From the article of 'Petrel'
No.599 / September 29, 1996
Please
send us your opinion and the impression about this article without reservation.
"Assertion"
The dismantlement and disappearance
of the Socialist Party
Summarize the 50 years just now!
"The purpose of the Japanese Socialist Party exists in the achievement of the socialist society. The contradiction of the Japanese capitalism bleached with the defeat in the daylight shows that we are already approaching concretely toward the time when we can accomplish this historical mission. We are now not only seeing this target beyond the horizon but determined to reach the point."
These high tone sentences are the sentences included in the outline of the Japanese Socialist Party before.
The thing that this was the outline of the "leftist" Socialist Party does not mean it was not an outline of the Socialist Party, but is teaching that the Socialist Party was also so leftish as this and there was a time when it openly declared the socialistic standpoint before.
The problem is why the Socialist Party, which was so leftish as this, expressed of the class standpoint, and protected even the Marxism for a certain time after the war, have been defeated by bourgeois and have faced the time of a miserable defeat and dismantlement.
Thus, the workers should try to summarize the history of the Socialist Party as exactly "the reverse teacher."
It can be said that the Socialist Party itself has been existing as "a United front party" (Hitoshi Yamakawa) in which the tendency of the leftist and right wing has been existing together, conflicting, and fighting from the time of the party formation rally held under the chairperson Asanuma in November of the age of the war end, of course though many tendencies and the factions with a different nuance existed between the two.
However, even this time, the Socialist Party was openly expressing in one of the 3 Articles that the outline standpoint declared, "Our Socialist Party abolishes capitalism, carries out socialism resolutely, and expects the stability and the improvement of the national life." The other two was "the Establishment of the democracy system" and the opposition to the militarism, "the Achievement of the permanent peace." This easy outline of 3 Articles provided the Socialist Party as "the Integrated body of the national working class."
However, the uplift of the class struggle in postwar days, the experience of Katayama Cabinet, and furthermore the increase of the power of the leftist intensified the internal contradiction of the Socialist Party, the Socialist Party was divided from 1950 to 51 years, the age when the two Japanese Socialist Party have been existing came. It was just the age when the communist party was also largely divided, and was loseing the trust of the working class completely because of the petty bourgeois revolutionary policy, the Korea war broke out, the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan was born, and it had begun to support the leftist Socialist Party.
Though the division was caused by the maneuver of the right wing, this was a reaction of the right wing to the thing that the leftist was increasing the influence, and the entire party seemed to be put under the rule. Though they would rather choose the division of the party than becoming a minority group, just this was the old trick of the right wing.
The Socialist Party outline introduced at the beginning was made under such situations. It provided openly the purpose of the party as socialism, at this point it made the class standpoint far clearer than the Communist Party only of expressing "the Race democratic revolution" under the influence of the Stalinism. It acquired the support of the working class in that sense, moreover in the election it acquired the seat that overwhelmed the right wing not to mention the communist party.
And what supported this leftist was Marxism of "the Ronoha (the workers-farmers group)" before the war, that is, the tendency considering the flows of Tsunao Inomata and Hitoshi Yamakawa, the ideologues of Itsuro Sakisaka and the like.
Though they essentially had the petty bourgeois character and the limit as "social democrat", they appeared protecting the class struggle and socialism as the Japanese Communist Party buried itself in the Stalinism and came to play a reactionary role more and more in the class struggle (For instance, look at the outline of '51 years that was racialistic and Stalinistic thoroughly).
They were enthusiastic subjectively to establish the true workers party opposing to the Communist Party.
However, the leftist Socialist Party was not able to grow up as the true class party of the workers because of the inner defect, abandoned the struggle against the right wing at once, surrendered and compromised to the right wing. Their petty bourgeois characters were exposed also where they had especially emphasized the one named "peaceful revolution" though emphasizing socialism.
The union of the Socialist Party was achieved in 1955, which was just on the same tracks as the Communist Party stepped forward to unite the party in the 6th whole country conference. However, of course this union did not cancel the confrontation inside the Socialist Party, but only reproduced in a new shape. The Japan Democratic Socialist Part was formed already in 1960 by the plot of Nishio, and in the Socialist Party itself after the Security Treaty struggle and the Miike struggle, the "structural reformation" route that denied the explosion of the capitalism contradiction and insisted the necessity to fight with policy and "plan", that is, the through opportunism and reformism was openly expressed and introduced by Eda, ect.
After this age, the opinion "There is no reality" and "There is no policy and everything is only opposed" came to be discussed clamorously, the "realistic" and reformistic tendency became strong in the Socialist Party.
However, it might be clear that the reality of the party should not rise by such "Structural reformation" of course. Actually, such opinions have prepared the dismantlement of the Socialist Party by lowering and dissolving the class aggressive character of this party.
The intellectual, bourgeois elements were becoming superior more and more in this party and winning was one of the inevitable.
Though this party have been criticized of its "Constitution of Dietperson-Party" on the one hand and its "Constitution of depending on labor union" on the other hand, however these have been the two sides of the shield of the opportunism of the Socialist Party, and they do not have conflicted but supplemented each other.
It is a complete misunderstand that a party depending on labor union is not a parliamentist party but a class one, so oppositely the member of the Diet "depending on labor union" appeared consistently most reactionary and opportunistic elements and was becoming more and more so in the Socialist Party.
The labor union also came to send the Diet many of the most degenerated and negligent intellectuals. The union ideologist's degeneration and the degeneration of the Socialist Party have been deepened hand in hand.
The confrontation between the left and the right and the division uproar continued in the Socialist Party after that. But such inside struggle did not bring the class reinforcement of the Socialist Party but on the contrary acquired only the meaning of the opportunity of the bourgeois degeneration. After all, this party started even the open and shameless union with the bourgeois parties in time of the election before three years, thus it calls the final time to be dismantled.
It is not an accident that the time of the union with the bourgeois political parties overlapped with the time when the Socialist Party was dismantled and disappeared, because the existence meaning of the Socialist Party will be completely lost if openly uniting with the bourgeois political parties.
Thus, the Socialist Party was defeated and disappeared. What the workers have to learn from the history of this political party is that the party thins the class standpoint and distorts the Marxism -- though the fellows who deny are out of the question -- is not able to grow up as a party of the working class and win at all, too.