May First, 2009: Comments and Reports Here
Posted by Mike E on May 1, 2009
All across the globe, people rise on this day, gather their highest hopes and their most painful grievances and take to the streets.
All across the globe, revolutionaries gather — in small persecuted events or in huge rivers of humanity.
All across the planet, in countless languages and colors, the oppressed emerge as one… as a common people, as a common dream. A liberated world. A society freed of endless oppression and want. A planet without borders, military occupiers, torture chambers, or prisons. A planet without the exploitation of one human being by another.
A common flourishing of human beings — no longer hunted, no longer declared illegal, no longer degraded for their gender or their skin, no longer condemned to endless labor for mere survival.
Speak your mind. Report on what you have seen or heard this day.
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Andrei Mazenov said
Istanbul: Clashes between police and leftists in Taksim Square
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0501/turkey.html
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-01-voa21.cfm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8028237.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/01/turkey-may-day-clashes-teargas
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/05/20095112418588426.html
Miles Ahead said
From the AP this a.m.:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_may_day/print
“Europeans rally on May Day amid economic worries”
Mike E said
Mike E said
Chicago organizers refuse to cancel the march (resist hysteria targeting Mexican immigrants over swine flu)
Miles Ahead said
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3407
“Venezuelan Labor Day Attracts Hundreds of Thousands”
Miles Ahead said
Ironically, this from News 24–South Africa’s “most comprehensive news”, except very little reporting about So. Africa itself.:
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2509836,00.html
‘Repression won’t stop us’
Miles Ahead said
Photo gallery, emphasis on Turkey & Germany, but…(rather pathetic rally in Zimbabwe included)–
The Philippines:
Protesters clash with police as they demand for better employment rights and increase in salaries during joint May Day rallies along the streets of Manila May 1, 2009 amid the global economic slowdown that has displaced millions of workers around the world. The number of jobless Filipinos was 180,000 higher in January than a year earlier, pushing the unemployment rate up to 7.7 percent from 7.4 percent, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO). REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES CONFLICT POLITICS MILITARY EMPLOYMENT BUSINESS)
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Greece:
Protesters clash with police during a May Day rally outside the parliament in Athens May 1, 2009. Unemployment is rising for the first time since 2004 in Greece as the economy grinds to a halt and may even contract in 2009 for the first time in 15 years, according to the IMF. REUTERS/Kostas Tsironis (GREECE CONFLICT EMPLOYMENT BUSINESS POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Reuters via Yahoo! News
The Ukraine:
Left wing activists sing songs during a rally marking May Day in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, May 1, 2009. Thousands of government supporters and opponents are demonstrating across Ukraine in rallies marking May Day. The traditional holiday celebrating labor is colored by growing unemployment amid Ukraine’s worst economic crisis in a decade. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
AP via Yahoo! News
red road said
BBC’s slideshow of May Day 2009:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8028861.stm
nando said
One of the important features of May First this year is that the early reports suggest that the capitalist crisis has swollen the ranks of those marching (whether in the radical activities or the more establishment May Day events by trade unions and reform parties).
Andrei Mazenov said
Sweden!
http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=3150
Terry Townsend said
May Day, 2009: `Advance the socialist alternative!’
http://links.org.au/node/1026
Ka Frank said
Iran: Many beaten and arrested at May Day rallies!
May 1, 2009- The May Day rally and celebration in Tehran, which was organized by independent Iranian labour organizations in Laleh Park at 5 PM, was attacked by security and intelligence forces at around 5:30 PM and many have been beaten and arrested.
The security forces did not allow more than two thousands people who had come to the park to join the event and arrested tens of activists and organizers and shut down the event before it actually started. According to various reports, the arrested labour activists include: Ms. Maryam Mohseni, and Messrs Behrouz Khabaz, Jafar Azimzadeh and Shahpour Ehsani-rad…. A more accurate and detailed report will be issued shortly.
The intelligence forces brutally attacked the event’s participants including women and children, by baton and tear gas etc., and forced hundreds of people out of the park. At this time, 8 PM, the park is surrounded by hundreds of security forces and those arrested have been transferred to police stations in Tehran.
May Day rally in City of Sanandaj was also attacked by security forces and plain clothes officers and many were beaten and arrested.
More updates will be issued soon.
Sources: Human Rights Activists in Iran and Free Union of Workers in Iran
From: info@workers-iran.org
Tell No Lies said
Here’s the NYTimes slideshow
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/01/world/20090501-mayday-slideshow_index.html
includes photos from Turkey, France, Berlin, Kiev, Greece, Sri Lanka, but not US.
Tell No Lies said
Here’s an interesting report on May Day across Europe from the London Times
there is a short slideshow as well concentrating on Istanbul.
Riot police working overtime as unions and anarchists link arms for May Day
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6207808.ece
Roger Boyes in Berlin and Charles Bremner in Paris
Protesters turned traditional May Day demonstrations into a rallying call against global capitalism as unrest spread through city streets across Europe yesterday.
Politicians in Germany and France had been warning that the financial crisis was about to spark social unrest. In some towns the words became reality, even if the skirmishes and petrol bombings felt choreographed.
“We want social disturbances, upheaval, and we will do everything towards that end,” said Markus Bernhardt, a spokesman for Class Struggle Bloc, which helped to steer the riots. “The system is violent and now violence is being met by violence.”
Unions estimated that 484,000 people took part in 400 protests across Germany. Riots in Berlin began on Thursday night when cars and rubbish containers were set alight. On May Day morning 700 anarchists blocked a railway station in an attempt to sabotage a neo-Nazi march.
Related Links
A million march in anger over President Sarkozy
Pictures: Europe riots & protests
A force of 5,000 German police officers found it difficult to contain the rioting. Officials said 48 officers were hurt and 57 people detained. “One can only advise drivers not to park their cars on the street,” Dieter Glietsch, the head of the Berlin police, said.
In France the usually fractious trade unions agreed to hold united rallies. Police said that almost half a million protesters had taken part in marches nationwide. Although numbers were lower than expected, in Paris tens of thousands turned out to vent their anger over President Sarkozy’s handling of the recession. Police said 65,000 took part in the mainly peaceful protests, though unions claimed there were 160,000, including the leadership of the opposition Socialist party, which traditionally stays out of the union-organised May Day marches.
In Istanbul officers used teargas and water cannon to prevent protesters entering Taksim Square. Riot police mounted three charges against protesters who had joined the demonstrations staged every May Day by the organised labour movement. Police said more than 100 youths ended up in cells there and in Ankara.
There was little to separate the words of the trade unionists and the anarchic fringes, with the global recession seemingly radicalising the leaders of the unions as they attempt to exploit popular anger.
Michael Sommer, the head of the German Trade Union Federation, called for taxes on the rich and an emergency law to force the wealthy to lend a portion of their fortunes, interest free, to the State. Mr Sommer, who has warned of imminent social upheaval, told a cheering crowd of several thousand people in Berlin that “this crisis is the work of greedy men”.
In Spain, where about 40,000 people joined marches in Madrid, Málaga and Barcelona, there was a call from Ignacio Fernández Toxo, the leader of the CCOO union, to stage a general strike if the Government did not consult unions over its plans for tackling the recession. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, took the precaution of joining a rally in Madrid even though the marchers were protesting against the supposedly cosy relationship between the Government and business.
Popular unrest has helped to unseat governments in places such as Iceland and Latvia, and there have been recession-driven protests in Bulgaria and Greece. Although the May Day protests did not pose an immediate threat to incumbent governments they were regarded as a warning shot.
In Germany, where the economy is predicted to shrink by 6 per cent this year, the speed with which unemployment is rising is increasing the support for the left-wing party Die Linke, which has a foot in Parliamant and a foot in the anti-capitalist movement.
“If something happens on this May Day night it won’t be our fault but that of the police,” Kirill Jermak of Die Linke, one of the organisers of the Berlin protests, said.
Yesterday drivers of luxury vehicles could be seen discreetly shifting their cars to underground parking lots.
It was a good day to take the bus.
zerohour said
May Day in Kathmandu:
Ka Frank said
May 1st in the West Bank:
Release the Palestinian activists
arrested in al-Ma’sara!
After arrests and injuries on Workers Day,
Palestinian workers and activists
call on trade unions around the globe to increase solidarity
On May 1, people from the village of al-Ma’sara and the neighbouring villages in Bethlehem area commemorated Workers Day with a march in protest against the Apartheid Wall. The Wall continues to encroach on their land and isolates their villages. The demonstration and Workers Day festival was organized by the popular committees of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in al Ma’sara and Bethlehem district, in cooperation with the Bethlehem branch of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).
Israeli Occupation forces repressed the mobilization and fired on the crowd with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber coated steel bullets. Nine people were injured, among them the head of the PGFTU, Shaher Sa’ad. Soldiers arrested ‘Azmi Sheukhi from Hebron, Mustafa Fawagreh from Um Salamoneh and Muhammed Brajiya, Mahmoud Zawahreh, Hasan Brajiya, all members of the popular committee in al Ma’sara. They are still held in prison.
The events of May 1 are the latest of a strategy of escalation implemented over the last months by the Occupation forces and which has lead to increased arrests, injuries and deaths among the coordinators and activists against the Apartheid Wall.
Several weeks ago, Basem Abu Rahmeh was shot and killed in the village of Bil’in while last week, 37 people were injured in similar protests. Ni’lin suffers regular invasions and arrests. This Friday, Occupation forces took over several homes as military bases. In February, Occupation forces staged a full day raid detaining 75 youth and arresting 16. The occupation forces regularly impose curfews and other collective punishment measures.
International trade unions must act in the face of these attacks on trade unionists, workers and villagers.
The popular committee against the Apartheid Wall of al Ma’sara and Bethlehem district, the Bethlehem branch of the PGFTU and the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign call upon trade unions across the globe to:
Demand the release of the Palestinian activists arrested on Workers Day.
Raise awareness about the land theft and ghettoization of Palestinian communities through the Wall and the grassroots resistance against it.
Support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and promote concrete BDS actions to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and force it to respect Palestinian rights.
Popular committee against the Apartheid Wall of al Ma’sara and Bethlehem district
Bethlehem branch of the PGFTU
Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Mike E said
What about India? How is May First celebrated there? (In the liberated zones? in urban concentrations? in defiance of the CPIM events? etc.)
Miles Ahead said
Some we might have missed:
Taiwan
Despite clashes between protesters and police in Taipei, no arrests were reported. In one of the largest May Day protests there in recent times, 10,000 people marched against record high levels of unemployment nearing 6%.
Austria
A large crowd gathered at Vienna’s city hall. According to the Social Democratic Party of Austria, 100,000 people attended the rally. On the Ringstraße, a march organized by the KPÖ (the Communist Party of Austria) took place. Some three to five hundred people showed up. The final rally was held in front of the parliament. There were also other minor marches in Vienna. At a march in Linz, also organized by the KPÖ, police and protesters clashed. On both sides, people were injured. Five people were arrested.
Iceland
The turnout at the May Day rally in Reykjavík was double the number seen the many last years. Activists from the January uprising, along with anarchists brandishing anarcho-communist flags, booed at Gylfi Arnbjörnsson, the leader of the main trade union in Iceland, as he suggested in his speech that Iceland enter the EU.
Kenya
A government official was forced to cut short his speech and abandon the May Day rally as angry workers hurled stones at dignitaries in protest over the government’s refusal to deal with difficult living conditions.
Macao
Protesters (500 according to organizers, 400 according to police) marched to the Government House on issues such as illegal workers and public housing. With the election of the Chief Executive approaching, some protesters raised the banner “Against Businessmen Ruling Macao”
Ka Frank said
May Day in Haiti
AP – Haitian police used tear gas to break up a protest near the national palace where demonstrators were calling for a higher minimum wage.
Riot police also used their batons and shields Friday to block the group of about 150 protesters from reaching the palace.
The protesters say they are an “alternative May 1” movement and called for raising the minimum wage from about $1.80 a day to $10 a day. Eighty percent of the Caribbean nation’s people live on less than $2 a day and unemployment is rampant.
The group also called for the departure of a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force they denounced as occupiers.
_______________________________________________________
Sent by the Haiti Support Group – A British solidarity organisation supporting the Haitian people’s struggle for participatory democracy, human rights and equitable development – http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org