JAPANESE ‘UNIONS “REJECT AFL-CIO CHARGES” ~~
"The efforts of the top leadership of the AFL-CIO [American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations] to get the General Council of Japan Trade Unions. [Sohyo] to be less critical of the government of the divine Mikado has wet with a rebuff.
Last January the AFL-CIO brass began sending missives to the Japanese organization accusing it of supporting "Communism." In | February Jay Lovestone, head of the AFL-CIO international depart= ment, charged the powerful Japanese union, organization with attempting ‘to make the Japanese government follow a foreign policy “against the will of many labor unionists." He frowned on Sohyo's frequent — antigovernment demonstrations.
Sohyo provisionally rejected Lovestone's letter and at the beginning of April sent a formal reply. The reply pointed out that Sohyo and its members have consistently opposed the rearmament of Japan since the organization was established fifteen years ago. Ant igovernment demonstrations are quite natural in a country where “monopolistic capital" controls the government, it added..
While the Japanese people are appreciative of American economic assistance, the letter to Lovestone said, Sohyo will never cease to oppose * American attempts to convert Sapan into a military base and it will never cease to oppose America's policy of war. The letter denounced American policy as not serving the interests of the Asian people,
--A's° for the "Communist" charge, Sohyo noted that it opposes the Japan Communist party because it is against the “control of a specific political party." At the same time, it noted, unions are not political parties and therefore should be open to all workers, no matter what their creeds or political views.
The Japanese ‘economy has reached the level of the ‘advanced West: Buropean countries, but Japanese workers are paid less than half the scales of Western Europe. This is injurious to the cause of improving the living standards of the working class throughout the world, the Japanese union leaders said.
In the fight against Japan's "monopolistic capital," continued the letter, nothing is more important than the unity of the trade unions. Despite the divisions in the labor movement, including inside Sohyo itself, every Japanese union aspires for. "unification
of. the domestic labor front."