies from the Koizumi government's so-called "structural reforms".

The event was organized jointly by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), the National Federation of Traders and Producers Organizations (Zenshoren), the New Japan Women's Association (Shin Fujin), and the Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom (JLAF).

In his opening address on behalf of the organizers, Zenroren President Kumagai Kanemichi stated that in the present-day world the main current is moving toward establishing rules to protect workers' livelihoods and local economies, and called on the participants to use this gathering as a springboard for further increasing the movement.

Yamashita Yoshiki, who leads a JCP task force on the struggle to defend jobs against anti-worker corporate restructuring, said that the Japanese economy, both at the national and local levels, is in a critical state because many large corporations have moved plants for production abroad.

He pointed out that in defense of employment and local economies, new forms of cooperation are emerging between conservatives and progressives, and called for similar cooperation to take place in many more communities. (end)