Protest against Burmese Military Regime Prime Minister

On December 11, 10 a.m., JRU carried out the joint demonstration with the Seafarer's Union of Burma (SUB) and Burmese various democratic organizations in front of the State Guest Hall, protesting against the Burmese military regime lead by the Prime Minister Khin Nyunt who were attending the ASEAN special summit meeting.

We joined the demonstration responding to the request from SUB, which has been in solidarity with us for our struggle against oppression on labor union. SUB, an affiliate of ITF, has conducted a demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, to protest against the long term detention of the JRU seven, and also participated in the October 31 rally for accusing the false allegation of JR Urawa Incident.

Due to the oppression by the military regime, comrades in Burma where union activities are totally banned seek asylum and struggle to fight in their tough circumstances. In Japan, there are groups involved in the democratization of Burmese movement including Rengo, but JRU was the only organization that had participated in the demonstration. This fact alone shows the weakness and quality of Japanese labor movement.

The Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who visited Japan this time, is known as a ringleader who has been supporting the military regime for a long time, and oppressing the democratization movement through torturing and killing innocent civilians. While all the western countries reject his entry to their nations, the government of Japan not only invited him, but also aimed for promoting the conclusion of FTA (Free Trade Agreement) and tried to make the Asian countries admit the dispatch of SDF to Iraq through the ASEAN summit meeting.

JRU has tackled for this joint action protesting against the government of Japan through the solidarity with fighting comrades from Burma. In the end of the demonstration, JRU vice president Osamu Yomono gave a closing words, and expressed the resolution to build up struggles aiming for the Asian Peace and future through learning from comrades under oppression by the military regime and through establishing the true solidarity with workers.