Workers Day celebrated worldwide
By
Brenda Ryan
Published May 13, 2007 10:34 PM
From Cuba to Pakistan to South Korea, millions of workers around the world
celebrated May Day with marches and rallies.
In Cuba, more than half a million people paraded through Havana’s
Revolutionary Plaza. They denounced the U.S. government’s release of
terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from a Texas jail last month. Carriles was
behind the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 and several other terrorist
activities. The Cubans also demanded the release of the Cuban Five, who have
been imprisoned in the U.S. for more than eight years for supplying information
on terrorist conspiracies against Cuba.
President Fidel Castro, who was not at the parade, sent a message calling for
“prison for the assassin” Carriles. Salvador Valdés, secretary
general of Cuba’s central workers’ union, spoke before the crowd
wishing Fidel a speedy recovery, to which people shouted “¡Viva
Fidel!” Millions of Cubans marched in other parades across the
island.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez marked May Day with another blow
against imperialism: the government took over the last privately run oil fields
in the country. BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, France’s Total
SA and Norway’s Statoil ASA had controlled the drilling fields in the
Orinoco River basin. Chávez addressed a gathering of thousands of red-clad
oil workers, shouting “Down with the U.S. empire,” the Associated
Press reported.
May Day events were held throughout Latin America. In El Salvador, Ecuador,
Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica people protested against CAFTA, the free
trade treaty with the United States.
In Turkey police attacked a May Day rally in Istanbul with tear gas, water
cannons and batons and arrested more than 500 people, including many union
leaders. The crowd had been marching to Taksim Square to mark the 30th
anniversary of “Bloody May Day,” when 34 people were killed after
someone fired on the crowd and caused a stampede. The government blocked roads
and cancelled buses, trains and ferries to block people from gathering.
In Pakistan trade unionists held rallies and meetings in Karachi to honor the
U.S. labor activists executed by the government after the 1886 Haymarket
riot.
The Daily Times of Pakistan reported that workers from North and South Korea
held their first joint May Day rally in South Korea. They had held joint
celebrations in North Korea in 2001 and 2004.
From Portugal, Andre Levy of the weekly newspaper Avante reported that on April
19, a national plenary session of delegates and activists of CGTP-IN, the
largest Portuguese confederation of unions, scheduled a general strike for May
30. At the May Day march, tens of thousands took to the streets. Many carried
banners calling for participation in the May 30 general strike. For the past
several months there have been dozens of strikes, marches and protests in
response to the government’s attacks on workers rights. Levy said the
ruling Socialist Party has increased the cost of living, the age of retirement,
unemployment and temporary labor.
Protests and rallies were also held throughout Russia and the former Soviet
Republics, in cities throughout Germany, in Spain, Italy, Britain and Hungary.
Thousands marched in Jakarta, Indonesia. And in Greece transport workers called
for a 24-hour strike, prompting the Greek carrier Olympic Airlines to cancel
dozens of domestic and international flights.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE