Workers demand higher wages, rights, respect

B E RLIN» Higher salaries, better working conditions, maternity leave, minimum wage and an end to discrimination against temporary or foreign workers: These were among the concerns as hundreds of thousands of union members and labor activists rallied around the world to mark May Day.

The tradition of May Day marches for workers’ rights began in the United States during the 1880s. It quickly spread to other countries at a time when industrialization pitted poorly paid employees who had few protections and little power against increasingly dominant factory employers and landowners.

Protesters mourn Puerto Rico’s plight

Thousands of Puerto Ricans marched to traditional music while protesting austerity measures, with many participants at a May Day event demanding the ouster of a federal control board overseeing the U.S. territory’s finances.

Many in the crowd in San Juan waved Puerto Rican flags made in black and white, rather than red, white and blue, to symbolize mourning for the island’s plight, especially since September 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

Protests over highspeed train in Italy

Two protesters and a police officer were injured in Turin, where police blocked a demonstration against the construction of a high-speed rail line between France and Italy, according to ANSA, an Italian news agency.

Among the protesters were members of the 5-Star Movement, a nationalist party that is in Italy’s ruling coalition but is opposed to the tunnel. One member, Torino City Councilor Damiano Carretto, said on Facebook that he was hit in the head and on the hand by a police truncheon.

Russian workers march at Red Square

Authorities in Russia said about 100,000 people took part in a May Day rally in central Moscow organized by Kremlin-friendly trade unions on Red Square. Opposition activists said more than 100 people were detained in several cities, including for participating in unsanctioned political protests.

In St. Petersburg, police arrested more than 60 supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Some of them carried signs saying “Putin is not immortal,” in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been at the helm since 2000.

Agitators in France

French police clashed with stone-throwing protesters who set fires and smashed vehicles, while tens of thousands of other people marched peacefully under tight security.

France’s Interior Ministry deployed 7,400 police officers in Paris to counter troublemakers, who disrupted May Day events in the past several years. About 330 arrests were made Wednesday.

Detentions in Turkey

Turkish police detained May Day demonstrators trying to march toward Istanbul’s main square, which has been declared off limits by authorities, who cited security concerns. Still, small groups chanting “May Day is Taksim, and it cannot be banned,” attempted to break the blockade, with dozens reportedly detained. Taksim Square has held symbolic value for Turkey’s labor movement since 34 people were killed there during a May Day rally in 1977 when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building.

German unions denounce nationalism

Germany’s biggest trade union urged voters to participate in this month’s European Parliament election and reject nationalism.

The DGB, a confederation of unions with almost 6 million members, warned that the political and economic turmoil in Great Britain after its vote to leave the European Union nationalism “shows what happens if those who stoke fear but have no plan for the future gain the upper hand.”

When night fell, hooded demonstrators lit flares during a traditional May Day event.