A-Infos (en) [smygo] May Day Rallies

[Dan Clore <clore@columbia-center.org>]

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Workers, supporters turn out for Portland May Day parade
Several hundred take part in the annual labor celebration,
and discuss the state of workers' rights Monday, May 02, 2005
by ANDY DWORKIN The Portland Oregonian
  From longtime unionists to school-age anarchists, several
hundred people filed through downtown Portland on Sunday
afternoon in a small, colorful May Day parade.
Marchers discussed a host of social concerns, from support
for universal health care to opposition to the war in Iraq.
Honoring the traditional May 1 celebration of labor, many
said they fear that average workers' wages, benefits and
rights are eroding.

Several worried the proposed Central American Free Trade
Agreement -- among the United States, Dominican Republic and
five Central American nations -- would further harm labor if
approved by Congress.

"It's just a way of depleting all your nationality and
sovereignty," said Ferne Abbott, a Clackamas resident who
rallied with a photo of 2004 presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich tucked under the brim of her hard hat.

Apprentice electrician Hayley Graves of Portland said she
worries about issues including CAFTA and possible cuts in
Social Security. She also thinks low wages and benefits are
pushing poorer people to join the military, creating an
"economic draft." Graves said she marched for her 7-year-old
son, who walked beside her.

"It's important to get out here, for kids, too," she said.
"It's our right. But it's also our obligation, like voting."

Sunday's rally was smaller than parades in 2001 and 2002,
which drew 1,000 or more. It was notably calmer than the
2000 May Day march, when Portland police fired beanbags at a
confused crowd of demonstrators.

Controversy over police response led to streamlined city
parade regulations and closer cooperation with marchers.
Organizers this year had a parade permit, unlike in 2000,
and Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz
said police made no protest-related arrests.

*****

BBC News
May Day workers' march in London

Up to 40,000 people have taken part in events in London to
mark the annual May Day workers' march.

The celebrations, organised by the Trades Union Congress,
ended with a music festival and speeches in Trafalgar Square.

Rock singer Pete Doherty performed on the stage, which had
also seen speeches from former Labour MP Tony Benn, and
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.

The march had set off from Clerkenwell Green for the square
at 1300 BST.

Solidarity

Doherty's acoustic set, played under the banner "Unite
Against Fascism", followed performances by stars including
R&B singer Estelle and soul singer Terri Walker.

It is one of the first public appearances the singer has
made since charges of robbery and blackmail against him were
dropped.

The musicians performed between speeches from campaigners
and union officials.

Police officers were assigned to provide cover in London for
any unexpected protests.

In 2000, anarchists ran riot and defaced the Cenotaph in
Whitehall in protests which took place at the same time as
the TUC march.

But in recent years there has been little trouble.

TUC spokesman Laurie Helselden said: "We organise our march
extremely well. We work very well with the police so
violence has nothing to do with the traditions of May Day
and it has never occurred on the May Day march itself.

"Our major concern is that vandalism has no part in the
politics but the problem is when the vandalism occurs not
just in the march but in London itself, it masks our core
messages."

The issues covered throughout the day included international
solidarity, peace, respect for all, employment and trade
union rights and public services.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4503597.stm
2005/05/01 19:44:03 GMT

*****

DeHavilland
May Day protest passes off peacefully
02/05/2005

Up to 40,000 people took part in events in London yesterday
to mark the annual May Day workers' march.

The event organised Trades Union Congress climaxed with a
music festival and speeches in Trafalgar Square.

Those attending heard speeches from veteran socialist and
ex-Labour MP Tony Benn and former Labour firebrand Ken
Livingstone, now Mayor of London.

The march -- which survived any repeat of the violence which
blighted the day in 2000 -- set off from Clerkenwell Green
at 13:00 BST.

Police also stopped a large group of protesters from
converging on a Tesco supermarket.

Around 80 protesters, some wearing masks, were believed to
be making their way to the store in Morning Lane, Hackney,
east London.

In France, May Day protests also saw far-right leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen marking the holiday by beseeching the
French to reject the European Union treaty.

In Russia, celebrations took place in Moscow's Red Square
and in Germany, more than 500,000 trade union activists
demonstrated across the country to demand better employment
conditions.

German police fought pitch battles with masked left-wing
anarchists in Berlin and Leipzig, with about 100 people
arrests made in the two cities.

In Turkey, riot police arrested at least 47 people in
Istanbul for an illegal demonstration.

*****

3500 youth in Tel Aviv to support workers' rights
JPost.com Staff
THE JERUSALEM POST
May. 2, 2005

About 3,500 members of youth groups took to the streets of
Tel Aviv on Sunday afternoon for the annual Worker's Day
march, reported Army Radio.

The marchers called for companies to stop taking advantage
of workers and working youth.

The police arrested ten young people, members of a group of
anarchists, for allegedly hitting police officers, burning
the Israeli flag and distrupting the demonstration.

*****

May Day demonstration turns violent
Traditional parade turns to mayhem when youth groups
representing different left-wing viewpoints clash; 10 arrested
By Miri Chason and Avi Cohen

TEL AVIV -- A traditional May Day parade turned violent
Sunday when members of competing left-wing youth groups
clashed at a train station in Tel Aviv.

About 3000 teenagers from a variety of youth groups,
including Hashomer Hatzair, Working and Learning Youth,
Immigrants Camp and others, marched from Rabin Square to an
organized demonstration on Arlozoroff Street, but the rally
turned violent when a group of communists and anarchists
tried to crash the demonstration.

Clashes begin

Clashes began when organizers of the original rally refused
to allow other groups to participate. One anarchist with a
megaphone called on protesters to leave the scheduled rally
to join the counter-protest. Soon enough, the groups started
clashing with each other when the police refused to allow
either to hold their rally as planned.

One protester, 18-year-old Aviv Sela, said he was beaten by
police.

"We were not allowed to enter and at a certain stage they
would not let us scream and yell that we were left outside.
Suddenly, without any reason, the police decided to thrash
us," he said.

"At some point, some of us got shoved and the beatings
begun. When I arrived there, I saw cops hit two teens with
their bats. They hit me too, until I managed to get out of
there," he added.

Not Zionists

One anarchist protester, 19-year-old Anat Goychman,
condemned the other left-wing groups for being
"militaristic" and for serving in the IDF. But she added "we
still think there is room for us to fight for some of the
same principals."

"We think the working, learning youth movement is
problematic because it was conceptualized by Zionists and a
set of values we do not identify with," she added.

Police: they attacked us

"The anarchists attacked cops and tried to set the Israeli
and Israel Police flags on fire," was the official police
reaction.

*****


Left-Wing Extremists Accuse Police of Brutality
Sunday, May 1, 2005 / 22 Nisan 5765
http://IsraelNN.com

Extreme left-wing socialists today accused the police of
brutality during annual May 1 rallies. The rally in Rabin
Square in Tel Aviv was peaceful until groups, including
anarchists, tried to join the march. Police barred anyone
not wearing the blue shirt symbolizing traditional socialist
groups.

Eyewitness reported that policemen swept through the extreme
left-wing groups with batons and hit them indiscriminately.
Several of the protestors tried to burn the Israeli flag on
the main stage.

*****

Deutsche Welle
02.05.2005  	
Germans Protest Against Corporate Greed

More than half a million people across Germany on Sunday
took part in traditional Labor Day rallies to protest
against large-scale unemployment and greedy managers. Riots
expected in Berlin failed to materialize.

The trade unions' criticism was also directed in part
against the ruling government coalition of Social Democrats
and Greens as faith in their political clout and resolves
continues to dwindle.

Germany's powerful trade unions accused companies of
sacrificing the welfare of workers for the sake of pure
greed. Addressing a crowd of several thousand at a central
rally in the western town of Mannheim, the head of Germany's
confederation of trade unions, Michael Sommer, said many big
companies were running roughshod over the rights of workers.

He said it was unjust that so many workers nowadays had a
hard time making ends meet, while managers' salaries have
skyrocketed and many companies have seen rising profits

"In many companies in Germany workers are getting a tough
treatment," he said. "Managers excel each other in
displaying naked greed. Small wonder workers' rights are
increasingly being perceived as an obstacle and something
that should be done away with."

Sommer blamed companies for not investing enough in new
jobs. He said the almost five million jobless in the country
were proof of screaming injustice and a society which was
becoming increasingly inhuman.

Criticizing the government

Trade union leaders also directed much of their criticism
towards mainstream politicians, including representatives of
the ruling government coalition, saying that they'd not done
enough to keep capitalism at bay.

For the second year in a row, Social Democrat chancellor
Gerhard Schröder was not even invited to the central Labor
Day rally. SPD chief Franz Müntefering recently lashed out
at what he called capitalist "locusts" who "chewed up" firms
with no regard for the consequences.

SPD chief pelted with eggs

But he did not get the support he was fishing for at a rally
in Duisburg in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia
where important regional elections will be held later this
month. Müntefering was pelted with eggs, because
demonstrators did not believe in the sincerity of his words.
The SPD chief himself took the incident in his stride and
promised his party would continue to fight for just social
and economic conditions in the age of globalization.

"Just imagine a situation in which politicians from all
mainstream parties here just sit back and explain to people
that they're not in a position to change anything on the
social and economic front," he said. Some maintain that
money rules the world and use this as an excuse to do
nothing. I don't agree. We have the responsibility to create
the frame conditions for a humane society which keeps the
forces of a free market in check."

Less street fighting

May 1 also saw the usual street fights between right-wingers
and left-wing anarchists in cities such as Leipzig and
Berlin. About 100 people were arrested. While 200 police
officers were injured last year, this time, only three were
hurt, according to reports. The protests were the most
peaceful ones since riots began in 1987, according to police
officials.

A spokesperson for the police in Berlin, Nicola Rothärmel,
put things in perspective.

"Compared to previous years, the situation was relatively
calm," she said. "Of course there were some who sought
confrontation, but police had everything under control and
stepped in immediately when riots were about to break out.
That's a positive development and we hope that this level of
overall peacefulness can be maintained in the years to come."

Neo-Nazi demonstrations turn violent

In the eastern town of Leipzig, however, violence broke out
between neo-Nazi demonstrators and police. Some of the 1,000
far-right protestors scuffled with police, which had
deployed 2,500 officers and initially prevented the start of
a march from the city's main train station.

Some 2,000 leftist counter-demonstrators blocked the march
route at several points and launched flares. Police cleared
the area with water cannons and detained 98 people. Eighteen
police were injured by rocks.

In Nuremberg, 400 members of the neo-Nazi National
Democratic Party (NPD) staged a march at the main rail
station that police guarded from a much larger group of
counter-demonstrators. And in the western town of
Frankenthal, some 2,000 protested against the NPD, which
rallied 170 members.

by Hardy Graupner / AFP (win) 	
http://www.dw-world.de

*****

May 2, 2005
100 Held in May Day Unrest in 2 German Cities
By REUTERS

ERLIN, May 1 (Reuters) -- German riot police officers
battled with masked anarchists in Berlin and Leipzig on
Sunday, as sporadic violence once again marred May Day
celebrations.

About 100 people in the two cities were arrested, but the
Berlin police said the extent of the damage was less serious
than in previous years.

Throwing stones, bottles and signal rockets at police
officers, a group of anarchists overturned a car in the
Kreuzberg district of Berlin near the government quarter but
were chased away by the police before they could set it on fire.

Kreuzberg, a district populated by a mixture of immigrants,
students and squatters, has been the scene of May Day
violence for the past 18 years despite extensive prevention
efforts by the police.

"We had predicted it would be quieter this year, but not
completely without incident, and that's what's happened," a
police spokesman said.

The most tense moment came shortly before sunset on Sunday
when a group of about 1,500 anarchists, many of them masked
and wearing dark hoods, tried to march toward the Berlin
headquarters of the Axel Springer publishing company.

"Everything for everyone and everything for free!" they chanted.

They were stopped by squads of riot police officers from
getting closer than about 150 yards to the building, where
several conservative newspapers are published. About a dozen
anarchists then tipped over a car and smashed its windows in
front of photographers and journalists.

"Everything has been peaceful up until now," another police
official said. "We had a few youths who got a bit
overexcited and had too much to drink, but it's calmed down
again now."

After sunset, anarchists made another short-lived attack on
the police, hurling bottles and stones at officers near a
street festival.

Ten people were arrested in Berlin on Sunday evening after
65 were arrested late on Saturday and early Sunday.

In Leipzig, the police turned water cannons on leftist
demonstrators who battled the riot police on Sunday. Thirty
leftists were arrested for acts of violence to disrupt a
court-approved march of 1,000 right-wing demonstrators.

A police spokesman in Leipzig said more than 1,200 left-wing
protesters had tried to block the march.

The police in Berlin said three city officers had been
slightly injured, compared with more than 50 in the early
hours of May 1, 2004.

*****

Radio Polonia
'The Left conned the people'
01.05.2005
	
May Day marches and rallies have been organized by the Left
in Poland's major cities, but not without interruptions.

In Warsaw, an extreme left wing grouping, the New Left
engaged in scuffles with participants in a march organized
by the ruling Demnocratic Left Alliance and the National
Trade Union Alliance. The New Left interrupted a speech
delivered by the Alliance leader Jozef Oleksy, criticizing
the performance of its government.

About 600 persons joined the two demonstrations.

In the city of Poznan in the mid-west, several anarchists
were detained by police for interrupting a May Day rally.
The anarchists turned up with bare chests and with horns on
their heads, as symbols that the Left has conned the people.


*******
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