11) WORKERS OF THE WORLD MARK MAY DAY 2012

PV Vancouver Bureau

     May Day was marked by actions and rallies involving millions of workers around the world, taking to the streets against exploitation, inequality and war. While the corporate media downplayed the scope of May Day in North America and abroad, focusing almost exclusively on a few confrontations between police and anarchists, the 2012 international workers' day was actually the broadest in many years.

     The largest rally was in Havana, where over half a million Cubans took part in the socialist country's annual celebration of working class power. Marchers in Revolution Square carried a sign that said: "To Capitalism We Will Never Return."

     But many events attracted hundreds of thousands in other countries. Rallies throughout Asia demanded wage increases, while in Europe the protests condemned government-imposed austerity measures.

     Workers turned out in droves in Greece, France and Spain to denounce EU‑mandated austerity, call instead for policies to boost living standards and economic growth.

     In Greece, thousands marched through central Athens in disciplined union‑led protests. Members of the communist‑affiliated All Workers Militant Front (PAME) gathered in support of workers from the Hellenic Steel Plant in Elefsina who have been on strike for more than six months. Big rallies were also held in Thessaloniki and Patras.

     Tens of thousands of workers rallied in Paris ahead of the May 6 runoff election between right-wing President Sarkozy and Socialist Francois Hollande, who has since become the first victorious candidate backed by the left since 1988.

     In Germany, the DGB umbrella union group sharply criticised the EU fiscal treaty that locks EU member states into an austerity straitjacket. The German unions called for a "Marshall Plan" stimulus programme to revive the depressed economies of crisis-hit eurozone nations. The DGB counted more than 400,000 members and supporters at protests and marches in many cities.

     "The turnout today reflects the unhappiness of unionists with the German government's crisis policies and the rigid austerity measures in Europe," one DGB leader told crowds in Stuttgart.

     In Spain, trade unions estimated that more than one million people joined protests in 80 cities. The largest gatherings were in Madrid and Barcelona, where 100,000 protesters took part. Spanish unions warn of mounting unrest if the right-wing government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pushes ahead with austerity measures to meet its budget‑deficit targets while 5.6 million people - almost a quarter of the work force - are unemployed.

     "This is a May Day against the destruction of jobs and in favour of following other alternatives," Candido Mendez, the leader of the UGT, one of Spain's two main labor federations, said on television. The latest spending cuts, he warned, will amount to "the demolition of public services in our country."

     Demonstrators in Britain, one of the countries officially in recession, got creative to draw attention. In London, members of the Occupy movement, who were evicted from a camp outside St. Paul's Cathedral in February, released flying tents, lifted into the air by helium balloons, at the Liverpool Street railway station, while union leaders addressed a larger rally in Trafalgar Square.

     Around 100,000 took part in rallies in Moscow. President‑elect Vladimir Putin joined the official May Day march through the city centre, while a Communist rally attracted a crowd of over 5,000.

     In the United States, unions and Occupy activists staged demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience.

     Thousands of May Day protesters in the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan demanded hikes in pay that has fallen behind rising consumer prices, while also calling for lower school fees and expressing a variety of other grievances.

     The largest rally in Asia was organised by Indonesian unions. About 10,000 workers massed at Jakarta's main roundabout demanding better pay and job security.

     About 8,000 members of a huge labour alliance rallied in Manila, many wearing red shirts and waving red streamers, marching under a brutal sun for four kilometres to the heavily barricaded Mendiola bridge near the Malacanang presidential palace, which teemed with thousands of riot police. The protesters carried a giant effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino, depicting him as a dog obedient to foreign capitalists. They carried banners saying "raise our pay now" and "fight for socialism." Among their demands was a call for a $3 daily pay hike.

     Protest leader Josua Mata from the Alliance of Progressive Labour also urged Aquino to back legislation against the corporate practices of contracting out operations to save on costs and prevent workers from organizing trade unions.

     In Taiwan, several thousand anti‑government protesters marched through downtown Taipei, demanding higher wages, lower school tuition and better conditions for foreign workers.

     In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, some 500 people rallied, calling for a higher minimum wage than the one announced recently by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Najib's plan for the country's first‑ever minimum wage calls for minimum monthly pay of 900 ringgit ($297) for private‑sector workers in peninsula Malaysia and 800 ringgit ($264) in two poor eastern states. About 3.2 million low‑income workers account for about a third of Malaysia's workforce.

     The protesters marched from a market to the headquarters of Maybank, the nation's largest bank, calling for a minimum monthly wage of 1,500 ringgit ($496) a month.

     In Hong Kong, more than 1,000 joined a protest march to demand that the city's minimum wage be raised to 33 Hong Kong dollars ($4.25) per hour from HK$28 ($3.60). They also want the government of the southern Chinese financial hub to implement a 44‑hour work week.

     In nearby Macau, about 500 people marched for workers' rights and full democracy in the legislature.

     Eighty-six students and workers were arrested in the East Timor capital of Dili on May Day, during a march to the Hotel Timor, where workers are in a dispute with the owners and management over wages and arbitrary dismissals. Among the detained were six workers from the Hotel Timor, and many others from the Socialist Trade Union Centre. Two protesters were seriously injured and taken to hospital.

     In Fiji, the island's military regime barred the media from reporting on a news release issued by the Fiji Trades Union Congress.

     The message from FTUC leader Felix Anthony extended greetings to Fijian workers on the occasion of International Workers Day. Anthony went on to note that "most of the achievements on behalf of workers over past seven decades have now been undone by the draconian decrees that have been imposed on the workers in the last three years... The trying times that we face today, the economical and political situation, the reviews and restructure of Government entities resulting in job insecurity, redundancies, untold hardship and the recurring natural disasters, topped with high inflation have multiplied the degree of everyday challenges for the unions, and for workers and their families. These challenges can only be overcome with workers' solidarity and commitment to the very fundamental purpose of trade unions and its quest for democracy."

     The FTUC organized May Day activities to promote labour rights, including requesting workers to wear a Blue Ribbon to mark the day.

     May Day saw rallies and protests in many African countries, and official ceremonies in others where the date is a recognized holiday. In Tunisia and Egypt, just over a year after dictatorships were overthrown by popular mass action, demonstrators demanded a range of pro-working class reforms.

     Two trade unionists were arrested by police in Swaziland for holding a banner belonging to the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) at a May Day rally. TUCOSWA was banned from holding a rally because the group is not recognised by government in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub‑Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch. A rally did go ahead in the commercial city of Manzini, but not under the umbrella of TUCOSWA.

     Several thousand trade unionists rallied together with President Jacob Zuma at the biggest South African May Day event, held in Botshabelo, outside Bloemfontein. Speakers included South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande, who is also the country's Higher Education Minister. Nzimande called on the tripartite (ANC-SACP-COSATU) alliance members to rally together to prevent right‑wing parties and organisations from exploiting differences within the ruling alliance.

     In his speech, President Zuma focused on historic moments in the workers' struggle against exploitation and apartheid.

     Huge celebrations took place across Turkey, where the official name of May 1 is Labour and Solidarity Day.

     Members of trade unions and other progressive organizations in Istanbul met in Taksim Square, chanting slogans and carrying posters and banners. The Taksim event started with a solemn ceremony for the victims of Bloody May Day, May 1 in 1977 when snipers opened fire onto the celebrating crowds in Taksim, killing dozens of people. The organizing committee left flowers in front of a monument erected in their memory, following a minute of silence for the victims. The Taksim celebrations featured vibrant speeches, and songs performed by popular artists.

     For the first time in Turkey's history, a movement called "Muslim Anti‑Capitalists" joined May 1 celebrations with the left groups in Istanbul. The members of the movement performed prayers in the Fatih Mosque before going to Taksim Square.

     Venezuelans celebrated May Day after the signing of an historic new Labour Law expanding the rights and powers of workers. Many caught buses to Caracas for the main march, with others joining smaller marches in cities and towns around the country.

     Highlights of the Labour Law include a small reduction in the working week, the outlawing of outsourcing, and longer paternity and maternity leave.

(The above article is from the May 16-31, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist 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.)