がんばろう [Ganbarō]

[1960]
Lyrics / Testo / Paroles / Sanat: Yaeko Morita 森田八重子 1927-2004
Music / Musica / Musique / Sävel: Sakae Araki 荒木栄 1924-1962



The Miike struggle (1960)
Read complete article on en.wikipedia

The Miike Struggle (三池闘争 三池闘争, Miike tōsō) was a year-long struggle in Japan in 1960 between the organized labor movement, backed by a variety of left wing groups, and big business organizations, backed by the Japanese right, centering around a lengthy labor dispute at the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine on the west coast of Kyushu in southern Japan. Occurring at the climax of a long series of escalating strikes and other militant labor actions in 1950s Japan, the Miike Struggle was the largest labor-management dispute in Japanese history.[1] Ultimately, the labor movement in Japan was defeated at Miike, dealing a significant blow to its prospects going forward. […]

The Miike Coal Mine in northern Kyushu had long been one of Japan's largest and most productive coal mines, dating back to its earliest exploitation by the Tachibana samurai clan in the early 1700s during the Edo Period. The mine was nationalized by the Meiji government in 1873, and was privatized and sold to the Mitsui zaibatsu in 1889. Like all other industrialized nations, Japan and its wartime empire had been largely powered by coal. This made the Miike mine immensely profitable and one of the crown jewels of the Mitsui conglomerate's holdings. However, in the immediate postwar years, the discovery and exploitation of cheap and plentiful Middle Eastern oil led to an "energy revolution" as industries increasingly shifted to oil, reducing demand for coal. At the same time, the 1950s in Japan saw a great wave of mechanization and "workplace rationalization" that saw a reduction in demand for large numbers of manual laborers, including coal miners. In addition, the Income Doubling Plan, first formulated in 1959 and formally introduced in 1960, explicitly called for shifting government support away from "sunset" industries like coal mining in favor of "growth" industries such as oil refining and petrochemical manufacturing. […]



Noticing these shifts and anticipating future threats to the profitability of its coal mines, the Mitsui Corporation in 1959 announced that it would be laying off thousands of workers at its mines, including 1,462 layoffs at the Miike mine. With mechanization of mine functions proceeding at a rapid pace, this was seen to be the first in what might be many future rounds of layoffs. The Miike miners union was incredibly strong, and responded with massive protests and work stoppages by more than 30,000 miners and their families. […]

Mitsui decided to take the opportunity to break the powerful and militant Miike union once and for all. The Union was associated with the powerful, left-leaning Sōhyō labor federation, and had long been a thorn in Miike's side, launching several workplace actions including undertaking a major strike in 1953. On January 25, 1960, Mitsui locked the miners out of the mine, and immediately launched a concerted effort to split off some of the miners to form a more pliable "second union" and resume production at the mine. [...]

The Miike Struggle is widely regarded as the high point of postwar labor militancy in Japan, when the Japanese labor movement was at the height of its power. After the labor movement was defeated at Miike, it gradually retreated from militancy, leading to a more cooperative culture with more open lines of communication between management and labor in Japan.[8] Sōhyō in particular was weakened by the Miike Struggle, and thereafter increasingly lost ground to more moderate labor federations such as Zenrō
.
Mitsui's near-total victory in the Miike Struggle allowed the company to replace the militant first union with the much more cooperative second union. This in turn allowed Mitsui to lay off more miners and significantly relax safety standards in the mine. By 1963, the number of miners working at Miike had fallen by one third, from around 15,000 in 1960 to just 10,000, yet in the same period, coal production was accelerated from 8,000 tons to 15,000 tons per day. On November 9, 1963, the worst mining disaster in Japan's postwar era occurred at Miike when coal dust ignited and exploded 500 feet below the surface, collapsing tunnels and spreading deadly carbon monoxide throughout the mine. As a result, 458 miners were killed and 555 were injured.

[1] Versione in kana / Kana version:

がんばろう、つきあげる そら に
くろがね の おとこ の こぶし が ある
もえ あがる おんな の こぶし が ある
たたかい は ここ から、たたかい は いま から

がんばろう、つきあげる そら に
わ を つなぐ なかま の こぶし が ある
おしよせる なかま の こぶし が ある
たたかい は ここ から、たたかい は いま から

がんばろう、つきあげる そら に
くに の うちそ と の こぶし が ある
かちどき を よぶ こぶし は ひとつ
たたかい は ここ から、たたかい は いま から

[2] Trascrizione Rōmaji / Rōmaji transcription:

Ganbarō, tsuki ageru sora ni
Kurogane no otoko no kobushi ga aru
Moe agaru onna no kobushi ga aru
Tatakai wa koko kara, tatakai wa ima kara

Ganbarō, tsuki ageru sora ni
Wa o tsunagu nakama no kobushi ga aru
Oshiyoseru nakama no kobushi ga aru
Tatakai wa koko kara, tatakai wa ima kara

Ganbarō, tsuki ageru sora ni
Kuni no uchiso to no kobushi ga aru
Kachidoki o yobu kobushi wa hitotsu
Tatakai wa koko kara, tatakai wa ima kara