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Millions Rally Worldwide on May Day
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Tens of thousands of protesters gathered on Bastille square in Paris to protest against extreme right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
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PARIS, May 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Millions rallied worldwide Wednesday to mark May Day, but all eyes were on France, where the labor holiday turned into a mass street protest against the extreme right.
All eyes were on France, where the labor holiday turned into a mass street protest against the rising extreme right.
More than one million people demonstrated nationwide against resurgent far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, four days before a French presidential election he is all but certain to lose, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
In a show of unprecedented solidarity, citizens railed against the nationalist, anti-immigrant rhetoric of Le Pen which has sent shudders through the nation on the eve of the vote, said AFP.
The massive rallies dwarfed the turnout of between 10,000 and 20,000 people at a rally in Paris where Le Pen launched a scathing attack on his election rival, incumbent President Jacques Chirac.
"Three years ago they said we were dead. But today the earthquake is under the feet of our enemies," he told the crowd.
In the Middle East, Jordan's King Abdullah II paid a tribute to Palestinian workers while thousands in Syria took to the streets to show support for the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation and aggressions.
In Spain, two car bombs that police blamed on the Basque separatist movement ETA exploded in Madrid just hours before a major football match. At least nine people were slightly injured.
Berlin saw its worst violence in three years when May Day protesters hurling bottles and rocks clashed with security forces in the early hours.
Dozens of police were injured along with a woman who was left in life-threatening condition. At least 25 people were arrested.
In Italy, where unions are in a bitter fight with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, half a million people rallied against proposed reforms they say will make it easier to sack workers.
Around 75 demonstrations were held across Spain, where another center-right government has proposed unpopular reforms to unemployment benefits.
Police in the Swiss city of Zurich fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
But fears of violent clashes in Britain came to naught, as thousands of anti-globalization protesters and others made a noisy but peaceful march through London.
In Turkey, celebrations in mainly Kurdish provinces resulted in the detention of at least 30 people and a one-day hunger strike to protest the restrictions.
Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov addressed his first May Day rally since the Communists announced they would no longer collaborate with the Kremlin.
The party claimed a turnout of 100,000 demonstrators, but police set the figure at around 20,000.
In a sign of changing priorities, however, Communist China honored several capitalists on the day Beijing once dedicated to a show of state solidarity and military might.
Four businessmen joined members of the toiling masses on the list of May 1 Labor Medals awarded by the official trade unions federation, the Xinhua news agency said.
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On May Day, Palestinian men pray in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil next to the bodies of seven murdered Palestinians. |
At least 31 people were detained in wild protests in Australia outside the Sydney headquarters of the security company that runs the country's notorious immigration detention centers.
Activists rolled marbles onto the streets, sending at least one mounted policewoman and her horse crashing to the ground. All of the detained were later released.
Showing the range of their causes, demonstrators later marched on the offices of the World Bank, the stock exchange, the Israeli consulate and Australian government buildings.
Around 15,000 protesters in the Philippines defied heavy security to rally in support of deposed president Joseph Estrada and against his successor, current President Gloria Arroyo.
In Singapore, opposition leader Chee Soon Juan was arrested after he tried to stage an illegal demonstration outside the presidential complex, police and witnesses said, AFP reported.
Protesters kept closer to the traditional spirit of the day in South Korea, where unionists vowed an "all-out struggle" for the rights of workers.
May Day in Hanoi was again eclipsed by the previous day's celebrations marking the Communist victory in the Vietnam War.
In Tokyo, where almost record-high unemployment has helped undermine the popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, 35,000 people demonstrated. No trouble was reported.
In Zimbabwe, the main labor movement joined the opposition and pro-democracy activists against President Robert Mugabe.
Tension was high in Venezuela as thousands of President Hugo Chavez's polarized friends and foes took to the streets amid grave warnings the country was teetering on the brink of catastrophe.
"We are on course for a civil war, a confrontation between Venezuelans, between brothers," said Carlos Vega, head of the Venezuelan Workers' Union (CTV).
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