I apologise for not having this article in Japanese, but I don’t speak a word. If anyone from this sub could translate I would be quite grateful.

Seven years ago, many people that supported the centre-left party in this country voted for a more catch-all centre party in order to stop the Conservative party from getting in government. Then the betrayal happened. The centrists did a deal with the Conservatives and voted with them, and our country has never been so polarised.

It’s funny how history repeats itself.

In my country, a man named Keir Hardie in 1906 made a new grassroots party, that the trade unions would vote in and give power to normal working class people. It was called the Labour Party. Before his actions, working people were abused and had nothing, many died of sickness caused by disease-ridden hosuing as that’s all they can afford. We fought our way to the top making the Liberal Democrats, once the biggest party in Britain, now less than a speck on the landscape (12 of 650 seats). But in 2017 hope seemed lost. The party was split into two factions, ‘Momentum’, backing the leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and ‘Progress’ who was doubtful due to poor results in smaller elections. We were 26% behind in the polls.

However, by the actions of grassroots members knocking on doors, giving out leaflets and voting, we managed to cut that gap to 2%. This stopped her from getting an overall majority, and for now scuppered plans to rewrite the constitution* to rewrite the Human Rights Act 1998, a disaster for the country.

The corpse of the Democratic Party has deserted values for power like the centrists did in my country, and a new grassroots movement is surging, just like in my country.

While such a dramatic change as my countrycan not be replicated in two days, what I urge you is this.

Keep working. Keep speaking, keep knocking, keep donating, keep fighting. With hard work you can stop the revisionists getting two-thirds, and stop the constitution being meddled with. The goal is to get a clear gap ahead of Kibō no Tō and be established as the clear opposition, so next time it is seen as LDP vs CDP as the viable candidates for government, rather than it being a foregone conclusion. Although government is not yet a possibility, there is much you can do to make it so you can apply the values of the grassroots to government, and give ordinary people a say.

Phrases like “We want our country back” have always led to danger: In the UK these statements inspired the murder of one of our MPs as a man shouted “Britain First”, a racist group that wants Muslims to be repatriated and people that don’t support the monarchy to be hanged publicly.

We fought against these sentiments and we are winning. I am writing this because I believe that you can change Japan, just like Keir Hardie changed my country one hundred years ago.

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Patrick Green, Labour and Co-operative Party, UK

Join us on r/LabourUK and r/CoOpUK

*Britain has an unwritten constitution but the principle is the same

If someone could translate I would be very grateful

誰かがこの記事を翻訳できたら、私は感謝しています。