Theory


Letters from Osaka

about screenings in parks, reactions and evictions

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On May 23rd we had a showing at Ryuukoku University in Kyoto. It was well attended by about 20 academics, some of whom are apparently somewhat widely read. We preceded the talk with a discussion of our own involvement in the movements around squatting.

When the film concluded we took a break, then Morishi san and I gave a thirty minute presentation that serves as not only an update to the events of the movie but also a theoretic framework for the birth and circumstances of park occupation. We brought up comparisons to squats in Europe which people seemed very excited about.

This was followed with a quite lively question session which turned into a heavy debate at one point when one woman expressed skepticism regarding why people should be allowed to live in public spaces. One of the elderly senseis (professors) brought up the fact that for instance after the war, there were people living all along the rivers of Kyoto in little shacks they'd built for themselves. And that no one had cared. So why now? He went on to make some very interesting statements later about the 1960s and 70s in Kamagasaki (where day laborers and revolutionaries were systematically 'dissapeared'). He stated that he had survived WWII, in a small village in the countryside where few bombs fell and there were little problems. It was only after the war he said that he felt like he was living in a warzone. "Kamagasaki was war, is war. It's a war." he said.

We were able to make some good connections at this screening and it was a very engaging event. We think we are more successful in explaining the connections of the public to the struggle of day laborers now.

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On April 29th, 2007 we staged a public showing of Kansai Kouen/Public Blue with a coordination of nearly 20 people including squatters who came to help. We were honored with the presence of I- san, who was recently released from jail after being held 7 months without seeing trial. Our ambition was to test the limits of freedom of speech in Osaka's Umeda district, a cosmopolitan shopping city which is also home to its share of squatters.

We brought all the materials to the site and were prepared to project directly under the nameface of the Hankyuu department store, one of Osaka's biggest department stores, directly outside of Osaka station, the largest station in the city. Unfortunately we encountered technical difficulties as soon as we were up on the bridge from which we would project. Our brand new generator refused to start.

At the same time we had also noticed that members of the Japanese secret police, the 'Kouan' were in attendance, probably 5 men all dress 'inconspicuously' in plaid shirts and baseball caps with wires hanging out of their ears. Plainly the expression of a viewpoint that opposes the transformation of public sectors of the city into people-less zones of commerce frightens the state enough to send undercover police. Despite this obvious presence, there were no actual police in the area yet.

That changed as soon as we had found a replacement generator, which took over an hour. As soon as we had the movie projecting against the department store, we began to circulate fliers not only about the film but also about the most recent wave of evictions and repression against day laborer movements in South Osaka. In particular, the scattered tent community of Nakanoshima near city hall is now facing full-scale eviction with the excuse of 'beautifying' the riverfront. It was at this point that two uniformed police officers arrived and immediately ordered us to shut down the equipment. Although they had never seen anything like what we were doing, they claimed that we simply couldn't do it without a permit. We asked how we could obtain such a permit and were told frankly that a film like ours probably would not be able to receive a permit.

When asked who the 'representative' for our group was, we insisted that we are all representatives, and when asked who had the technical expertise to shut the equipment to shut the equipment down, we furrowed our brows and confessed ignorance. After 5 minutes or so of being harassed, the two officers called for backup and 6 or so other officers arrived including the police chief for the region. Over the next twenty minutes we were issued two 'warnings' and on the second 'warning' we decided that our options were spent and that we had better play it safe and go home.

From our vantage point, the screening was more or less a success. We were able to inform hundreds of passersby on one of the most busy shopping days of the year of the class war against squatters across the city, and the Osakan city government proved its repressive credentials by attacking our theoretic expression of public space. Passersby were generally wowed by the audacity with which we were showing the movie, and nothing like that had ever been attempted in Umeda before. We hope that others will further the struggle for public expression and resist the constant intimidation of the Japanese authorities, whose blind attacks on free thought testify to the bankruptcy of the law and order they defend.

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April 4th These are bad times in Kamagasaki, and most everywhere else in Osaka. Yesterday, despite a determined struggle by some of the most frustrated and active members of the nojukusha/day laborer community, the city hall managed to erase the ability of people to register their addresses at the Kamagasaki liberation hall and Furusato no ie, which is a lodging house next to triangle park. In so doing, anywhere from 2000 to 3000 day-laborers, squatters and homeless have lost their rights to welfare, to work AND to vote.

Oh no! Says the city, they haven't. All they have to do is register at a doya (worker hotel) and stay in it for half the year and they can have register their addresses. But of course the attack by the city has the plain intention of attacking the ability of squatters to live a decent life outside of the insufferable Kamagasaki ghetto, in fact the city's moves can be seen as a re-imposition of rent on a population that had refused it.

This action also comes when regional elections for city council members are coming soon, i.e. about 2000 people were suddenly disenfranchised of their right to vote (for politicians who despise them). And this is yet to be a controversy in the Japanese news except for the left-leaning Mainichi newspaper.

Now we see clearly what the city's intentions were in arresting Mr. Inagaki, the head of the day-laborer's union in Kamagasaki and also the chief organizer and in-title owner of the Kamagasaki Liberation hall. With him arrested, a critical crackdown on the ability of day-laborers to live decently has been perpetrated.

The left seems pretty beaten here, they waged a good struggle outside of the city hall, but ultimately have too many illusions about petitioning the city. These are people who do not want to talk, they want to destroy every institution of semi-autonomy available in the city. They are enemies and there is no reason to further expound the illusion that we could get a 'fair shake' by sitting down and talking with them.

I don't want to make any predictions, but I imagine that once word of the depth of this incident reaches people in Kamagasaki, we could see protests or riots even. I have no idea. Or we could see massive dissilusionment and passivity. Most likely it will be the latter.

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Feb. 19th We had a very emotional viewing of the movie this sunday in Ogimachi park.
Three days ago, one of the people evicted from Utsubo park, who had then moved to Ogimachi, died of alcoholism in his tent. Due to the suddeness of his death, we were unaware of it and it turned out that a mourning gathering for him was planned for the same time we were to show Kansai Kouen: Public Blue. He was a good person, and I don't think it's unreasonable to say that if he hadn't lost his home at Utsubo that he might have had a few years in him.
But the convergence of his mourning gathering and the movie was actually incredible since it offered an important point of reflection on the past struggle and where things are at right now. Many people were crying around the fire especially towards the end. That we had just witnessed the same thing at Nagai made things that much worse.
There were about 20-30 people gathered around watching and occasionally passersby would stop and watch. We had a great discussion afterwards.

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Feb. 2nd || Nagai || The day of the eviction came and the resisters (approx. 150) had gathered around the main tent/stage and were surrounded by security guards, police and city hall officials, although there was an ongoing rush of these employees from one side to the other as people tried to storm in to join the defenders. Those trying to rush in were kicking barricades down, smashing them etc. This peripheral action kept a good amount of the security forces distracted from their main task (even though they apparently numbered around 500). People were periodically carried out from the sit-in who had become 'unruly' within the enclosure.

As the security forces got closer, the Nagai nojukusha launched into their 'oshibai' a hilarious play whose plot is um...hard to describe but basically is about a bunch of adventurers. At one point the main female lead threw a bunch of rubber balls and paper clips at all the guards, which bounced off their helmets. Amidst all the conflict and chaos, watching the play was truly surreal. It was like some mad sanity in a situation where people were eating each other.

At precisely 11:40 the guardsmen rushed the sit-in and began pulling everyone up at once. The scene was very chaotic and I was unable to see everything that was happening, but according to a comrade of mine afterward, many of the people performing the sit-in then got up on their own and began exiting the zone with locked arms, in other words abandoning the defense of the site. This couldn't have been everyone because many people were putting up a real fight against removal, but it shocked me to hear how much the commitment to intransigience was really just a commitment to spectacle. Just as problematic, as people began to be ejected from the eviction area many of us tried to fight back against the displacement and being pushed out, only to be basically ordered by the self-appointed leaders to 'fall back fall back'. Later we understood that their reasoning was that if people continued to fight, the police would not allow us to get home. A few people were not satisfied with this and kept fighting only to be corralled into an absurd 'scrum' in which everyone started dancing around real 'militant' and then doing the typical raised fist, denunciation thing. Wow, what a disappointing end.

What is significant is that the entire strategy behind resisting the eviction was media-oriented and that, after viewing much of the media afterward although the coverage is not BAD per se, the shibai (play) is not mentioned anywhere and neither is the resistance put up portrayed in the least.
What are the lessons? That 'using the media' is almost always futile. That no matter how beautiful and important the festival-esque resistance at Nagai park, that creating a false impression of resistance for the wider population (and the wider class), and indeed producing a spectacle in which some people are stage managers retards resistance because it channels it into soundbytes, gives it a representative and manages to encapsulate what is a multi-faceted, widespread non-specific struggle into a 'social problem'. In this sense, the defeat at Nagai could have been worse but definitely demands a re-assessment of the isolation of the nojukusha and the tendencies which demand attention by the media and the state.

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Jan. 22nd || So the Kobe showing went off without a hitch. Not too many people came out (only about 10), but it's a tiny community center and anyways he put out the call in a matter of five days in order to get the word out about the Nagai eviction (which could be as early as the 23rd). Watching the film, I was definitely glad that certain changes were made. I sensed a certain amount of weariness from the crowd towards the theory section.
The crowd was mostly old people whose reaction to the film was good. A very lively discussion was developed afterwards which I shifted a bit towards the theme of public space and the upcoming loss of Nagai park. One woman commented that Japanese people generally have to gain an appreciation for the old men of the parks and learn to let their children play around them without worrying, and in fact appreciating that someone is there to watch after their kids. I thought that was a pretty powerful statement.
Last night there was a big matsuri at Nagai Park to (ironically) celebrate the upcoming eviction. Amazing festival. Went on for 10 hours, with great art, music and even a play at the end! There must have been at least 400 to 500 people that showed up over the whole day. And all kinds of passer-bys stopped in and played around. Truly a fun day! And a good way to go out for Nagai park.

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Dez. 25th || Kansou || first comments In Japan, before a modern law system was imported from the west, 'kyouyuuchi' i.e. commons of course existed in the farmlands and country, but also in the cities. In the cities, the temple usually fulfilled this role. The lands of temples was used as today's public space is used today. As a modern law system was adopted in the Meiji period, all land was divided into either publicly owned land and privately owned land after the concept of property ownership was introduced. Thus the "common space" was lost. These were my thoughts on the movie.

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Dez. 25th || Kansou || first comments We could discuss more like what was illegal, occupation and reason of eviction. What point was most important like compare with park law and constitution.

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Dez. 25th || Kansou || first comments I thought it was great that the movie brought out the distortions of the Japanese economy, while heading inward, and examining what you might call topography, convention and oppression.
What struck me about the interviews: The woman at Utsubo park, who had planted all these flowers, pulled them up and apologized was laid in contrast to the world rose convention and the threat of her eviction, this nearly made me cry.
I liked when she talked about her mannerisms when she goes to collect water, and how she tries to get along with the people living around the park.
People who have dropped out of school, the unemployed, freeters, i.e. people who have no interest in the oppressive false society of 'family', 'corporation', 'school' in Japan tend to be cut off from not only social services but society itself.
What I'm trying to say is not that I necessarily want to involve myself in the nojukusha movement, but that I want to connect self and society (others), and if there is an inside and outside in activism (and I think there is), but that I think the nojukusha and society are on a direct line from my own daily life, resting on the border of inside and outside.
Anyways, this is not at all wrapped together well, but anyways, that's basically what I thought.