- Turkish police fire water cannon and tear gas at protesters
- 100,000 march in Red Square, Moscow in support of Putin
- Rallies in Kuala Lumpur and Phnom Penh
For many May Day is simply a public holiday to mark the start of spring – although it’s grey and wet in London. But for those who still believe in working class solidarity, today means more than a day off (in some parts of the world) , it is a celebration of hard won rights in the workplace.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, has its roots in America as it commemorates what is known as the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, in which several demonstrators at a mass rally for an eight-hour workday were killed.
May 1 was subsequently chosen as the date for International Workers’ Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International in 1891 to commemorate the massacre. Ironically May Day is no longer a public holiday in the US as it was considered too radical at the height of the cold war and the American Federation of Labor itself wanted distance from it.
It remains an important official holiday in China, North Korea, Cuba and Russia. This year, Indonesia will mark its first labour day national holiday. Among the workers taking part in Indonesia’s May Day march are women who used to earn less than $1 an hour making Adidas shoes until they were sacked.
In Malaysia, the police said they would allow a May Day rally against price rises that will include opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, retracting earlier statements that the protest would be illegal. The opposition-supported protest focused on price increases following subsidy cuts, as well as plans to introduce a general sales tax from next year.
Big turnout on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where there have been price increases in food following cuts in subsidies on sugar.
In Turkey, protesters have apparently resorted to throwing pineapples. Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to prevent hundreds of protesters from defying a ban on May Day rallies and reaching Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, the focal point of weeks of protests last summer.
The authorities have shut down parts of the city’s public transport and deployed thousands of riot police, blocking access to Taksim, a traditional union rallying point surrounded by hotels, restaurants and shops. Flag-waving demonstrators attempting to breach police lines, some throwing fireworks and stones, were met with water cannon and tear gas in the Besiktas neighbourhood on the edge of the Bosphorus not far from Taksim, a Reuters witness said.
In London, thousands of activists are expected to attend a May Day rally to pay tribute to rail union leader Bob Crow and Labour leftwinger Tony Benn. Both died a few days of each other in March.
Tony Lennon, chief steward of the London May Day organising committee, said: “This year’s London May Day presents a huge opportunity for the trade unions and the community to both pay tribute to the massive contribution made by Bob Crow and Tony Benn to the fight for workers’ rights, and to send out a clear message that the battle goes on.”
The Occupy movement, which is fighting benefit cuts, will target payday loan companies during a demonstration at the end of the rally.
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