“The price of everything has increased except for our wages. In South Korea, tens of thousands of people attended rallies in its biggest May Day gatherings since the pandemic began in early 2020. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in history and has suspended foreign debt repayments. Protesters demanded the government halt moves to privatize state-owned and semi-government businesses. Sri Lanka’s opposition political parties and trade unions held workers’ day rallies protesting austerity measures and economic reforms linked to a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund. In Peshawar, in the restive northwest, labor organizations and trade unions held indoor events to demand better workers’ rights amid high inflation. In Pakistan, authorities banned rallies in some cities because of a tense security and political atmosphere. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has declared Taksim off-limits to protests, though small groups were allowed to enter to lay wreaths at a monument. The square has symbolic importance for Turkey’s trade unions after unknown gunmen opened fire on a May Day celebration at Taksim in 1977, causing a stampede that killed dozens. In Turkey, police prevented demonstrators from reaching Istanbul’s main square, Taksim, and detained around a dozen of them, independent television station Sozcu reported.
“We are here, not only (to mark) Labor Day, but also to warn that if there is no social justice, there will be no social peace either,” said union leader Jakim Nedelkovski. The minimum monthly wage in one of Europe’s poorest countries, is 320 euros ($350), while the hike will put ministers’ wages at around 2,300 euros ($2,530).
In Northern Macedonia’s capital Skopje, thousands of trade union members protested a recent government decision granting ministers a 78% raise. “Today we see rising inequality throughout the world, terrible inflation,” she said, adding that Macron’s government was trying “to tear down a pillar of the social system which is the pension system.” Labor activists from abroad were present, among them Hyrwon Chong of the South Korean Metal Workers’ Union. Tear gas hung over the end point of the Paris march, Place de la Nation, where a huge black cloud lofted high above the trees after radicals set two fuel cans afire outside a building renovation site, police said.įrench union members were joined by groups fighting for economic justice, or just expressing anger at what is seen as Macron’s out-of-touch, pro-business leadership. He said some 2,000 radicals were at the Paris march. “Violence is increasingly strong in a society that is radicalizing,” the interior minister said on BFM-TV news station, blaming the ultra-left.
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