Red Guard
1st May 2004, 19:02
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...1/wl_afp/mayday (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040501/wl_afp/mayday)
MOSCOW (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Europe, Africa and Asia for May 1 celebrations supporting causes ranging from social justice to nostalgia for Soviet-era Communism, to hostility to the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and European Union (news - web sites) membership.
In several cities the demonstrations ended in violence Saturday. Egyptians demanding better pay and shouting anti-US and Israel slogans were confronted by hundreds of police in riot gear, who used clubs to break up the Cairo gathering.
Turkish riot police also detained around 150 people who tried to hold a May Day march in Istanbul and in Diyarbakir, the provincial capital of the mostly Kurdish southeast.
Late Friday night, in what has become an annual May Day ritual with no obvious political links, hundreds of youths clashed with German police in Berlin, but the violence was muted compared to that of recent years. In Switzerland there were clashes in Zurich between police and anti-capitalist demonstrators.
In northern China, celebrations were marred by reports that 35 coal miners had died and 16 were missing in two accidents that underscored the dismal plight of many workers driving the country's frenzied economic growth.
Political protest, mainly over the Iraq war, mixed with pro-labour sentiment in other May Day events worldwide.
In Japan, around 42,000 people demonstrated about planned pension system reform, while some 12,000 others gathered in a Tokyo park demanding the government withdraw its 550 troops from Iraq.
In South Korea (news - web sites), around 20,000 workers, mostly members of the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, gathered at a downtown Seoul park, demanding the government retract its promise to send more than 3,000 soldiers to Iraq. Demonstrators in Kiev denounced the United States presence in Iraq.
About 5,000 people also marched in two separate rallies in Athens with banners calling "Jobs not bombs" and "Peace for workers, no to war and profiteers."
In Baghdad itself a thinly-attended demonstration called by the Communist party was marked by scuffles between backers and opponents of the country's new flag.
In France and Germany, May Day celebrations by trade unionists and leftist groups took place against the background of the European Union enlargement, also on May 1.
Thousands rallied in Berlin at the landmark Brandenburg Gate, where the DGB trade union federation voiced its support for the EU enlargement with its giant "Our Europe -- Free, Equal and Just" banner.
At midnight, the EU took in 10 new members, including eight former communist countries in its biggest enlargement ever. Rallies in Budapest, Dublin, Sofia, Slovenia, Vienna and Warsaw also had an EU theme.
Italian trade unions organised their joint demonstration in the far northeast of the country, at Gorizia on the border with EU newcomer Slovenia.
In Paris and other major French cities trade unions held separate marches, reflecting their political divisions, which were attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
In Thailand, 20,000 workers staged rallies in Bangkok to demand a hike in the basic wage and an end to the government's controversial privatization drive.
Other pro-worker protests took place throughout Asia, including Bangladesh, the Philippines and Pakistan.
In Russia, communists recalled Soviet-era slogans with a dose of nostalgia. Several thousand of them marched in Moscow to call for an end to the country's widespread privatisation, with banners proclaiming "Bring back the Soviet Union and friendship between peoples" and "Selling off the land is a betrayal of the fatherland".
Other Russians protested against the war in Chechnya (news - web sites).
In Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, thousands took part in a parade while about 10,000 Gabonese trade unionists marched in Libreville.
Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) presided at the traditional demonstration in Havana, conducted under the slogan "unity and victory."
History was made in the tiny Pyrenean principality of Andorra, squeezed between France and Spain, when for the first time a major demonstration denounced the minute state as "a fiscal paradise, but a social hell."
The bitterness left by the two referendums in Cyprus found an echo in the boycott by Turkish Cypriot trade unionists of a joint demonstration with their Greek Cypriots counterparts because of the opposition of the latter to reunification.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Europe, Africa and Asia for May 1 celebrations supporting causes ranging from social justice to nostalgia for Soviet-era Communism, to hostility to the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and European Union (news - web sites) membership.
In several cities the demonstrations ended in violence Saturday. Egyptians demanding better pay and shouting anti-US and Israel slogans were confronted by hundreds of police in riot gear, who used clubs to break up the Cairo gathering.
Turkish riot police also detained around 150 people who tried to hold a May Day march in Istanbul and in Diyarbakir, the provincial capital of the mostly Kurdish southeast.
Late Friday night, in what has become an annual May Day ritual with no obvious political links, hundreds of youths clashed with German police in Berlin, but the violence was muted compared to that of recent years. In Switzerland there were clashes in Zurich between police and anti-capitalist demonstrators.
In northern China, celebrations were marred by reports that 35 coal miners had died and 16 were missing in two accidents that underscored the dismal plight of many workers driving the country's frenzied economic growth.
Political protest, mainly over the Iraq war, mixed with pro-labour sentiment in other May Day events worldwide.
In Japan, around 42,000 people demonstrated about planned pension system reform, while some 12,000 others gathered in a Tokyo park demanding the government withdraw its 550 troops from Iraq.
In South Korea (news - web sites), around 20,000 workers, mostly members of the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, gathered at a downtown Seoul park, demanding the government retract its promise to send more than 3,000 soldiers to Iraq. Demonstrators in Kiev denounced the United States presence in Iraq.
About 5,000 people also marched in two separate rallies in Athens with banners calling "Jobs not bombs" and "Peace for workers, no to war and profiteers."
In Baghdad itself a thinly-attended demonstration called by the Communist party was marked by scuffles between backers and opponents of the country's new flag.
In France and Germany, May Day celebrations by trade unionists and leftist groups took place against the background of the European Union enlargement, also on May 1.
Thousands rallied in Berlin at the landmark Brandenburg Gate, where the DGB trade union federation voiced its support for the EU enlargement with its giant "Our Europe -- Free, Equal and Just" banner.
At midnight, the EU took in 10 new members, including eight former communist countries in its biggest enlargement ever. Rallies in Budapest, Dublin, Sofia, Slovenia, Vienna and Warsaw also had an EU theme.
Italian trade unions organised their joint demonstration in the far northeast of the country, at Gorizia on the border with EU newcomer Slovenia.
In Paris and other major French cities trade unions held separate marches, reflecting their political divisions, which were attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
In Thailand, 20,000 workers staged rallies in Bangkok to demand a hike in the basic wage and an end to the government's controversial privatization drive.
Other pro-worker protests took place throughout Asia, including Bangladesh, the Philippines and Pakistan.
In Russia, communists recalled Soviet-era slogans with a dose of nostalgia. Several thousand of them marched in Moscow to call for an end to the country's widespread privatisation, with banners proclaiming "Bring back the Soviet Union and friendship between peoples" and "Selling off the land is a betrayal of the fatherland".
Other Russians protested against the war in Chechnya (news - web sites).
In Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, thousands took part in a parade while about 10,000 Gabonese trade unionists marched in Libreville.
Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) presided at the traditional demonstration in Havana, conducted under the slogan "unity and victory."
History was made in the tiny Pyrenean principality of Andorra, squeezed between France and Spain, when for the first time a major demonstration denounced the minute state as "a fiscal paradise, but a social hell."
The bitterness left by the two referendums in Cyprus found an echo in the boycott by Turkish Cypriot trade unionists of a joint demonstration with their Greek Cypriots counterparts because of the opposition of the latter to reunification.