FARMERS NEAR TOKYO JOIN WITH STUDENTS IN OPPOSING SPREAD OF U.S. BASES
——— eee eee LD
Farmers near Tokyo whose land lies in the path of planned extensions of U.S. air bases have begun to organize to save their farms, and have formed an alliance with radical students to help them in their fight.
One group of farmers in Sanrizuka, Chiba Prefecture, is opposing the construction of the projected New Tokyo International Airport on their land, and the other is against the extension of a runway of the U.S. Tachikawa Air Base outside Tokyo.
The farmers charge that the airport as well as the U.S. base will be used for war purposes. The farmers, like the students, are hostile to the extension of American air bases, their being used in the war in Vietnam and the threat that Japan will be drawn into a new war as a result of the ties of her government with American imperialism.
The Japan Times reported January 4 that the farmers are working with the radical Sampa Rengo (Three Faction Alliance) wing of the Zengakuren. The Sampa Rengo was the principal organizer of the massive demonstrations against Premier Sato's Far East tour in October and his visit to Washington in November.
The Times says the farmers "are friendly to the radical students because Sampa Rengo students give them the most unstinting support when trouble occurs. That is, the Sampa Rengo students are willing to fight the police on their behalf.'
The clash the Times refers to took place October 10 when 2,000 riot cops stormed the village of Sanrizuka to guard airport officials who came to survey the land for the projected airport. That confrontation also marked a falling out between the militant farmers and the youth of the Communist party, with whom they had worked previously.
Issaku Tomura, the leader of the
Sanrizuka farmers organization, the Uncon-
ditional Opposition League Against the
New International Airport in Narita, pub-
licly broke all ties between his organi-
zation and the Japan Communist party after
the Communists attacked him for allowing
Sampa Rengo students to participate in
the October 10 demonstration. The Commu-
nists have a very sectarian attitude to-
ward the Sampa Rengo students, refusing
to work with them on the grounds that
they are "Trotskyists."
The Times says that during the dem-
onstration against the surveyors, Tomura
"saw the JCP members give way meekly to
the oncoming police...He resented it that
the Communists ‘deserted the poor farmers
who tried to stop land surveying with the
little power they had.'"
Tomura said of the projected land
seizure, "You cannot just say to a farmer
to pack his things up and move to another
piece of land, because it's like telling
a mother to throw away her own child."
At Sunagawa, north of Tachikawa,
the farmers had worked with the JCP for
twelve years. The Communists broke the
alliance after the farmers began working
with the Sampa Rengo in February of last
year.
Ryokichi Aota, a leader of the
Sunagawa farmers declared to the Times,
"I don't care if the Sampa students are
Trotskyists or not...I'm determined to
do anything I can do to avoid war. Sampa
students are eager to help us for the
same cause."
Last July the Communists told the
farmers not to associate with the Sampa
Rengo students. Aota said, "We told them
that's none of their business and not to
bother to come back to our village again.
And they did not, he said.
BRAZILIAN CP