May Day Rallies Worldwide Demand Workers' Rights

Workers on Sunday marked May Day across the globe with rallies in cities from Paris, to Istanbul, to Manila.

Some of the protesters faced violence from police. According to reporting by Reuters, “Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon and detained more than 200 people after scuffles broke out at May Day celebrations in Istanbul and some anti-government protesters tried to breach a ban on access to the main Taksim square.”

As France’s parliament is weighing a bill that would erode worker protections, “hundreds of angry youths on the sidelines of a May Day labor rally hurled stones and wood at police in Paris, receiving repeated bursts of tear gas in response,” the Associated Press reports.

“Similar fears about erosion of rights,” according to Agence France-Presse, sent “tens of thousands on to the streets of South Korea.”

Calls for justice from crowds were far-reaching, as in Germany, where, according to Euronews, “unions called on people to oppose xenophobia, right-wing extremism, and a divided society.”

And in London, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked the politics of austerity, criticizing at a rally “a government that is more interested in tax relief for corporations, and tax relief at the top end of the scale,” and saying, “We’re here today to defend the national health service free at the point of service as a human right for all.”