10) MAY DAY 2015: CELEBRATIONS AND STRUGGLES ACROSS THE WORLD
Special to PV
May First, the international workers’ day, was marked with protests, demonstrations and celebrations in dozens of countries around the world.
In Canada, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Montreal and other cities. The protests began during the morning rush hour, targeting big banks and the Quebec Liberal government's austerity measures. One protest at a Montreal building that houses financial and trade institutions forced police to require employees to show their ID passes to get to work inside.
The demonstration brought together a coalition of trade unionists, students and social movements, for a march that ended at the Montreal Stock Exchange, with riot police along the route. Later in the evening, a similar-sized anti-capitalist protest drew a sharper response, including police tear gassing of demonstrators and onlookers, and reports of 84 arrests.
About 500 people took part in the annual May Day march organized on Commercial Drive by the Vancouver and District Labour Council. The event focused on the struggle for a $15 minimum wage, which has been the key demand of BC trade unions and youth groups in recent months. The march was followed by a free evening public concert, during which youth organizers worked to mobilize participation in another street march. Starting close to midnight, this march drew hundreds into a lively protest against police brutality (especially around recent events in Baltimore), and to oppose the Harper government’s anti-democratic Bill C-51.
Toronto’s May Day march drew attention to the racist treatment of migrant workers in Canada, and raised a wide range of traditional working class demands. The following evening, the annual United May Day celebration held at the Steelworkers Hall on Cecil Street featured a powerful and diverse cultural program, and speakers including CLC President Hassan Yussuff and Communist Party leader Miguel Figueroa.
Other May Day events were held in cities including Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Brampton.
Across USA
May Day was marked across the United States, the country where the annual workers’ day began with struggles for shorter working day back in the 1880s. In many U.S. cities, the issues raised in these actions included rights for workers and immigrants, and an end to police brutality in the wake of more killings of black men.
Rallies were held in Minneapolis, Oakland, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and many other locations.
In Minneapolis, the group Black Lives Matter mobilized high school students to leave classes, and some staged a die-in that briefly stopped local traffic.
The May Day protest outside Oakland's City Hall has swelled to more than a thousand people, one of several demonstrations by labour, immigrant and civil rights activists in cities across California. The protesters condemned racism, police brutality and income inequality in a loud, sign-waving march from the port to downtown. Signs and banners said that "Racism is the Disease," and called for better wages and working conditions.
In Los Angeles, protesters rallied to support President Obama's proposals to protect millions of immigrants in the country illegally from deportation.
Hundreds of people joined in May Day marches in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, in support of the rights of workers and immigrants.
About 1,000 protesters against police brutality marched in downtown New York at a May Day rally that took on a new message amid outrage over the death of Freddie Gray while he was in the custody of police in Baltimore. Demonstrators streamed through blocked-off streets, bearing signs with such messages as "Disarm the NYPD" and "Justice for Freddie Gray.”.
About 400 people marched in Chicago to protest police shootings and to recognize May Day's message of workers' rights.
International
On a global scale, the largest May Day rallies took place in Havana and Caracas, where trade unions and progressive movements mobilized huge turnouts in support of the socialist policies of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.
But big rallies were also organized across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In some countries, the corporate media deliberately ignored huge demonstrations against the austerity policies of governments, preferring to focus narrowly on clashes with police.
In Berlin, several thousand people took part in anti-capitalist street parties in the north of the city, and
In Turkey, authorities stationed an army of 10,000 police with water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas to keep May Day protesters out of Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The square is symbolic as the centre of protests in which 34 people were killed in 1977, and as the focus of massive anti-government protests that rocked Turkey in 2013. Earlier this year, the government passed a security bill giving police expanded powers to crack down on protesters. But despite the police repression and over 200 arrests, many demonstrators managed to get into the square, raising red flags and banners. Large labour rallies were held at other nearby locations in Istanbul, and in many other Turkish cities.
In Taipei, thousands of people took to the streets to demand higher salaries, shorter work hours, and a ban on temporary hiring. Some threw smoke bombs near the Taiwanese presidential offices.
Malaysian activists protested in front of the Kuala Lumpur landmark Petronas Twin Towers during a May Day protest against the GST (goods and services tax) being imposed by the government.
In Manila, protesters set fire to an effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III during a rally near the Presidential Palace. Thousands of workers converged near the palace to call for the resignation of Aquino, demand higher wages, better working conditions, fair export labour policies and a halt to contractualization.
Large crowds took part in the annual May Day march in Trafalgar Square in London, England. This year’s rally focused on the proposed privatisation of the National Gallery, where the staff are on strike.
Migrant workers and protesters marched through Hong Kong calling for better wages and improved workers rights. The plight of maids in Hong Kong was highlighted by the case of Indonesian helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who was beaten and starved by her employer in a case that made world headlines. But the Hong Kong government has yet to address demands by foreign domestic workers for more humane working conditions.
Over 100,000 South Korean workers held two major May Day rallies in Seoul, vowing to wage an all-out general strike if the government pushes through with planned anti-labour “reforms”. President Park Geun-Hye's conservative administration has tabled legisation making it easier to fire workers.
In Bahrain, the Interior Ministry prohibited the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) from holding its annual May Day rally. Though these rallies have always been peaceful, the Ministry cited security concerns and worries that the rally would be used to criticise the government, which has cracked down on independent trade unions since 2011.
In Iran, the government engaged in a wave of arrests leading up to May Day, including Ebrahim Madadi, Vice-President, and Davoud Razavi, board member, of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, who were arrested and imprisoned on April 29.
In Egypt, the High Administrative Court ruled just before May Day that public employees have no right to strike and those who take part could be punished for impeding the ability of public institutions to deliver services.
(The above article is from the May 16-31, 2015, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)