May Day violence hits Germany
In Berlin, a policeman was seriously injured and 29 others hurt in running clashes on the fringes of a peace rally that had drawn some 6,000 people to a park in the east of the city.
Police had to use water cannon and tear gas to break up a crowd of some 200 young people who hurled fireworks and other missiles at them.
A total of 97 people were detained as police took three hours to bring the situation under control.
There were also clashes between radical groups in Hamburg, causing a number of injuries. Police took some 200 people into provisional detention.
In the afternoon, scuffles broke out with police as 300 far-left activists rallied in Berlin in a counter-protest against a demonstration by an estimated 1,200 supporters of the far-right National Party of Germany (NPD).
Thousands of police were deployed in the city, where more than 60 separate rallies were scheduled.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder struggled to defend his controversial economic reforms over the whistles of his critics. Schroeder was greeted by a chorus of whistles when he rose to speak at the main national rally organised by the German trade union congress, the DGB, at Neu-Anspach, near the western city of Frankfurt.
“I hadn’t known until now that whistling counted as a union argument,” the chancellor retorted.
Scuffles broke out between protesters and police during a May Day demonstration in central London yesterday.
Around 300 demonstrators gathered outside the offices of giant US firm Lockheed Martin in High Holborn.
Some protesters unfurled flags and staged a sit-down protest in the middle of the road.
Scuffles broke out as police tried to move the protesters along. Officers stopped the traffic and swamped the area.
The offices of the multinational company were boarded up and cordoned off. Protesters were unable to get close to the building.
Some demonstrators marched off to other events while a large contingent was still being penned in by police close to the Lockheed headquarters.
One police officer was hit by a can of beer.
The demonstration was one of a number of May Day events planned by anti-capitalist and anti-war protesters across Britain.
Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide took part in Russia’s traditional May Day rallies, but pro-Kremlin parties hijacked what in recent years has been a major day of protest for the Communist opposition.
In the capital Moscow, despite warm and sunny spring weather, the Communists were able to mobilise only 15,000 mainly elderly sympathisers for the traditional May Day parade past Red Square.
The comrades rallied with a will, waving red flags and demanding the resignation of President Vladimir Putin’s government, but the immense majority of Muscovites seized the opportunity to head for their dachas or country cottages to prepare them for weekend visits and summer vacations.
The Communist organisers had hoped to attract 50,000 people and bussed in supporters from across the country.
However their march was overshadowed by a rally organised by the trade unions and Moscow city authorities and attended by 25,000 people.
Among the latter was former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, 72, marching with the trade unionists.
Zimbabwe’s main labour body marked international workers’ day by warning thousands of supporters to brace themselves for confrontation with the government over fuel prices and low wages, saying things would not improve without a change of regime.
In a May Day speech to some 5,000 people at a stadium in the capital Harare, Lovemore Matombo the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) told workers to be prepared to take up the next call to action against the government.
Thousands hit the streets of Indonesian cities, calling for the resignation of President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her manpower minister for alleged indifference to the plight of workers.
In Jakarta about 2,000 workers picketed the presidential palace, calling Megawati and Vice President Hamzah Haz “lackeys of imperialists and anti-workers.”
“Create jobs for the people,” read their banners.
“The government is not siding with workers. They even oppress us with the new labour law,” said Fatullah, a worker at a state-owned steel company.
He said the law did not provide for severance pay for short-term labour.
Among other complaints, they called for May 1 to be declared a national holiday.
Pakistan marked international Labour Day with trade union rallies across the country that demanded adherence to International Labour Organisation conventions, better facilities and wages.
Thousands of trade union workers and left-wing activists marched through the streets in major cities demanding measures by the government to abolish child and bonded labour, enhancement of minimum wages and improved working conditions in public as well as private establishments.
Gunfire disrupted a May Day demonstration against President Hugo Chavez’s government in Venezuela yesterday, killing one person, local television reported.
President Hugo Chavez was the focus of rival May Day marches in the Venezuelan capital. Opponents of the populist left-wing president, led by the CTV trade union and the Democratic Coordination (CD) umbrella opposition group, marched to O’Leary Square in the centre of the capital to protest against unemployment and government policies.
Meanwhile Chavez supporters, marching under the banner of the newly-created National Workers Union (UNT), headed towards the Avenue Libertador, near the headquarters of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
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