May Day around the world
A different sort of May Day
May 1, the annual day of action to mark working-class struggle and internationalism was celebrated in many countries this year with greater enthusiasm and broader participation than has been the case for many years. Green Left Weekly's correspondents report.
Cuba: focus on Elian
HAVANA — The Plaza de la Revolucion and the Avenida del Paseo were filled solid as far as the eye could see as millions joined Cuba's May Day rally. Adults and children — many still wearing T-shirts featuring the face of Elian Gonzalez, the kidnapped Cuban boy who has been reunited with his father but is still trapped in the US — waved small Cuban flags.
In previous years, May Day has been a parade, often with no speeches. This year, the march began after speeches, weaving its way to the new Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Plaza in front of the United States Interests Section.
A member of Argentina's Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo — whose enduring pain over the murder of their children and the disappearance of their grandchildren into the clutches of the right-wing junta made them particularly sensitive to Cubans' feelings during Elian's kidnapping — spoke.
A US solidarity activist, Gloria La Riva, said the political fallout from Elian's kidnapping and rescue had discredited of the Miami ultra-right and damaged support for the US government's anti-Cuban measures. La Riva condemned the hypocrisy of the US accusing Cuba of human rights violations. There is no greater violator of human rights in the world than the US government, she declared.
The crowd roared when President Fidel Castro approached the podium. Castro reported that Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush wants President Bill Clinton to persuade Juan Miguel Gonzalez to stay in the US and raise Elian "in freedom". Hillary Clinton has also said she hopes Juan Miguel will decide to seek asylum in the US, Castro noted.
After Castro finished his speech, a voice said hello over the microphone, as though testing it. It was Fidel speaking to Juan Miguel on a cell phone! Castro relayed Juan Miguel's "Special greetings to our entire people".
The march to the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Plaza was led by Castro and Pedro Ross Leal, head of the Confederation of Cuban Trade Unions. Songs for Elian's liberty were sung and the flags of many countries flew, including that of Vietnam, which has just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the end of the US war against it.
BY KAREN LEE WALD
Indonesia: workers defy military-police blockades
JAKARTA — More than 4000 people mobilised here for May Day. The Workers' Committee for Reform Action (KOBAR) and the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI), as part of a broad alliance called KEKAR (Justice Committee for the People), had relentlessly organised workers to attend the May 1 rally.
If not for a military blockade at the Rodadtifa textile factory (the largest factory in Bogor), 2000 workers from Bogor would have attended. As it was, 500 workers managed to take part, alongside 1500 workers from Texmaco engineering in Subang and the Kapasindo textile factory.
Dita Sari, chairperson of the FNPBI, stressed that workers should not rely on parliament but on their own strength and unity. She emphasised that Abdurrahman Wahid, Amen Rais and Megawati Sukarnoputri have done little to advance workers' interests.
The Indonesian Workers Prosperity Union (SBSI) mobilised only 400 workers despite the rally being held the day after their national congress. The Jakarta Workers Union also took part.
At the congress, SBSI leader Muchtar Pakpahan declared that now was not the time for workers to strike as it was the responsibility of both workers and employers to maintain political stability. On the May Day platform, however, Pakpahan agreed to the program of action initiated by the FNPBI. Its demands include: raising minimum wages by 100% (rejecting a proposed 25% increase); raising the salaries of teachers, rank-and-file soldiers and police by 100%; no fuel and electricity price hikes; free education; and an end to the military's role in politics.
KEKAR invited all political parties to express their support for the workers. Only the radical People's Democratic Party (PRD) accepted.
Students were represented by the National Student League for Democracy (LMND). Young members of the Anti-fascist and Anti-Racist Alliance performed political punk music and a leader of the People's Art Network (JAKER) read a moving poem written by the first chairperson of JAKER, Wigi Thukul, who disappeared in 1998. Street theatre was performed by a recently sacked worker.
The FNPBI organised workers to attend May Day rallies in nine cities. In North Sumatra, 15,000 rallied at Parliament House in Medan. In Bandung, despite a police blockade, 500 workers from Cimahi marched on parliament. In Surabaya, police armed with tear gas attacked 4000 workers as they attempted to leave the industrial area.
Rallies also took place in Semarang, Menado, Ujung Pandang, Palembang and Kendari.
BY MAY SARI
Pakistan: Under the shadow of the military
LAHORE — May Day here was held under the shadow of the military dictatorship.
On April 30, police stopped a May Day rally organised by the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) in Karachi. The message was clear: the government did not want any sort of demonstration.
In Lahore, on May 1, the Pakistan Workers Confederation (PWC) had planned to hold its annual May Day procession leaving from Bukhtiar Labor Hall. The All Pakistan Trade Unions Federation (APTUF), as usual, planned for its rally at Simla Hill to join the main rally. The railway workers had scheduled a gathering, which would also join the PWC rally.
An assistant police commissioner visited the Bukhtiar Labor Hall and asked the PWC leaders to cancel the rally. The PWC agreed to limit the action to a demonstration outside the hall.
More than 300 cops condoned off the railway workers' meeting venue and warned the union against holding the meeting. The union leaders defied the warning and the 3000-strong meeting went ahead.
For the first time, the railway administration refused to provide buses so that the workers could travel to the Bukhtiar Hall May Day rally. The unionists therefore decided to proceed on bicycles. However, even this was not allowed and the workers had to leave the workshop individually.
Heavy police contingents attempted to prevent the APTUF, Working Women's Organisation and LPP rally at Simla Hill from marching to Bukhtiar Labor Hall. It was therefore decided to use buses instead and, eventually, the police let the buses leave, at intervals of five minutes.
The participants gathered again to attempt to march, but police had erected barricades and were present in large numbers. "This is for the first time that May Day rallies have been stopped", said Farooq Tariq, general-secretary of the LPP. "The state's action against workers' demonstrations shows that this government is here to implement the International Monetary Fund's agenda through repression."
BY FAROOQ SULEHRIA
Turkey: Youthful protests
ISTANBUL — An estimated 50,000 people participated in the May Day march here. It was very lively, very political and very youthful. Almost half the participants were in their 20s. Of the youngest, many were women.
Older participants were, in the majority, trade unionists. The far-left Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) had a very large contingent. The pro-Kurdish national rights People's Democratic Party (HADEP) also had a very lively contingent.
Every contingent had flags with distinct colours, hats, over-shirts and banners. They marched from different starting points, chanting militantly, before converging at the main march.
The turn-out was less than expected, due to the police intimidation. There was a massive police presence, estimated at 27,000. Rows of cops in full riot gear and armed with automatic rifles and submachine guns lined the march route. There were police helicopters overhead, lines of cops atop the buildings lining the street, three or four armoured riot vehicles with water cannons stationed along the route, and everyone participating was patted down by cops before entering the assembling area.
An ODP comrade explained that this was usual on May Day. There has been police violence and killings every May Day going back years. In 1977, the police shot dead 37 people at a million-strong May Day march at Taksim Square.
BY IGGY KIM
England: Police riot at 'anti-capitalist' demo
LONDON — Ten thousand people — mostly young anarchists, socialists and green activists — gathered in Parliament Square on May Day to stage an "anti-capitalist" demonstration. The protest was condemned by the mass media and the British Labour government as a "riot" in an effort to discredit all the progressive forces involved. In truth, it was largely peaceful.
Organised by the Reclaim the Streets collective, the event had been built throughout Britain via the internet and an extensive sticker campaign.
It started with a carnival atmosphere and protesters placed turf from Parliament Square on the roadway outside Westminster, and planted vegetables and a garden where the grass once was. At the same time, the controversial painting of a statue of war-time British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Cenotaph monuments took place. The police did not intervene.
At 2pm the march headed towards Trafalgar Square, passing near 10 Downing Street. Riot police had barricaded the entrance to the street. Behind the barricades were rows of police, dogs and vans. A total of 5500 riot police had been mobilised for the protest and 9000 cops were deployed in the city — the largest police presence for a demonstration in 30 years.
The crowd demonstrated its antipathy to Labour PM Tony Blair and the police with a lot of cans and bottles. On the way to Trafalgar Square, a McDonald's fast-food shop was trashed.
As the marchers filled Trafalgar Square, walls of riot police moved to block all the exits while simultaneously cutting the demonstration in two, forcing the rear section back to Parliament Square. In the square, the riot police forced the crowd into the centre with shields and batons.
A 10,000-strong trade union demonstration marching towards the square was at this point stopped from joining the two rallies. With a scattering of individuals throwing objects at the police, the crowd was trapped in the square for almost four hours. Finally, people were allowed out in groups of 10 through a gauntlet of police and horses.
The protest lacked a clear focus and was poorly organised. This reflects the Reclaim the Streets Collective's approach to politics. The demonstration did not have specific demands, not even a unifying slogan (the slogan "Resistance is Fertile" was raised), allowing a minority free rein to smash a few windows because the focus was on expressing a "militant" political mood rather than concrete political demands.
The May Day demonstration was the third "anti-capitalist" action held in London recently. Since the action, the media and the Labour government have been whipping up a frenzy against the demonstrators, singling out foreign nationals, a student from Eaton, the members of the Communist Party of Turkey and "anarchists" as being responsible.
The Socialist Workers Party was falsely named by police as having been part of the "hard core" of protesters. Blair has called on protesters' friends and families to dob in "rioters". The just-elected mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, spoke out against the violence but supported the protesters.
BY MARCUS GREVILLE
Germany: Cops attack
KIEL — In Germany, an estimated 500,000 people rallied in cities throughout the country on May Day, most organised by the German trade union federation, the DGB. In some cities, high-ranking representatives of the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) were invited to speak.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was given the chance to defend his anti-working class policies at the DGB demonstration in Hanover. There were few protests against this as most of the unions are still paralysed by strong ties to the SPD.
Trade union speakers hesitated to criticise the federal government. An exception was Detlef Hensche, president of the media workers' union, IG Medien, at the rally in Frankfurt. Most speakers denounced the growth of fascist groups.
In Elmshorn, a small city near Hamburg, the May Day rally had to be protected by the police from fascist attacks. In other places, there were rallies by the fascist National Democratic Party and other militant right-wing organisations.
The biggest was in Berlin, where 1000 people from around the country gathered. Police were deployed to protect the Nazis from anti-fascist protesters. The anti-fascist rally had been outlawed. About 150 anti-fascists were arrested as the neo-Nazis brazenly violated anti-hate crime laws.
In another corner of Berlin, cops dispersed a left-wing May Day rally attended by more than 10,000 people. The traditional "revolutionary May Day rally" had been peaceful until 6000 police blocked the march near its end point and started beating up people with clubs. Watercannons and armoured cars were deployed. Street fights erupted as police tried to prevent people from leaving the area by closing the subway stations.
BY WOLFGANG POMREHN
Philippines
In the Philippines, 30,000 workers demonstrated in Manila on May 1 in several major rallies. Under the umbrella of Solidarity of Unions and Labor Organisations (SULO) — an alliance of the Socialist Worker Movement (SKM), Makabayan (Workers for National Democracy), the Socialist Party of Labor (SPP), Padayon (Onwards) and the Alliance of the Toiling Masses (KAP) — around 10,000 workers, urban and rural poor and students were mobilised around the themes "Fight imperialist globalisation" and "Reject the Estrada regime".
Separate rallies were held by the pro-Maoist May 1st Movement (KMU), attracting around 5000 people, and Solidarity of Filipino Workers (BMP), attended by 3000.
An indoor rally was attended by more than 15,000. It was sponsored by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the social democratic Alliance of Progressive Labor (aligned with the socialist group BISIG) and the broad democratic front Alab Katipunan, which is aligned to the Revolutionary Workers Party.
Militant youth
A feature of many May Day actions was the participation of militant young people inspired by the protests against the IMF and World Bank in Seattle last November and in Washington in April.
Demonstrations of several hundred protesters targeting large corporations, stock exchanges and financial districts took place in Chicago, New York City, Boston and many other cities in the United States. In many places, police reacted with brutality. In NYC, the 100 black-clad protesters were outnumbered by 10 to 1 and, at one point, three police helicopters hovered overhead.
Similar protests were reported in Canada and Europe.
Africa and Latin America
Around 15,000 workers marched in Maputo, capital of Mozambique to demand an end to civil courts ruling on industrial disputes. Many marchers came from workplaces that have not paid wages for months, even years.
In Luanda, Angola, 30,000 people paraded through the streets demanding the end to the civil war and better salaries. In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions cancelled its traditional May Day rally fearing that thugs from President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front would attack. Ironically, ZANU-PF also called off its traditional Harare rally because its popularity in the capital is at rock bottom.
In South Africa, rallies called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions were poorly attended. COSATU announced that a one-day general strike against job losses on May 10 would go ahead.
In South America's largest city, Sao Paulo, Brazil, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to protest against low wages and high unemployment. Some 20,000 workers, students and left-wing activists marched through Ecuador's capital, Quito, protesting against the government's plans to adopt the US dollar as the official currency.