ISTANBUL — Tens of thousands of workers marched in cities around the world Saturday to mark international worker’s day, demanding more jobs, better work conditions and higher wages.
About 140,000 jubilant workers gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square in the first celebrations at the site since dozens of people died there in a May 1 gathering more than three decades ago.
The demonstrations in Istanbul, which sits on both the European and Asian continents, marked a special victory for the Turkish unions, which had been denied access to Taksim Square since 1977, when 34 people died after shooting triggered a stampede. The culprits were never found, and workers demanded Saturday an inquiry into the deaths of the demonstrators.
Most of the annual May Day marches were peaceful, but in the Chinese territory of Macau, police used water cannons and pepper spray against rowdy protesters who tried to break away from the approved route. Hong Kong radio RTHK reported at least eight people injured.
In Switzerland, Zurich police used water cannons in an attempt to disperse dozens of stone-throwing protesters as unions and politicians protested against “excessive” Swiss banking bonuses.
German police detained 250 neo-Nazis who attempted to attack them in downtown Berlin, while they braced for further clashes after sundown.
The turnout in Cuba was massive, as expected, and authorities claimed the march by hundreds of thousands of Cubans amounted to approval of the island’s communist system amid mounting international criticism over human rights.
In Moscow, thousands of Communist demonstrators, carrying red balloons, red Soviet flags and portraits of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin, called for the Russian government’s resignation over rising prices and unemployment.
