ISTANBUL: Workers, activists and others across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over the global pressure of rising prices and calls for greater labor rights. Pro- Palestinian sentiments were also on display.
Police in Istanbul used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to disperse thousands of people who tried to break through a barricade and reach the main Taksim square in defiance of a government ban on celebrating Labor Day there. At least 30 people, mostly members of a left-wing party, were earlier detained for trying to break through another blockade.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has long declared Taksim off-limits for rallies and demonstrations on security grounds, but the square holds symbolic value for labor unions. In 1977, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a May Day celebration at Taksim, causing a stampede and killing 34 people.
On Wednesday, a small group of trade union representatives was permitted to enter the square to lay a wreath at a monument to the victims.
May Day, which falls on May 1, is observed in many countries to celebrate workers’ rights. It's also an opportunity to air economic grievances or political demands. “Tax the rich,” one banner in Germany read.
In Athens, several thousand protesters joined May Day marches as related labor strikes disrupted public transport and national rail services across Greece. The country’s largest union demands a return to collective bargaining after labor rights were scrapped during Greece’s 2010-18 financial crisis.
Pro-Palestinian protesters joined the rallies, waving a giant Palestinian flag as they marched past the Greek parliament. Others displayed banners in support of pro-Palestinian protesting students in the United States.
“We want to express our solidarity with students in the United States, who are facing great repression of their rights and their just demands,” said Nikos Mavrokefalos at the march. “We want to send a message that workers say no to exploitation, no to poverty, no to high prices,” he added.
In Paris, protesters gathered at the Place de la Republique for a march led by France's main unions, seeking better pay and working conditions. Pro-Palestinian groups and anti-Olympics activists are expected to join the march through the French capital, which will host the Summer Games in less than three months.
Unions have filed an open-ended strike notice, saying all sectors, including hospitals, will go on strike during the Games if the French government does not adequately compensate people who are forced to work during the summer holidays.
In Cape Town, South Africa, pro-Palestinian demonstrators joined May Day events. In Kenya's capital, President William Ruto called for an increase in the country's minimum wage. In Iraq, protesters demanded better wages, the reopening of closed factories and the end to privatization of certain businesses.
In Lebanon, pro-Palestinian marchers mingled with workers demanding an end to a miserable economic crisis. “Politicians do not feel the pain of the worker or the economic conditions,” said one demonstrator, Abed Tabbaa.
In Indonesia, workers demanded protections for migrant workers abroad and a minimum wage raise. They gathered amid a tight police presence, chanting slogans against the new Job Creation Law and loosened outsourcing rules during a march to Jakarta’s main sports stadium.
In South Korea's capital, thousands of protesters shouted pro-labor slogans at a rally that organizers said was meant to step up criticism of what they call anti-labor policies pursued by President Yoon Suk Yeol's conservative government.
“In the past two years under the Yoon Suk Yeol government, the lives of our laborers have plunged into despair,” Yang Kyung-soo, leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said in a speech, adding: "We'll bring them down from power for ourselves.”
Union members criticized Yoon’s December veto of a bill aimed at limiting companies’ rights to seek compensation for damages caused by labor union strikes. The government has vowed to sternly deal with illegal strikes and demand more transparent accounting records from labor unions.
In Japan, more than 10,000 people gathered in downtown Tokyo, demanding salary increases they said could sufficiently set off price increases. Masako Obata, the leader of the left-leaning National Confederation of Trade Unions, said dwindling wages have widened income disparities.
In the Philippine capital, hundreds of workers and left-wing activists marched to demand wage increases and job security amid soaring food and oil prices. Riot police stopped them from getting close to the presidential palace.
Drivers joined the protest and called on the government to end a modernization program they fear would lead to the removal of their dilapidated jeepneys, a main mode of public transport, from Manila’s streets.