Militarism, Neo-liberalism and Lives of women

2010/11/10

by Fumi Suzuki, allies@crux.ocn.ne.jp    

1) History related Japanese militarism

      Just 100 years before, in 1910, the Japanese government did the annexation of Korea, then forced women in Korean and other invaded countries to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, so–called “Comfort Women”, and polarized the Korean people, triggering Korean War in 1951. These Japanese invasions before WW II aimed to expand its territory and to gain compensation and resources from foreign countries.

      Japan formulated war-renouncing Constitution, including “Article 9” in 1946, signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, and regained its independence in 1952. Japan set up “Japan Self-Defense Forces” and has developed economic aggression under the shelter of U.S. military's influence since then.

      On the other hand, following the Battle of Okinawa and the end of World War II in 1945, Okinawa was under United States administration for 27 years in exchange for the independence and prosperity of Japan. During the trusteeship rule, the United States Air Force established numerous military bases on the Ryukyu Islands. The lands for bases is where Okinawa citizen had lived until the Battle of Okinawa and US military forcibly expropriate their lands from them and then established bases and related facilities without permission of land owners. During the Korean War, B-29 Superfortresses flew bombing missions from Kadena Air Force Base over Korea and China. In the Vietnam War, the United States Forces Japan, USFJ military bases in Japan, especially those in Okinawa, were used as important strategic and logistic bases. The USAF strategic bombers were deployed in the bases in Okinawa.

      In 1972, the U.S. government returned the islands to Japanese administration but has not returned the land for bases and related facilities. Under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, the USFJ has maintained a large military presence in Okinawa. 18% of the main island was occupied by U.S. military bases and 75% of all USFJ bases are located in Okinawa prefecture because of discrimination against Okinawa people.

      The rape of a 12-year-old girl by U.S. soldier in 1995 triggered large protests in Okinawa. Partially as a result but also to deploy USFJ more efficiently, the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed in 2006 to the relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and other minor bases. A new Japanese government that came to power in 2009 froze the relocation plan, but in April 2010 indicated their interest in resolving the issue by proposing a modified plan. U.S. military bases in Okinawa have yet to be abolished, although Okinawa people has expected that bases and military would move to Guam, in which during the occupation by Japan, the people underwent acts including torture, beheadings, and rape, and were forced to adopt the Japanese culture and, unincorporated territory of the United States now. Thus, under the U.S. military transformation, economically and politically marginalized inhabitants have been bombarded with the policy of U.S.

      A lot of plunders and rapes have been committed by U.S. military personnel. Noise and vibration which anyone cannot endure has been caused by U.S. military. For Okinawa people, bases is not a deterrent power but a dangerous substance. U.S. military bases have caused distortion of economy, dependent economy and prostitution due to poverty and will cause soil pollution. Development Aid for Okinawa is used not for the Okinawa people, but for big construction and tourism companies and investors outside Okinawa. Most of Okinawa people have sought abolition of military bases, and which is the contested ground of the next Okinawa Prefecture's gubernatorial election in this November.

2) Women’s burden and sacrifice under the Neo-liberalism and Militarism  

      Militarism has closely to do with Neo-liberalism. In fact, the World Ecomonic Forum has strongly supported war on terrorism. For example, U.S. multinational corporations, MNC have set up a lot of factories in the countries of military allies of U.S. and promoted the integration of markets of them under the new international division structure of labor, NIDL. U.S. military has stayed there for ensuring transportation pathway of resources and for pursuit of more free trade. We have to see how they have deployed and labeled women for the purpose of militarism and Neo-liberalism.

      Neo-liberal politics and economics and globalization has become unfettered as follow. Neoliberal started to come up as an opponent to liberalism in the 60s and was triggered by the oil and dollar shock, bog of the Vietnam War and establishment of the Pinochet military junta, another 9.11 in the 70s. In the 80s, Reagan, Thatcher and Nakasone administration were elected. Reagan administration promoted a large scale of militarization of politics and society. Thatcher administration initiated Falkland Islands War. These Neo-liberal administrations cut the budget for public service, with the exception of military spending. As its compensation, the burden of women has increased in the field of both paid and unpaid work. In the course of introducing women into waltzing-mice-world, many governments, including Japan, took advantage of the values of family and stereotype of women, despite of CEDAW, adopted in 1979. Euphuism “devoted daughter” and supplementary role for household economy, a kind of gender role, were taken advantage of by the neo-liberalism and promoted feminization of migration and poverty in the 90s. At the same time, deregulation and globalization, or Americanization, of finance and military have lost control. In the post-Soviet era, the United States developed the globalization of militarism for globalization of profit activities of MNC, to secure stable oil supplies, to defend sea lanes, to protect the profit of investor and to contribute the profit of military industries. We can see a symptom of globalization of military in the QDR 97, Quadrennial Defense Review.

      In the 2000s, under the Bush administration announced the QDR 01 and the U.S. military transformation on the pretext of anti-terrorism, saying, “from a Cold War structured organization into one best prepared to operate across the full spectrum of conflict”. Thus, US military and its allies can move freely and globally, which is called “Lily Pad Strategy”, spending huge money and strewing a lot of harms.

      The demands of MNCs for expanding their profit activities to the governments of both developed and developing countries have been increasing. Most governments have been forced to say “economic growth through free trade is needed”. However, the economic growth through free trade and export-oriented economy can deprive both developing and developed countries of the government's capacities to protect human rights and to provide social security redistribute income, as governments have to prioritize profit of MNCs over human rights. Like water flow, Capital finds its own level of human rights. As a result, for example, women workers are forced to accept wage cuts, informalized works, loss of trade union rights and degraded conditions of work, and most female farmer has not been able to compete in the global economy and has been deprived her lands. Privatization of public services has multiplied the burden of women.

      Many women in developing countries have been polarlized and been deployed to factories in Free trade zone (FTZ), Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and export processing zone (EPZ), where destruction of labor unions and incorporation of unorganized women, who are obedient and rarely demand their right, are under way, sometimes using army and police. Other women have been forced to work in informalized sectors, have born more burden of unpaid work, and have been victims of trafficking and prostitution under this militarism and neo-liberalism regime.

      Majority of women in developed countries have been chased into gig economy, in which laborer has to work at low wage and for a long hours, with little rights of workers and the labor is far from decent work and what is worse, their burden of care work is increasing. Additionally, disparity between women and men, and among women have not been narrowed, on the contrary, they have been widen.

      Although military spending has been increasing, slashing in the budget of public services, such as water, health, education, social security and welfare and so on, as well as protection of women from violence against women, which confound the situation of women. In the Japanese context, going de-centralization under the small government policy can cause deduction of the budget for gender equality and the prevention of VAW and protection of women. In the patriarchy hetero “homo-social” world, married women suffer from a lot of domestic violence and a lot of unmarried women and elder women have suffered from poverty, although majority of unmarried women have a job.

3) Trafficking as an intersection of militarism, neo-liberalism, and women’s lives

      Although crackdown against trafficking has strengthen since anti-terrorism policy was formulated, it has not promoted the security of the victims, and what is worse, trafficking became more underground. Military bases and the economic gap between developing countries and develop countries and entry restriction of developed countries for the people from developing countries under the anti-terrorism policy lead to more trafficking, while most developed countries don’t want to restrain customers’ demands for prostitution. For example, in Mindanao Island in Philippines, Moro people were labeled as terrorists by U.S. military, so Moro women believed that if they came to Japan, they could live a safe and rich life and were deceived to come to Japan as a victim of trafficking.

4) Ban on abortion as an intersection of militarism, neo-liberalism, and women’s lives

      Not to mention the fact ban on abortion itself is war on women, ban on abortion is linked with militarism closely. Ban on abortion expanded under policy of increasing wealth and military power before World War II among great-powers and their colonies. Many countries, including Japan, still suffer from the residuum from those days, and nowadays, the ban is strengthened by gender roles which deny women’s right to make a decision and don’t trust women’s ability to make an ethical decision, which is convenient to the Neo-liberalism.

5) Action against APEC 2010 in Japan

      On this weekend, APEC meetings will be held in Yokohama, aiming to economic integration to suit the U.S.. Japan, under the thumb of the United States, and having delusive conviction in economic growth through free trade has deregulated public service and business activity, resulting in a lot of poverty and disparity and continue to offer a lot of money and land of Okinawa to the U.S. military, instead of protecting women and small-scale farmers living in Japan. Japan has also forced other developing countries to open their market, causing more exploitation, sometimes using ODA as a tool of aggression overseas. The Japanese ODA has been used for the purpose of maintenance of military dictatorship which have forced women into low-wage labor. In this century, APEC has discussed anti-terror issue as a human security issue, in spite of its character of economic cooperation conference.

      Militarism and Neo-liberalism segmentalize, maneuver and marginalize women, against the purpose of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. We, therefore, have to act against militarism and neo-liberalism, patriarchy, misogyny, fundamentalism, nationalism, at the same time, in solidarity with women all over the world.

In solidarity,