We Condemn the Court for an “Undeserved Decision”

on JR Urawa Electric Train Depot Case

 

   Today, on 17 July, the Tokyo District Court sentenced JRU7 to a suspended two ~ one-year prison term. Oma was handed a prison sentence of 2 years (with probation of 4 years), Yamada was handed 1 year and 8 months (with probation of 3 years), Yanaji and Uehara were handed 1 and a-half years (with probation of 3 years), Yatsuda, Saito and Oguro were handed 1 year (with probation of 3 years). The judgment reflects the story fabricated by the prosecution who distorted and covered up the fact that JRU7 had never coerced the “victim” into getting out of the union and quitting the company. This is nothing except for the false decision that the judicial authorities made in conformity to the state power. JRU condemns the Court for this unfair judgment.

   The “case” was cooked up based on the will of the state, so repeated oppression has been relentless. As for JRU7, the bail application was rejected more than once, and they were compelled to be detained for 344 long days. In addition to JR Urawa case, the police trumped up several other cases such as Tokyo Station case and two embezzlement cases, and repeated large-scale domiciliary searches and seizures on each occasion. The police have made use of media and puppet unions in order to spread false propaganda like “Extremists, Kakumaru faction and terrorists are infiltrated into JRU.” Such fierce attack originated in our campaign against Japan’s participation in the war in retaliation for 9.11 “terrorist attacks” in 2001. We voiced our stance as “We stand against both terrorism and war” in the publication of “Oni-no-hohkoh (hohkoh means roaring)” which criticized Bush-Blair-Koizumi’s Iraq war policy. At present, with the catchword of “Departure from postwar regime,” Abe administration advances war policies by enacting a series of controversial bills which his predecessors could not pass in the post war years. The court decision is not completely unrelated to this political trend. However, we have notified the public about the real nature of oppression conducted by the will of the state, and continued to promote the fight for justice. Today’s judgment follows the state’s intention to crush the trade union which forwards peace movement sincerely.

   Four years and eight months have passed since JRU7 were arrested. We have created movement not just among union members but also with the support association, defense lawyers, advocates and other groups since then. Of course the seven members have toughed it out both inside and outside the court. For these four years, they visited all parts of Japan to talk about facts of oppression to union members and citizens and request their support. The meetings which invited JRU7 totaled over 2000. 102.000 citizens join the support association for JRU7. The local meetings were organized by the association in various regions, and chain of support and movement has been further spread all over Japan. Total of 85.000 union members went to the Tokyo District Court for admission tickets. We gathered 391.076 signatures to request the government to implement the ILO recommendations, and 693.446 ones for just and fair trial. We spoke out and asked more support than that given to Matsukawa incident, one of the three biggest framed-up cases which were conducted to crush union movement. Our case is considered to be larger than Matsukawa incident in terms of the scale of crackdown. We have expanded a campaign and sent out our message throughout Japan, and to the world as well. ILO issued recommendations to the government in November 2004 and it released several follow-up reports after that. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations sent a “Warning Letter” to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police commissioner in March 2005 against investigation of JRU and JREU in line with national policy.

   Without doubt, the government is preparing the next crackdown as it notices our movement has widely spread. However, we are determined to confront every crackdown and strengthen the front. JRU create further fighting and solidarity against this undeserved decision of the court, and at the same time we consistently oppose “false propaganda” by the puppet unions and those who agree to oppression of JRU under the plea of “democratization.” We are striving to further promote peace movement in order to stop the path toward war again. Protesting against today’s court decision, we pledge that we will continue to pursue justice and peace, and fight against oppression.

 

17 July, 2007