------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 18, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

May Day Around the World

By Andy McInerney

SOUTH KOREA

May Day demonstrations across south Korea targeted plans to sell off Daewoo Motors to foreign investors. Daewoo workers have staged a series of strikes since April 6 to protest the sell-off.

On April 29, tens of thousands of workers marched through Seoul, Pusan, Kwangju, and five other cities to prepare for May Day demonstrations. The rallies were organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

Slogans like "Don't sell Daewoo to foreigners" and "Release arrested workers" covered banners and placards. Strike leaders at Daewoo had been arrested earlier in the week for their union activities.

On May Day itself, student supporters of the workers took center stage. Thousands faced off against riot police in Seoul in what the big-business media called the "most violent demonstration by student activists since President Kim Dae-Jung took office in early 1998." At least 130 students were arrested as the cops prevented the students from joining the workers' demonstrations.

Among the KCTU's other demands are a five-day work week, a 15-percent wage hike, parity between full-time and part-time workers, and a ban on the sale of auto companies to foreign firms. The Korean Federation of Trade Unions, another of the union umbrellas in the capitalist south, called for the government to nationalize Daewoo.

The U.S. giants Ford and General Motors are frontrunners in the bid to absorb Daewoo. The KCTU is calling for massive strikes again on May 31 if the government allows the sale to go forward.

INDONESIA

Across Indonesia, thousands of workers took advantage of the unstable political climate to air their grievances. In Jakarta, some 1,500 workers responded to a call by the National Front-Struggle for Indonesian Workers (FNPBI) for a demonstration in front of the House of Representatives.

FNPBI Chairperson Dita Sari--a member of the People's Democratic Party--called on the government to recognize May Day as a paid holiday, as it had been under Indonesia's founding president Sukarno. Sukarno's government was liquidated in 1965 in a mass anti-communist bloodbath in which over a million communists and progressives were murdered.

Fired workers from PT Kong Tai Indonesia--a producer of Reebok shoes--joined the Jakarta demonstration.

Two hundred FNPBI workers rallied in Bandung. The Jakarta Post reported that they demanded higher salaries, freedom to organize unions, and sang "anti-capitalism songs."

Other demonstrations--mostly numbering from 200 to 1,000--took place in cities across the island archipelago.

PHILIPPINES

The militant May 1 Union (KMU) led demonstrations across the Philippines. In Manila, the capital, some 5,000 KMU members and thousands of allies demanded an end to President Joseph Estrada's pro-International-Monetary-Fund economic program of privatization and austerity. Demonstrators took their march to the U.S. Embassy, a symbol of the imperialist "globalization" imposed on the Philippines.

Tens of thousands of workers also marched in Mendiola, Southern Tagalog, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Members of BAYAN, an anti-imperialist federation, took part in demonstrations alongside the KMU. In several cities including Manila, riot police attempted to break up demonstrations, provoking street fights.

ECUADOR

Ecuador has been the scene of mass mobilizations against "neoliberal" economic policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund. May Day demonstrations took aim at these policies. Fifty thousand workers, Indigenous peasants and students took to the streets of Quito, burning Uncle Sam effigies and mock dollars.

In January, a popular uprising toppled the government of Jamil Mahuad. Gustavo Noboa took the presidency with the support of the Ecuadorian military and the U.S. government. He has continued Mahuad's economic policies, including imposing the U.S. dollar as the national currency.

May Day demonstrators took over the Church of San Francisco in Quito demand ing that leaders of the January uprising be released. The Noboa regime is refusing to release anyone accused of advocating the "toppling" of the government.

Antonio Vargas, leader of the Confed eration of Indigenous Nation alities of Ecuador, broke off talks with the Noboa government at the end of April. He called for a "new uprising" against the pro-IMF regime.

BRAZIL

Land was the main demand across Brazil on International Workers' Day. The Landless Movement (MST) launched a mass campaign of land takeovers and demonstrations on May 1. The aim is to pressure the government to move forward with land reform.

In 20 of Brazil's 27 states, peasants took over government buildings to press their demands for land. Across the country, 180 were wounded and over 400 arrested.

In Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, over 300 MST activists took over offices of the National Social and Economic Development Bank and the Institute for Agrarian Development. The MST charges that the government has not honored its promises to turn over land to 4.8 million peasants.

Thousands took part in the nationwide actions.

"It was a day of struggle over the need of thousands of families for arable land," said MST leader Diceu Boufler. Actions continued throughout the week.

Also on International Workers' Day, hundreds of thousands of workers--many flying the red flag of the Workers' Party--demonstrated in Sao Paolo against low wages and unemployment.

JAPAN

Unemployment and economic crisis fueled May Day demonstrations across Japan. Over 1.7 million Japanese workers participated in the demonstrations across the country, according to Asahi News.

The official labor-union federation Rengo organized the main rallies. Politicians from bourgeois opposition parties addressed the workers since elections are coming up in June. No representative of the governing Liberal Democratic Party joined the events.

GERMANY

Street battles between neo-fascist thugs and left-wing youths marked May Day in cities across Germany. The German government allowed the far-right National Democratic Party to demonstrate in Berlin, then deployed thousands of cops to protect it.

The NDP makes appeals to working-class Germans based on deteriorating economic conditions, especially in the formerly socialist east. But it tries to channel anger into anti-immigrant, "Germany-first" chauvinism--letting the imperialist bosses off the hook.

Fights broke out in Dresden, Ludwigshafen, Hamburg, and Berlin. In Hamburg, over 100 people were arrested the night before May Day as 500 youths erected barricades across streets and faced off against riot police. The demonstrators protested "imperialist centers and the lure of capital."

In Kreuzberg, traditionally a left stronghold in Berlin, some 10,000 socialist, anarchist and "autonomous" youths held a massive May Day demonstration.

In all, over 400 people were arrested.

At other rallies, union leaders called on the government to address the growing number of corporate mega-mergers and to increase taxes on big business.

BRITAIN

Anti-capitalist demonstrators took to the streets of London and Manchester. In London's Trafalgar Square, police penned in thousands of leftists, including hundreds of members of the Kurdish Workers Party. Nearby Kennington Square was also a stronghold for May Day participants.

A massive police presence--a total of close to 15,000 police were deployed or on reserve--inevitably provoked clashes. Young people confronted police cordons with stones and bottles. The McDonald's restaurant on London's ritzy street the Strand was completely trashed.

MAURITANIA

According to the Free Confederation of Mauritanian Workers, government police attacked workers at the International Workers' Day march in Nouakchott. The report was received by United Press International.

The FCMW reported that at least 10 workers were "seriously hurt" in "bloody confrontations" with the police. The workers were protesting the government's economic program, "especially the policy of bowing to the World Bank reforms."

NORWAY

Norway's National Union Confederation (LO) marked May Day by preparing for a massive private-sector strike. On May 3, over 80,000 workers in a broad range of industries were on the picket line demanding higher wages and five weeks' paid vacation.

On May 5, the LO warned that it would escalate the strike to make it the biggest strike since 1945.

This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)

HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE