NUGW Tokyo Nambu, Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus, General Union, Fukuoka General Union, Zentoitsu General Union, Kanagawa City Union, Amnesty International (Japan) and many other human rights groups are planning a massive march and demonstration to demand job security for foreigners working in Japan on Sunday March 5, 2006 at 2pm. We will meet just before 2pm in the northern part of Miyashita Park, a few blocks north of Shibuya Station. (See map at: http://www.picasso347.com/access/ ) The festivities, including music, dancing and speeches will begin at 2pm sharp. We will begin the 2006 Second Annual March in March Job Security March at 3pm. We will march around Shibuya, including directly through the Scramble Intersection in front of Shibuya Station (near Hachiko), calling out "shprehicall" chants over loudspeakers and finish up around 4pm. We will have lots of placards, posters and leaflets but feel free to bring your own as long as they support job security and equality.
If you live in the Kyushu Region, contact Fukuoka General Union for the simultaneous march in Fukuoka: fukuoka-general-union@nifty.com . For those who live in Kansai or the Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya area, contact General Union for Osaka details: gu@generalunion.org .
Last year, we had massive media coverage for the March in March, including start-to-finish filming by a TBS TV crew and stories in the Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun and foreign media. This year we plan to make it much bigger to draw more attention to the job security problem faced by foreigners as well as Japanese workers. If we want job security for all, we are going to have to fight for it. There's no two ways about it.
So make sure you have the day off on March 5 (2pm-5pm) and bring at least two or three foreign or Japanese friends or family with you (all nationalities and ages are very welcome). Also, please take a moment to forward this email to at least five friends living in Japan. It will only take a moment, and by doing so, you can help get the word out far and wide that it's time to make our voices heard. It's time foreign workers are treated with dignity and respect, with the job security that all workers deserve.
There are nearly 200,000 foreign workers in Japan. Let's try and reach all of them. Join the Forward Five Friends campaign.
See you on March 5 at 2pm in Miyashita Park!!!
--- Building the labor movement one worker at a time, ---
"People live up to your expectations. They live down to them too."