was a
trade union centre in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
which operated from 1920.
''Hyōgikai'' was founded at a conference in
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
on May 24–27, 1925.
[Beckmann and Okubo, pp. 87, 90.] As of late 1925, ''Hyōgikai'' had 59 affiliated trade unions and around 35,000 members. The organization was affiliated with the
Pan Pacific Trade Union Secretariat.
[Beckmann and Okubo, p. 91.] When the organization was crushed in a government crackdown in the spring of 1928, it had 11 regional councils, 82 affiliated unions and around 23,000 members.
[Beckmann and Okubo, p. 159.]
Background
''Hyōgikai'' was founded as a continuation of the Reform Alliance, a group of 25 trade unions which merged out of the Eastern Local Council (a body that had separated itself from the Eastern Federation of the ''
Sodomei'' trade union centre, but retained a direct affiliation to ''Sodomei''. The Eastern Local Council had been dissolved by ''Sodomei'', accused of being a communist plot), and on May 16, 1925 the Reform Alliance unions were expelled from ''Sodomei''. The expelled Reform Alliance unions were joined by seven other unions in forming ''Hyōgikai''. At the time of its foundation ''Hyōgikai'' counted with 32 trade unions and 10,778 members.
Ritsuta Noda
was a Japanese people, Japanese trade unionist and politician. Noda served as the chairman of the pro-communist national trade union centre ''Hyōgikai''.
Early life
Noda was born in a small village in Okayama Prefecture in 1891. He completed hi ...
was elected ''Hyōgikai'' chairman at the Kobe meeting. A 17-member
Central Committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
was formed. Noda was not a communist, but communists played a dominant role in the Central Committee. Prominent communist Central Committee members were Nabeyama, Yamamoto, Taniguchi and Mitamuro Shiro.
''Hyōgikai'' appealed to ''Sodomei'' to unite all trade unions in a single national federation, a proposal which ''Sodomei'' rejected. In response, ''Hyōgikai'' denounced the ''Sodomei'' leadership as 'bureaucratic' and 'right wing'.
Both ''Hyōgikai'' and ''Sodomei'' took part in the discussions on the formation of a joint legal
proletarian party. The two sides submitted their own drafts for a party platform. On November 29, 1925, ''Sodomei'' withdrew from the party-building process, stating that it would not be part of any party which included ''Hyōgikai''. In response ''Hyōgikai'' also pulled out of the party-building process the following day, in order not to obstruct the creation of a broad-based proletarian party. In the end, the short-lived Farmer-Labour Party was founded in December 1925.
When the
Labour-Farmer Party
The was a political party in the Empire of Japan. It represented the left-wing sector of the legal proletarian movement at the time.Mackie, Vera C. Creating Socialist Women in Japan: Gender, Labour and Activism, 1900–1937'. Cambridge: Cambr ...
was founded in March 1926 (by ''Sodomei'' and others), ''Hyōgikai'' members were barred from becoming members of the party. However, this policy was relaxed after internal disagreements in the party, resulting in the withdrawal of ''Sodomei'' from the party and the establishment of a close relation between ''Hyōgikai'' and the party.
[Beckmann and Okubo, p. 101.]
Strike actions
''Hyōgikai'' launched a number of lengthy
strikes
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
in 1926.
In that year, around 5,000 ''Hyōgikai'' activists were detained by police and 196 were imprisoned for having organized strikes.
The third convention of ''Hyōgikai'', held in May 1927, adopted a new platform. Focus was shifted to economic issues, on 'concrete immediate demands of the workers'. Demands raised included the struggle for
8-hour working day
The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses.
An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...
. Around the country, which suffered from economic crisis at the time, ''Hyōgikai'' was busy forming labour councils together with other trade unions at major factories.
The organizational structure of ''Hyōgikai'' was severely weakened by the
mass arrests of March 15, 1928. An effort to rebuild the organization was initiated, but ''Hyōgikai'' and the Labour-Farmer Party were banned by the Home Ministry on April 11, 1928, accused of being linked to the communists.
[Tsuzuki, Chushichi]
''The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan 1825–1995''
Oxford .a. Oxford Univ. Press, 2000. pp. 258-259 The Kantō Metal Workers Union made an attempt to hold a refoundation meeting of ''Hyōgikai'' on April 22, 1928, but its leaders were arrested and the meeting was never held. Communist trade unionists then changed tactics, concentrating on building local union federations.
In May 1928, the
Communist International did instruct the Japanese communists to focus their work on rebuilding ''Hyōgikai''.
[Beckmann and Okubo, p. 161.]
References
Sources
* Beckmann, George M., and Genji Okubo
''The Japanese Communist Party 1922–1945'' Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1969.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyogikai
National trade union centers of Japan
1925 establishments in Japan
Profintern
Trade unions established in 1925