May Day has been a day of celebration of working-class struggles and victories, and of protest against the ongoing exploitation of working people, for 112 years. This year it was marked amidst an economic crisis across Asia, general strikes in Denmark and Bolivia and massive austerity drives and unemployment around the world. With neo-liberalism running rampant in both the First and Third Worlds, the demands of the large crowds that marched in 1998 were remarkably similar.
In Turkey, 3000 riot police, backed by armoured cars, used water cannons and truncheons to block and disperse 5000 leftists from joining an official rally of 70,000 people at Freedom Monument in Istanbul's Sisli district.
Forty-six demonstrators were injured, most of them beaten by the police, according to witnesses. Four journalists and 28 police were also injured. At least 200 left activists were arrested. Witnesses say that most of the demonstrators escaped, but police repeatedly struck at those who were unable to get out of the way. Those caught were often pummelled again before being led away.
Right-wing militants, watched by police, beat and then stabbed to death one left-wing protester.
Labour leaders addressing crowds in Istanbul and Ankara reiterated demands for expanded rights to strike, better pay and an end to rampant inflation and unemployment.
In the centre of Diyarbakir, the biggest city in the mainly Kurdish south-east, where demonstrations are banned under emergency rule, about 1000 protesters defied the government to hold a sit-down protest.
In Zimbabwe, following a successful mass strike on March 3 and 4 organised by the Congress of Trade Unions, 15,000 people attended a rally at Mutare's Sakubva stadium to support the unions' demand for the scrapping of the 5% development levy, pension taxes and a 2.5% increase in sales tax.
In Iraq, marchers burned US flags outside the central Baghdad headquarters of the UN Development Program and chanted, "The [UN Special Commission] inspectors are American spies".
Led by leaders of Iraqi and Arab trade unions, the protesters handed a UN official a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan denouncing the Security Council decision that week to prolong the embargo imposed on Iraq nearly eight years ago.
Across Europe, large crowds demanded an end to unemployment and austerity policies. In Paris, 16,000 trade unionists marched for the 35-hour work week, and in Madrid 10,000 demonstrators wheeled a giant model of a euro coin (Europe's single currency, to be introduced next January) while people lay in its path as if they were being trampled.
The far right also mobilised on May Day — 11,000 National Front supporters rallied in Paris against unemployment, and in Leipzig, Germany, up to 4000 skinheads sang nationalistic hymns and railed against foreigners and Chancellor Helmut Kohl, both blamed for record unemployment. Police turned water cannons on left-wing activists to keep them away from the neo-Nazi rally.
In Sweden, an anarcho-autonome demonstration on May Day in Malmo was attacked by riot police, who arrested 137 activists. Banners at the demonstration read, "Against the European Fort and Schengen Treaty" and "Against the Police, Protectors of the Rich".
In Asia, the rallies and marches were larger and more militant than previously.
In Japan, more than 2 million people took part in about 1000 rallies, carrying banners with slogans such as "Stop murderously long working hours". The central May Day rally, in Kameido Central Park, Tokyo, brought together 87,000 people.
Yoji Kobayashi, representative of the 1998 People's Spring Struggle Joint Struggle Committee and president of the National Confederation of Trade Unions, and Japanese Communist Party chairperson Tetsuzo Fuwa addressed the crowd.
In Thailand, 10,000 people marched in Bangkok with job security as their main demand. Some wore red hats or bandannas declaring "People unite and resist the IMF threat". The marchers also demanded the enactment of a new unemployment insurance law, a minimum wage (reviewable every six months) and a waiver on income tax on compensation.
In Malaysia, a rally of more than 1000 people demanded more protection against lay-offs. In Cambodia, more than 3000 workers marched in Phnom Penh to protest against poor factory conditions and demand wage increases and paid holidays.
In Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh in India, on May 2, hundreds of thousands of peasants, agricultural labourers, tribal people and industrial workers from all regions of India took to the streets to show their opposition to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and neo-liberal policies, and to demand the immediate withdrawal of India from the WTO.
The rally was organised by the recently launched Joint Action Forum of Indian People against the WTO and Anti-People Policies, which is composed of 50 people's movements representing a wide range of regions and social groups.
In Delhi, hundreds of prostitutes also demonstrated, demanding that prostitution be legalised.
May Day was marked with rallies of thousands of people in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-held areas of Mullaitivu and the Mannar District, and in Pooneryn, Mulangavil and Akkarayan Kulam.
In South Korea, the anger of working people about the human cost of capitalist restructuring and the harsh measures imposed by the IMF since the Asian economic crisis began was expressed most strongly on May Day.
In the capital, Seoul, riot police fired tear gas to disperse 20,000 workers and students protesting against job losses. "No to lay-offs!", South Korean workers chanted amidst the yellow haze of tear gas that filled a central section of the city.
The protesters dispersed, but quickly regrouped, hurling rocks and garbage at police. Around 40 protesters and police were injured, and 17 demonstrators were detained, four of whom were later charged with wielding metal pipes and hurling rocks.
President Kim Dae-jung reportedly told cabinet ministers that he would not tolerate "violent protest" because it could deter foreign investment, adding that workers "should not act illegally or interfere with management". The organisers of the demonstration would be "punished", he said.
But the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions upheld its earlier call for a general strike later this month or in early June to oppose massive lay-offs and other attacks on jobs. The international credit rating agency Standard and Poor, which is due to reassess South Korea's rating in mid-May, threatened to downgrade the country's rating if labour unrest continued.
In Taiwan, 15,000 people braved pouring rain to march in Taipei for more protection for workers and students in the face of rapid privatisation and deregulation.
The May Day rally, reportedly Taiwan's largest and most well organised in many years, brought workers together with students protesting against university fee increases, indigenous people demanding jobs and other groups demanding Taiwanese independence and environmental protection.
Only in Beijing, China, were there no noticeable gatherings on May Day. The usual state-organised marches were not held, reportedly because of fears among China's rulers that such events would provide an opportunity for expressions of unrest by workers. More than 20 million state sector workers are expected to lose their jobs in 1997-1998, and urban unrest caused by large scale lay-offs or unpaid wages have been reported across the country since last year.
Instead, May Day was marked by Shanghai's Liberation Daily with a lengthy report on model workers, and the People's Daily editorial called on the working class to "stand in the forefront" in the restructuring of state-owned enterprises.
Three months after his release from jail, democracy activist Zhou Guoqiang was rearrested on May 1. Zhou has been openly critical of the government's plan for more massive redundancies of state workers.
In Cuba, in contrast, a parade of well over 1 million people took two hours to march through the Plaza de la Revolucion, as many as 80 to 100 abreast.
The march, watched by more than 900 invited guests from 139 labour organisations in 41 countries, raised as its main demand the lifting of the US economic embargo against Cuba.