Obtain 6.5 million votes to double Lower House seats: JCP 5th CC Plenum
October 16, 2012
The Japanese Communist Party on October 14 and 15 held the 5th Central Committee Plenum at its head office in Tokyo and decided on a target of obtaining more than 6.5 million votes to double the current 9 seats held by the JCP in the upcoming House of Representatives general election.
It also decided to launch a mobilization to reach out to 10 million people and create a larger party in order to achieve the aforementioned target.
Chair Shii Kazuo gave a report on behalf of the JCP Executive Committee, which was broadcast live on the Internet. In the report he talked on: how to interpret the current political situation and how to describe the policies and values of the JCP; major issues that will be focused on in the general election; and action policies to achieve party success in the election.
Shii described the current political situation by saying that the attempt to create a "two-major-party system" has faced a deadlock, and a confrontation between two major currents has emerged.
One of the currents is a rise of a reactionary force consisting of the Democratic Party of Japan, which has completed its shift to a party closely resembling the former ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the LDP, which has further strengthened its reactionary policies, along with "Nippon Ishin-no-Kai" led by Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru. The other current is the historic development of the people's struggles in every field and the major role played by the JCP in this development.
Regarding how to appeal to voters regarding the values of the JCP in the upcoming general election, Shii stated that the party has the following four strengths: it can present a vision for Japan's future and strive to realize it; it can be a force to block the reactionary moves; it maintains fundamental principles as a political party; and it has learned many lessons in its nearly century-old history.
The JCP chair explained that the party will focus on the following 6 tasks in the Lower House election: to block the consumption tax hike; to immediately depart from nuclear power generation; to reconstruct from the Great East Japan Disaster; to withdraw U.S. Marine Corps Osprey deployment in Okinawa and question the need to maintain the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty; and to block an attempt to revise the Constitution.
Shii stressed that in the upcoming general election facing a historic crossroad, the JCP must make progress in order to block the rise of reactionary moves and to further develop the people's struggles to open a new political path.
