------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 10, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- MAY DAY: WORKERS MARCH AROUND THE WORLD By John Catalinotto Worldwide May Day actions in 2001 were a mixture of traditional working-class parades, mass union protests and anti-capitalist confrontations with an aggressive capitalist state apparatus that was looking for trouble. The most dramatic worker protests were in countries hard hit by the world economic downturn: South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. The new element this year was the greater presence of anti- globalization forces who had made their mark in Seattle, Prague, Quebec City and other places where the institutions of world imperialism had held summits. In some places this May Day the workers' demonstrations raised anti- globalization slogans. Instead of trying to list all the traditional holiday parades, this article will concentrate on areas that typify the day's struggles. In Cuba, for example, President Fidel Castro led a march of hundreds of thousands of workers in Havana past the U.S. Interests Section, where they protested the U.S. attempt to impose the "Free Trade Area of the Americas" on the hemisphere. In Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, anti-globalization demonstrators targeted the stock exchanges, blocking streets in the financial districts. Trade unionists participated in the actions. The demonstrators then marched on state parliaments. In London, some 6,000 police prepared as if for war, even threatening to use rubber bullets at one point before the demonstration. The year before demonstrators had done a moderate amount of property damage. This time shopkeepers boarded up posh shops and police blocked off access to statues of Winston Churchill and other imperialist political leaders. The late prime minister was responsible for some of the more violent and racist suppressions of colonial revolts and interventions against liberation movements in Africa, India and Ireland in the period before World War II, and is a deserving target. The Berlin police also took a repressive stance. Some 9,000 cops were out in force. They allowed a neo-Nazi rally to proceed, but banned a demonstration by leftists and attacked them when the left forces challenged the ban. Despite the police presence, some 6,000 protesters built barricades in some of the East Berlin neighborhoods and confronted the authorities. Others carried placards reading "Never again fascism" and "Together against the right wing" to challenge the Nazis. PRISONER SOLIDARITY IN TURKEY In Istanbul, Turkey, press services report that 20,000 people marched in solidarity with hunger strikers inside and out of Turkey's prisons. That country's massive population of political prisoners has risked death--and over 20 have already died from the hunger strike, as well as 30 at the hands of the police--to fight changes in the prison system that would isolate them from each other. People rallied in 44 other cities in the country, including the capital Ankara, where for the first time a gay rights group participated. Perhaps the greatest confrontation between a workers' demonstration and the authorities was in Seoul, South Korea. There 20,000 workers confronting 15,000 riot police pushed aside a police barricade to defy a ban on marching toward the main government district. About 20 workers in wheelchairs led the march, with a banner reading, "Down with the Kim Dae-Jung regime" displayed behind them. The demonstration follows heavy government repression in March against workers at Daewoo Motors--slated for a takeover by General Motors. Workers were sitting in to protest layoffs GM demanded when police attacked them. Demonstrators' headbands read: "Fight for survival rights" and "Fight for job security." Another kind of May Day action took place at Diamond Mountain, a resort area in North Korea, where 1,000 workers from both North and South Korea celebrated the possibility of unification of their land. In Taipei, Taiwan, some 20,000 workers marched through the capital, demanding jobs and that the top government officials resign. Some 380,000 were officially unemployed in March, 160,000 of them because of recent company closings. Some 5,000 businesses closed last year and it is expected that another 6,000 will close this year. Marchers carried giant balloons reading "Protect labor unions" and "Protect employment rights." They blamed the government's policy of pushing for independence, a policy that has increased tensions with the People's Republic of China. In South Africa too, the focus was on jobs. The Congress of South African Trade Unions organized the 2001 celebrations in its various regions countrywide. The theme of this year's May Day was "Stop the job loss bloodbath! Create quality jobs; fight poverty!" In Russia the larger outpourings took place in the Asian parts of the country, with tens of thousands of people marching in Siberian cities and towns. Associated Press reported over 700,000 people marched across Russia, but fewer than 50,000 in Moscow. Many carried banners favorable to the late Soviet leader Josef Stalin, who they identify with the period when the Soviet Union was able to rapidly industrialize using socialist methods and also, with great sacrifices, to defeat the Nazi war machine in World War II. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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