Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Activists march
Defiant rallies mark May Day around the globe.
Workers and activists marked May Day around the world Monday with defiant rallies and marches where they called for better pay and working conditions.
In the United States, thousands of people from New England to the West Coast chanted, picketed and protested as demonstrations raged against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies alongside traditional May Day marching in favor of labor.
Protesters flooded streets in Portland, Ore., where police said that the May Day protest had become “a riot.” Smoke bombs, Molotov cocktails and other items were thrown at police. CNN reported that three people had been arrested and the Portland police said on Twitter that the protest permit had been canceled “due to actions of anarchists.” Seattle was also bracing for violence.
Four people were arrested after creating a human chain to block a county building in Oakland, Calif., where demonstrators demanded that county law enforcement refuse to collaborate with federal immigration agents. In New York, several protesters were arrested for blocking the entrance to Wells Fargo over the bank’s role financing private Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, according to local news reports.
Meanwhile, at the White House gates, protesters demanded “Donald Trump has got to go!” Teachers working without contracts picketed outside schools in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Activists in Phoenix petitioned state legislators to support immigrant families. And in Los Angeles, several thousand people waved U.S. flags and signs reading “love not hate.”
Elsewhere around the world, May Day, celebrated as International Workers’ Day, saw similar scenes unfold. Here’s a roundup:
France: A May Day march in Paris turned violent less than a week before the runoff French presidential election as police clashed with a small group of protesters who threw Molotov cocktails at officers.
Police responded with tear gas and truncheons.
Four officers were injured, with one seriously burned in the face, Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said.
The annual march to celebrate workers’ rights this year included calls to block far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen from winning the presidency during Sunday’s runoff election.
Puerto Rico: Businesses in Puerto Rico were boarded up as the U.S. territory faced a May Day strike organized by opponents of austerity measures amid a deep economic crisis.
Dozens of people wearing black T-shirts blocked a main road in the capital, San Juan.
Turkey: Police in Istanbul detained 165 people during May Day events around the city, most of them demonstrators trying to march to a symbolic square in defiance of a ban.
A security department statement said that an additional 18 people suspected of planning illegal demonstrations and possible acts of violence on Monday were detained in separate police operations.
Turkey had declared Taksim Square off-limits to May Day demonstrations for the third year in a row.
Cuba: A protester briefly disrupted the start of Cuba’s largest annual political event, sprinting in front of May Day marchers with a U.S. flag before being tackled and dragged away.
Russia: Two May Day marches were held in Moscow. First, a crowd that police estimated at about 130,000 people paraded across the cobblestones of Red Square, the site of Soviet-era May Day celebrations.
The second march was led by the Communists, who over the years have tried to keep the May Day tradition alive. Their march, which skirted Red Square, drew several thousand people.
South Africa: South African President Jacob Zuma was jeered by labor unionists and his May Day speech was canceled after scuffles broke out between his supporters and workers chanting for him to step down.
Philippines: A few thousand left-wing activists and laborers marched and held noisy rallies to press for higher wages and an end to temporary contractual jobs that deprive workers of many benefits. Crowds in Manila also protested extrajudicial killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug crackdown.
The activists carried murals of Duterte and Trump, asking the Philippine leader to stay away from the U.S. president, who has invited Duterte for a visit.