Japanese Communist Party

[sunfarstar]

http://www.jcp.or.jp/english/

[RadioRaheem84]

Supposedly its gaining momentum.

[sunfarstar]

They are developed capitalist countries, the largest communist party. However, there are right-wing tendency.

[scarletghoul]

Yes. The JCP are highly revisionist/eurocommunist. However, it is great to have such a successful communist party in a major capitalist power like Japan. The Japanese economy was hit pretty bad from the financial crisis, and a lot of Japanese are turning to communism. Let's hope that the JCP continues to grow and that more radical parts of the Japanese left can become more active too, like the JRA.

This reminds me, there was a manga of Marx's Kapital a while back. Does anyone know if its been translated to english yet?

[RadioRaheem84]

Yes. The JCP are highly revisionist/eurocommunist.
How so?

[Tablo]

The JCP promotes Social Democracy. They have no intention of abolishing Capitalism and simply put an emphasis on regulating it. Still, they are by far the best major party in Japan.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Indeed, they were heavily influenced by the Eurocommunist tradition of the 70s, campaign, stand in elections, reform the system from within. Tsukae is quite right to say that they are for social democracy but this should not be confused with the social democracy of the British Labour Party, or with German social democracy, if the JCP ever won power I'm pretty sure they would establish a very real social democracy by nationalising key industries, restoring the welfare state along with the right to work, and keeping private interests at a minimum. In Japan this could possibly be seen as revolutionary given the circumstances that country is currently in. My only major criticism of them would be that they applauded the end of the Soviet Union, and that's a pretty issue for me, that said they are doing such a good job of promoting socialism right now that I find it hard to slate them even if they are a bunch of anti-Communist tossers.

[Kaze no Kae]

I've gone right off the JCP since discovering they share an international with the ruling parties of the remaining state-capitalist countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Conference_of_Communist_and_Workers% 27_Parties

[bailey_187]

I've gone right off the JCP since discovering they share an international with the ruling parties of the remaining state-capitalist countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Conference_of_Communist_and_Workers% 27_Parties

What would you expect? Pretty much all traditional CPs are part of this...

[cb9's_unity]

I read some of the platform of the JCP a while back, it talked about having a "democratic" revolution before having a socialist one. They have a communist name but their platform is overwhelmingly geared to anti-imperialism. Their opposition to American influence in the the Japanese economy is obviously a good thing, but they don't seem to be all that interested in promoting actual socialism (at least right now).

[Kaze no Kae]

What would you expect? Pretty much all traditional CPs are part of this...
Not really, a lot of them have reformed.

[RadioRaheem84]

I dont get why most communist parties are social democratic? How do they recocile being Marxist and not challenging private ownership of the means of production? Do they just not see this main point as worth acknowledging?

[Kléber]

The dissolution of the Comintern in 1943 was definitely an enabling factor in the turn to Eurocommunism.

[bailey_187]

I dont get why most communist parties are social democratic? How do they recocile being Marxist and not challenging private ownership of the means of production? Do they just not see this main point as worth acknowledging?

They lost confidence after the end of the USSR. These parties are mostly old people who pretty much spent most of their political life defending a praising the USSR.

[RadioRaheem84]

They lost confidence after the end of the USSR. These parties are mostly old people who pretty much spent most of their political life defending a praising the USSR.

Well I think that this is the main problem affecting so called leftist parties everywhere. It's that they've come to accept the bourgeois concept of private property and also the idea that a capitalist has right to exploit his workers, (as long as he pays high taxes). It's as if there is some sort of compromise that we didn't accept; they pay high taxes and we use that money for social benefits. I don't mind this but how does this get us closer to the goal of owning the means of production?

Left parties these days challenge only the capitalists "greed" not the system, they've turned exploitation into a word that's only directed toward sweat shop labor, they almost admire some of the big businesses.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Either way, we should bring our support for them, for a step like this is a step further than we've seen been taken place in Japan for a long time.

[scarletghoul]

Yeah we should support them. Not only for their nominal communism but also for their anti-imperialism. A main policy is to get rid of the Amerikan troops which can only be a good thing

[Kaze no Kae]

They lost confidence after the end of the USSR. These parties are mostly old people who pretty much spent most of their political life defending a praising the USSR.
In practice, most of the traditional CPs were social democratic in the time of the USSR because they had to preserve the USSR's cordial relations with their host governments. The PCE refused to back (and eventually reversed through brutal counter-revolution - not very social or democratic) the collectivisation of the land & workplaces in 1936 and forced the revolutionary militias to assimilate into the bourgeois 'Popular Army' because the revolution was scaring Stalin's allies in the French government. The PCF consistently sabotaged revolutionary efforts in 1968 because they knew they wouldn't be able to control the direction of the revolution. The CPB adopted the minimalist social democratic Britain's Road to Socialism programme - barely more radical than the programme of the Labour Party at the time which had already been enacted over the previous 5 & a half years - in 1951 because Stalin was best buds with the British ruling class and didn't want to upset it.


Either way, we should bring our support for them, for a step like this is a step further than we've seen been taken place in Japan for a long time.
I agree, limited improvements are still improvements. In light of their international associations though I think we should be careful about how far we take that support.