Workers, activists mark May Day with defiant rallies

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Source: AP



Originally published April 30, 2018 at 10:07 pm Updated May 1, 2018 at 2:45 am


By The Associated Press


MOSCOW (AP) — Workers and activists marked May Day on Tuesday with rallies to demand their government address labor issues.

International Workers’ Day is a public holiday in many countries, though activities are restricted in some places, sometimes leading to confrontations.

A look at some of the events around the world:


More than 100,000 people came out on the streets on Moscow to march in the traditional May Day parade.

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SOUTH KOREA

Thousands of labor union members rallied in downtown Seoul for a higher minimum wage and other demands...........................



Moscow’s Federation of Trade Unions said about 120,000 people marched from the Red Square on the main streets of the Russian capital to mark May Day.

Over recent years, the parade became a highly orchestrated show of power by Russian authorities and the ruling United Russia party, with the demonstrators refraining from criticizing the government.

In St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, however, Russians unhappy with the Kremlin’s attempts to curtail internet freedom joined the official May Day demonstration.

Several hundred people braved the rainy weather and joined the column marching across St. Petersburg to protest the government’s ban of popular messaging app Telegram.


About 10,000 people rallied in Moscow on Monday to protest the blocking of Telegram.

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Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/filipinos-march-to-the-presidential-palace-to-mark-may-day/

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International Workers' Day of May Day.



The Brief Origins of May Day


https://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday

By Eric Chase - 1993.

Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as "American" as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour work day. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places and inspired such books as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Jack London's The Iron Heel. As early as the 1860's, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn't until the late 1880's that organized labor was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class.

At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers' lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution. Socialism offered another option.

A variety of socialist organizations sprung up throughout the later half of the 19th century, ranging from political parties to choir groups. In fact, many socialists were elected into governmental office by their constituency. But again, many of these socialists were ham-strung by the political process which was so evidently controlled by big business and the bi-partisan political machine. Tens of thousands of socialists broke ranks from their parties, rebuffed the entire political process, which was seen as nothing more than protection for the wealthy, and created anarchist groups throughout the country. Literally thousands of working people embraced the ideals of anarchism, which sought to put an end to all hierarchical structures (including government), emphasized worker controlled industry, and valued direct action over the bureaucratic political process. It is inaccurate to say that labor unions were "taken over" by anarchists and socialists, but rather anarchists and socialist made up the labor unions.

At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." The following year, the FOTLU, backed by many Knights of Labor locals, reiterated their proclamation stating that it would be supported by strikes and demonstrations. At first, most radicals and anarchists regarded this demand as too reformist, failing to strike "at the root of the evil." A year before the Haymarket Massacre, Samuel Fielden pointed out in the anarchist newspaper, The Alarm, that "whether a man works eight hours a day or ten hours a day, he is still a slave."..................................................





Balloons and flags fly over the crowd as people walk on Red Square to mark May Day in Moscow, with St. Basil’s Cathedral center in the background, Russia, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. As in Soviet times, people paraded across Red Square, but instead of red flags with the Communist hammer and sickle, they waved the Russian tricolor. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)







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Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions carry flags during a May Day rally at Seoul Plaza in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)






Protesters, mostly workers, march towards the Presidential Palace during the global commemoration of Labor Day Tuesday, May 1, 2018 in Manila, Philippines. About 5,000 workers and activists from various groups held a rally Tuesday near the Malacanang Palace to protest the failure of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill a major campaign promise to end contractualization, the widespread practice of short-term employment. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) Less











Police detain a demonstrator during May Day protests in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Workers and activists mark May Day with defiant rallies and marches for better pay and working conditions. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Police detain a demonstrator during May Day protests in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Workers and activists mark May Day with defiant rallies and marches for better pay and working conditions. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions carry flags during a May Day rally at Seoul Plaza in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Protesters, mostly workers, march towards the Presidential Palace during the global commemoration of Labor Day Tuesday, May 1, 2018 in Manila, Philippines. About 5,000 workers and activists from various groups held a rally Tuesday near the Malacanang Palace to protest the failure of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill a major campaign promise to end contractualization, the widespread practice of short-term employment. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Protesters shout slogans during a march to mark May Day in Hong Kong Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Hundreds of Hong Kong workers from various labor unions staged a rally to demand better workers’ rights and call for standard working hours. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)






Indonesian workers shout slogans during a May Day rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Thousands of workers attended the rally urging the government to raise minimum wages, ban outsourcing practices, provide free health care and improve working condition for workers in the country. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)





Protesters wearing masks of U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, march with others in a May Day rally in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)





Female police officers detain a woman taking part in May Day protests in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Police detained several demonstrators as the crowd tried to march toward Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which is symbolic as the center of protests in which dozens of people were killed in 1977.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)


Police scuffle with demonstrators during May Day protests in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Workers and activists mark May Day with defiant rallies and marches for better pay and working conditions. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)


A Cambodian worker participates during a gathering to mark May Day at Tonle Sap river bank, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Some hundreds of workers staged a rally, demanding a better working condition. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Workers wear safety hats and hold banners during a march to mark May Day in Hong Kong Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Hundreds of Hong Kong workers from various labor unions staged a rally to demand better workers’ rights and call for standard working hours. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Protesters hold banners during a march to mark May Day in Hong Kong Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Hundreds of Hong Kong workers from various labor unions staged a rally to demand better workers’ rights and call for standard working hours. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Protesters, mostly workers march towards the Presidential Palace during the global commemoration of Labor Day Tuesday, May 1, 2018 in Manila, Philippines. About 5,000 workers and activists from various groups held a rally Tuesday near the Malacanang Palace to protest the failure of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill a major campaign promise to end contractualization, the widespread practice of short-term employment. ((AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
With a caricature of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seen, at left, workers march during a May Day rally in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Thousands of protesters paraded, calling for better workers’ rights and the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose government wants to revise the country’s U.S.-drafted constitution. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
Protesters take part in a rally organized by the Communist-affiliated PAME labor union outside the Greek parliament, in central Athens, on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Protester gathered as May Day rallies kicked off around the country, and unions braced for more austerity measures imposed by bailout lenders.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

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Balloons and flags fly over the crowd as people walk on Red Square to mark May Day in Moscow, with St. Basil’s Cathedral center in the background, Russia, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. As in Soviet times, people paraded across... (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) More