10.31 Rally on Condemning False Accusation in JR Urawa Incident

JREU (East Japan Railway Workers' Union), JRU (Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Union), and the Society of Supporters on False Accusation in JR Urawa Incident held a rally at Hibiya Music Hall on October 31, 2003. 5000 people from the unions and the Society's supporting individuals took part in the rally with JRU7 members released on October 10 after 344 days of detention. The 16 foreign union delegates from 11 countries joined as well.

Mr. Syoujiro Goto,
The representative of the Society of Supporters on False Accusation in JR URAWA Incident

We need to win this trial. And we will win, because justice is on our side. To win a victory, we need to spread the truth. Then we need to have people recognize the truth and cooperate with us.
  I’d like to cite two major conspired incidents - Dreyfus incident in France and Matsukawa incident in Japan. Dreyfus was a French Royal Army official who was framed up as a spy for the German Army since he was a Jew. He was tried in public and was sent to an isolated land for lifetime. However, when his brother investigated this issue closely, he was assured that his brother was innocent and handed out some flyers. After more than 10 years, with the help of the famous writer Zora who took the side of his brother and was persecuted because of that, Dreyfus finally got acquittal. Matsukawa incident is another notorious incident on the eve of the start of Korean war. Due to this incident, anti-war new liberal groups had a tremendous impact. Later on, it was exposed that the incident was fabricated by the prosecutors’ side, and all the suspect became innocent in the end.
 As shown in these two famous incidents, no matter what the police or the government does, the truth and justice are in our hands, and therefore, we will eventually have a victory in this fight.

Messages from Oversea

Mr. Kevin Connolly, Secretary of Ireland Locomotive Drivers’ Association

This meeting is the very first step for our solidarity to fight against Japanese government’s oppression against JREU. I am now planning to ask each of our union members to write a letter of protest to the Japanese embassy in Dublin. I will also ask the secretary general of ICGU, Mr. David Beck to send a written protest to Japanese government officials. We ILDA will provide you our all-out support.

Mr. George Hucker, Vice president of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Canada

I am very impressed by your solid determination. I would love to have you make speech on solidarity in Canada rather than I make speech here. The false allegation on the JRU 7 is the very deprivation of freedom of expression, freedom of association and unionists’ rights. As our Irish comrade, I will disseminate the story of this false accusation case and will make actions including petition campaign against Japanese embassy in Canada and the US, and our appeal to the president of CLC. We BLE address our all-out support for JRU here.

Mr. Jim Kelly, National President of 'Rail and Maritime Transport Union' in NZ

The incident of JRU7 made me sad, and I don't think Japanese government respects the importance of laws. Our union will fight with Japanese comrades for the right of unions, freedom and peace. I believe that solidarity of unions oversea made a huge power to be able to change the situations. I would like to address the need of the following, 1) Respect labor unions, 2) Respect freedom-loving people, 3) Praise JRU7’s courage, 4) Condemn the acts of Japanese government, 5) Demand Japanese government to withdraw the accusation

Letter from ITF