Proletarian Masses Party

The Proletarian Masses Party (無産大衆党, Musan Taishūtō) was a short-lived political party in Japan. It was founded on July 22, 1928 by the Rōnō faction (that had belonged to the Labour-Farmer Party, before that party was banned in April 1928). Suzuki Mosaburō became the general secretary of the party.[1] Yamakawa and Sakai Toshihiko functioned as 'elder' advisors in the party. Other prominent founders of the party were Kuroda, Inamura Junzo and Okada.[2][3]

The Proletarian Masses Party claimed to have around 2,500 members. At the time of its foundation, the party declared its intention to struggle against leftwing sectarianism and rightwing disruptionism.[1] The founders of the party were critical of the leadership of Oyama Ikuo in the remains of the Labour-Farmer Party, claiming that Oyama Ikuo was too hostile to a merger with the centrist Japan Labour-Farmer Party.[4] The party was in fierce competition with the Oyama Ikuo-led group over the loyalty of former Labour-Farmer Party activists and sympathizers.[2]

In October 1928 a women's organization linked to the Proletarian Masses Party, the Proletarian Women's Alliance, was founded.[5]

On December 20, 1928 the party merged with the Japan Labour-Farmer Party, the Japan Farmers Party and four regional political parties, to create the Japan Masses Party.[6][7][8] The women's wing merged with the centrist National Women's League in January 1929, founding the Proletarian Women's League.[9]

References

1. Scalapino, Robert A. The Japanese Communist Movement, 1920-1966. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. p. 35
2. Beckmann, George M., and Genji Okubo. The Japanese Communist Party 1922-1945. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1969. p. 159
3. Hunter, Janet. Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. pp. 186-187
4. Large, Stephen S. Organized Workers and Socialist Politics in Interwar Japan. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press, 1981. p. 142
5. Mackie, Vera C. Creating Socialist Women in Japan: Gender, Labour and Activism, 1900-1937. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 138
6. Scalapino, Robert A. The Japanese Communist Movement, 1920-1966. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. p. 36
7. Beckmann, George M., and Genji Okubo. The Japanese Communist Party 1922-1945. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1969. p. 173
8. International Labour Office. Industrial Labour in Japan. Japanese economic history, 1930-1960, v. 5. New York: Routledge, 2000. p. 114
9. Mackie, Vera C. Creating Socialist Women in Japan: Gender, Labour and Activism, 1900-1937. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 134