Worldwide marches mark Labor Day (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)
Published time: May 01, 2015 11:2

Thousands have rallied worldwide to celebrate International Workers' Day or May Day, the largest labor holiday in the world. In some countries demonstrations have turned violent with police deploying tears gas.

Several hundred people took to the streets in Istanbul with police using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters at the landmark Taksim Square, the Hurriyet Daily reported. Some 10,000 officers were on patrol in the area.


At least five people were detained in the Okmeydanı neighborhood of Istanbul after being found in possession of gas masks and marbles. Also two women were arrested at Taksim Square when they attempted to unfurl a banner.

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Policemen block a street to prevent people from gathering for May Day demonstrations near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Umit Bektas)Policemen block a street to prevent people from gathering for May Day demonstrations near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Umit Bektas)


Some people were shouting "Long Live May 1!" and "shoulder to shoulder against Fascism!"

Emekçiler, Besiktaşa ulaşmak için ara sokaklardan yürüyüşünü sürdürüyor Her yer Taksim, her yer direniş! @sendika_org pic.twitter.com/GFXSfBSNjZ
— Devrimci Öğretmen (@devogretmen) May 1, 2015
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu earlier said only “symbolic” rallies are allowed and any attempt to stage mass demos will be blocked.

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Protesters from the Communist-affiliated trade union PAME hold red flags during a May Day rally in front of the parliament building in Athens May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis)Protesters from the Communist-affiliated trade union PAME hold red flags during a May Day rally in front of the parliament building in Athens May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis)


In Ukraine, about a thousand supporters of the Communist Party gathered in Kiev despite the authorities banning May Day demonstrations with Communist flags in the center of the city, RIA Novosti reported.


People have been protesting against the rise in prices and government policies, and say they want peace in the country.

During the rally the leader of the Communist Party, Petr Simonenko, accused the Kiev authorities of “anti-popular policies,” price hikes and chronic unemployment in Ukrainian.

“Ukrainian issues are not decided in Kiev now. It is either Brussels, or Washington, or other European capitals,” he said, adding he wants all Ukrainian problems solved in Kiev again.

Police said they have arrested 19 radicals in balaclavas, who attempted to break into the rally and started scuffling with law enforcers.

About 100,000 people have gathered in the Russian capital to take park in May Day demonstrations. People are carrying balloons, flowers and placards calling for “Decent work! Decent wages!”


http://youtu.be/w52wG3IUIZk

Massive May Day rallies have also descended on the streets of London. The march, organized mainly by trade unions and other London-based workers’ communities, started at Clerkenwell Green and continued to Trafalgar Square.


One million Cubans are demonstrating on Havana´s Revolution Square, local press reported. The Cuban Worker´s Confederation said the rally will reaffirm the people´s determination to keep fighting for socialism.

Thousands of workers have staged demonstrations in Athens, Greece. The rally was held amid a train and tram drivers’ strike, which was disrupting the capital’s metro and national rail services.


Labor Day rallies in the US are focusing on police brutality in the wake of a series of black men’s’ deaths after encounters with officers of the law.

"It is important to support movements and struggles that stand up for people being singled out by the system. Right now, immigrants share that distinction with African-American youth - that we are being targeted by the system," said Miguel Paredes, membership coordinator of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Members of the Group of the National Confederation of Trade Unions, commonly known in Japanese as Zenroren, raise their fists as they shout slogans during their annual May Day rally in Tokyo May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Issei Kato)Members of the Group of the National Confederation of Trade Unions, commonly known in Japanese as Zenroren, raise their fists as they shout slogans during their annual May Day rally in Tokyo May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Issei Kato)

However, some marches will stick with tradition and concentrate on labor and immigration issues.

One of the biggest demos is expected in Oakland where the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 announced its members will stop work as early as 5:30 am

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Workers carry banners with messages in support of workers' rights during a march to mark Labour Day in Yangon May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)Workers carry banners with messages in support of workers' rights during a march to mark Labour Day in Yangon May 1, 2015 (Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

May Day marches have also swept Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

About 20,000 people have taken to the streets of Milan in a May Day demonstration dubbed “No Expo May Day Parade”. The parade coincided with the opening of the Expo 2015 Universal Exposition.

Opponents of Expo 2015 have accused the authorities of wasting public funds by hosting the show as the country plunges deeper into crisis.

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http://rt.com/news/254813-may-day-protests-worldwide/#.VUOSjMRaFVY.twitter

Many other videos & photos at link.

May 1

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May 1, 16:15


Today, we normally celebrate International Workers' Day, which we have for some time now "tolerant" called "Day of Spring and Labour" (renamed the holiday under Yeltsin), although the genesis of the festival is that it's not about the spring, and is associated with many years of struggle the working class for their rights against the capitalist oppression. But it is quite clear that in the conditions of capitalist restoration, ideological soderazhenie holiday officially proved misplaced. Therefore, to a large extent there was a substitution as the names and content of the holiday, although some external form and survived. In particular, now the demonstrations are not portraits of communist and capitalist leaders. The content has changed, but the form still recognizable. I personally like in the case of 7 November and 23 February prefer to call these festivals as they were called during the Soviet era and in this form they celebrate. Novodels not pleased and generally interesting, so proper and modern official events on this occasion for me strictly by. All the comrades with the Day of International Solidarity of Workers.


http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/

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Seattle ‘riot’: Police deploy flashbangs, tear gas against May Day marchers (VIDEOS)

Published time: May 02, 2015 02:47
Edited time: May 02, 2015 04:39

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Protesters at a May Day march in Seattle, Washington clashed with police during what law enforcement called "a riot" on Friday. Officers deployed flashbangs and pepper spray to try and get the crowd under control.

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets Friday to participate in pro-worker, anti-police-brutality rallies, as well as one that was billed as anti-capitalist. According to the Seattle Times, one protester broke a window and others threw rocks at police before law enforcement responded with flash bangs.

http://rt.com/usa/255041-seattle-police-protests-may-day/

Many videos at link.

The biggest May day rally since the fall of USSR in Lugansk, Novorossia (video)


http://youtu.be/IZZjZJD664g

May 1, 2015

Newsfront


People chanting:

"Thank you grandpa for victory"

"We are slavs, Russians are our brothers"

"Every child knows - trade unions are best in the world"


In the town of Snezhnoye the entire town came out for the rally:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sPWByj-2xnU/VUQxfFUtGII/AAAAAAAANLM/2JrPf9hurpc/s1600/558307_original.jpg

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-biggest-may-day-rally-since-fall-of.html

Now that is a May Day rally!

Workers’ May 1 2015. The solution is to be found in the class struggle!

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Tens of thousands of workers sent this message. Workers who participated in the strike rallies of the All-workers’ Militant Front (PAME) in 76 cities all over Greece. Together with self-employed, women and young people they declared their determination not to tolerate the continuation of the anti-people political line, which is being advanced in the negotiations of the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government with the Eurozone and IMF.



The May 1 rally in Athens was magnificent in Syntagama square, outside the parliament building. Giorgos Perros, member of the Executive Secretariat of PAME, noted the following in his speech to the rally: “The escalation of our struggle is a primary duty for our future activity. We are preparing ourselves. With mass collective processes, general assemblies, meetings, rallies. We discuss and take measures to raise our class up, to respond militantly to any agreements and measures in the next period.



We are preparing for a strike as a response which must have mass and decisive characteristics. We struggle for the workers’ income, for the Collective Labour Agreements. Our central slogans and goals: wage increases, the recovery of the losses now. Restoration of the Collective Labour agreements now! The government has gifted the employers 14 billion euros, which was acquired from the wage cuts of recent years that were imposed by the anti-worker laws! They drove us to debt and poverty. We do not give these things up, we demand them, we want them back.”



Dimitris Koutsoumpas, GS of the CC of the KKE, who attended the rally of PAME in Athens stated to the mass media: “the only realistic, certain and hopeful path for our people today is the path that leads to the exit from the memoranda and the application laws. It is the path that leads to the development of the class struggle, for the workers’ income, for Collective Labour Agreements. It is the path that leads to rupture with the EU, capital and its power. This is the message of today’s Red Workers’ May 1.”


http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/Workers-May-1-2015-The-solution-is-to-be-found-in-the-class-struggle/