Partisan Defence Committee

Salute to heroic Japanese power workers

We reprint below a 19 March letter sent by the Partisan Defense Committee in New York to the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers Unions of Japan (Denryoku Soren). The PDC also sent the union a donation of $500, and encourages trade unions and others internationally to do the same. The union in Japan can be emailed at icemjaf@blue.ocn.ne.jp.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Partisan Defense Committee (PDC) salutes the heroic members of your union who are risking their lives in an effort to control the dangerous situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the earthquake and tsunami. The PDC is a class-struggle legal and social defense organization associated with the Spartacist League/U.S., which, along with the Spartacist Group Japan, are sections of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist).

The valor and dedication of the Fukushima Dai-ichi workers stand in sharp contrast to the parasitism and greed of the owners and managers of TEPCO and their unofficial spokesmen in the government. They have endangered the population with their obfuscation and mismanagement. For the capitalists in every country and every industry, the overriding concern is their profits and not the safety of the workers or the interests of society as a whole.

All of this underlines the urgent need for trade-union control over safety and all working conditions at every level. If the labor of those who toil is to serve the interests of society and not the bottom line of the bosses, it is necessary for the working class to take power and rule on the basis of a collectivized planned economy.

We intend to circulate this message to organizations within the workers movement internationally and encourage them to likewise extend their support.