May Day Celebrated Globally

Occupy Wall Street banner for May Day 2012 in New York City. International Workers Day was celebrated across the world., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

May Day celebrated globally

Wednesday, 02 May 2012 00:00

JOHANNESBURG/PARIS. — A majority of countries observed International Workers Day yesterday as a public holiday.

Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, originated within the historical struggles of workers and their trade unions for solidarity between workers and people, and in their struggles to achieve fair employment standards. In a show of unity,

South African President Jacob Zuma was expected to address Cosatu’s main Workers’ Day celebration in Bloemfontein alongside Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.

Thousands of peaceful protesters took to the streets across Greece for May Day rallies. In Athens, Greece’s two largest unions, representing private and public sector workers, marched towards parliament in anti-austerity rallies.

Five days ahead of the final round of France’s presidential election a battle for the hearts and minds of workers was underway yesterday with incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and trade unions summoning to rival rallies on International Workers’Day. Each year, on May 1, trade unions hold a march in Paris to promote the rights of workers.

The far right National Front party also holds a “patriotic” rally in the capital on the same date each year. This May Day brought a third rally, as Sarkozy, who is fighting for a second term, called on supporters to gather in Paris in celebration of “real work.?”

His call caused controversy. Trade unions accused him of trying to drive a wedge between unionised workers, mostly civil servants who support Hollande, and “real” private sector workers, whom Sarkozy claims to champion.

Sarkozy later retracted the “real work” comment, saying what he wanted was a “real celebration” of work.

The union and pro-Sarkozy rallies, both planned for yesterday afternoon, were shaping up to be a numbers contest. Marine Le Pen’s morning rally was closely watched for signs of which of the two finalists she supports. She scorned Sarkozy’s overtures, damning him and Hollande equally as people she blames for France’s economic woes and loss of sovereignty to Europe and international finance.

“On May 6 it’s not a president who is to be elected, but a simple employee of the European Central Bank, a Brussels sub-controller of finance, charged with applying the Commission’s decisions without question,” she said.

In other parts of Europe also fed up with high unemployment and austerity, May Day protesters took to the streets in a wave of anger that threatened to topple leaders in Paris and Athens.

From the eye of the eurozone debt storm in Madrid to the streets of Paris and Athens marchers spoke of job losses, spending cuts and hard times. More than two years after the eurozone sovereign debt crisis erupted, frustration with austerity is boiling over across the continent as voters wait in vain for signs of the economic pay-off.

Thousands of Indonesian workers held Asia’s biggest May Day rally, demanding better pay and protection of job security, watched warily by a heavy police and army presence.

Carrying banners saying “raise our salaries” and “stop out-sourcing contracts”, more than 9 000 workers gathered at Jakarta’s main roundabout before marching to the state palace.

Raising the minimum wage was the main demand also for about 5 000 workers, domestic helpers and activists who held a noisy procession through central Hong Kong, clashing cymbals and chanting demands on the city’s incoming government.

In Manila, about 3 000 workers and activists marched to the presidential palace, bearing a giant effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino, which depicted him as a dog obedient to foreign capitalists. They carried banners saying “raise our pay now” and “fight for socialism”. .

Russia’s president-elect Vladimir Putin and out-going head of state Dmitry Medvedev yesterday joined over 100 000 people in a Soviet-style mass march through

Moscow to celebrate the May 1 labour day. Putin and Medvedev led a column of workers through central Moscow as participants unfurled banners for their factories and waved Russian flags to the sound of kitsch orchestral music. Putin will be inaugurated as president on May 7, after his March 4 election victory, which the opposition claims was de-legitimised by fraud. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, some 500 people rallied, calling for a higher minimum wage than the one announced Monday by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Najib's plan for the country’s first-ever minimum wage calls for minimum monthly pay of US$297 for private-sector workers. — Sapa-dpa/AFP/AP.