Weekly MDS (Movement for Democratic Socialism) Editorial No. 1902
【2026: Stop the Wars, Bring Down the Takaichi Government ?】
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War and the Rise of the Far Right
The year 2025 was marked by citizens pushing back and struggling against the continuation of wars and the rise of the far right and xenophobia.
In Gaza, Palestine, popular resistance and the strength of the global antiwar movement made a ceasefire agreement possible. However, Israel continues to violate the ceasefire through ongoing attacks, and the death toll has now exceeded 70,000. To protect people’s lives, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement must be strengthened so that governments and corporations are not allowed to be complicit in massacres, and so that the ceasefire agreement is enforced. An immediate ceasefire must also be realized in Ukraine.
Across the world, right-wing, far-right, and xenophobic forces are on the rise?led by the Trump administration in the United States, the AfD (Alternative for Germany), France’s National Rally, and in Japan the Takaichi government and the Sanseito party?while a global arms race accelerates. Prime Minister Takaichi is stoking confrontation with China through rhetoric about a “Taiwan contingency,” aiming to go beyond the target of military spending equal to 2% of GDP and push further military expansion. NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has also agreed to raise military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. An unchecked arms race leads inevitably to war. Dialogue and negotiations among states, and trust-building led by citizens, are the true path to peace.
Hope lies in persistent civic struggle and international solidarity.
Citizens’ Resistance Spreading Worldwide
In Palestine, organizations such as the PPSF (Palestinian People’s Struggle Front) continue nonviolent resistance and grassroots struggle.
Recognition of the State of Palestine has expanded to 160 countries, and the BNC (Palestinian BDS National Committee) has launched a global call for the “STOP FANUC Campaign.” Let us realize Palestinian statehood and bring the occupation to an end.
In New York, Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on socialist policies, won the mayoral election and will take office next January.
In Japan as well, resistance is spreading nationwide against accelerating militarization. On Yonaguni Island, a new mayor was elected on the message that no further military expansion is needed. In H?sono, Kyoto, a national rally was held under the demand “No missiles,” and in Kumamoto, residents have risen up against the advance deployment of long-range missiles.
Transformation to Protect Lives and Livelihoods
The year 2026 will be a year of confrontation with the Takaichi government’s war policies, military expansion, and xenophobia. In the ordinary session of the Diet, a so-called “anti-spy bill” for wartime purposes is set to be introduced. The government is seeking to fully promote the construction of a “war-capable nation,” including abolishing restrictions on the five categories of weapons exports, denying the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, and advancing nuclear power plant restarts. It also aims to dismantle labor protections through deregulation of working-hour limits and monetized dismissals, while its measures against rising prices are merely cosmetic.
The Takaichi government offers no policies whatsoever to protect the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people. It inflames xenophobia and, with the backing of the internet and mass media, pushes its path toward war. There is no alternative but to expose these dangers widely and bring the government down through the power of collective struggle.
Now is the time to cut military spending, abolish the consumption tax, expand social security through taxation of large corporations and the wealthy, and shift toward a politics that protects life and living standards. Together with MDS, let us open the path to democratic socialism.
(December 21) |
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