Anti-G8/Railroad Workers Union Doro-Chiba Protesters Denounce Tokyo Police Ban Of 6/29 Demonstration

June 27 2008

On June 27 the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission decided to ban the demonstration in front of Shibuya station planned on June 29 as a part of Anti-G8 Summit Workers’ National Rally against war, poverty, unemployment and privatization. (The application of the demonstration with a course passing in front of Shibuya railway station (downtown Tokyo) had been filed by the Organizing Committee of the Anti-G8 Summit Rally to the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission.) This ban is an impermissible brutal crackdown by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on the movement to oppose the G8 Summit.

The Organizing Committee of the Anti-G8 Summit Rally denounce this outrageous measure and declare our firm determination to carry out the demonstration as was planned in front of Shibuya station in defiance of the police ban.

The streets running in front of Shibuya station are usually open for marches and demonstrations of every kind and are regarded as the most popular course. The only reason given by the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Committee to ban the demonstration is that it could provoke disturbance. We shall never admit the right of workers to demonstrate to be regulated and infringed in such way.