Labor Day was celebrated in most countries through magnificent marches and gatherings. Increasing wages, halting the Israeli army’s genocide in Gaza, were common slogans in many International Workers’ Day actions. However, specific demands varied in each country and state. In the United States, protesters condemned the police’s violent crackdown on solidarity demonstrations with the people of Gaza by students. They emphasized stopping the financial and military aid from the U.S. government and major capitalists to Israel. Demonstrators also highlighted demands for better wages, housing for all, universal citizenship rights, ending all wars, and free universal education for all.
In Oklahoma, activists who had demanded an end to financial and military aid to Israel four months ago resumed their protests on International Workers’ Day with the same slogans, closing the port once again. They also protested against inflation, declining living standards for workers, and financial inequality between capitalists and workers, calling for improving workers’ living standards and conditions.
In Chicago, protesters honored workers and labor leaders killed in the infamous Haymarket affair in 1886, while in California, demonstrators rallied in support of the “Gaza Solidarity Camp” at the University of Southern California. In Seattle, banners read: “They’re committing genocide in Gaza just as they massacred Native Americans; just as they kill workers in workplaces lacking safety equipment.” Another banner read: “Unemployment insurance for immigrant workers who haven’t been granted official residency yet.”
In Paris and Nantes, clashes with police occurred, with banners reading “I hate you with all my heart, Macron.” They set fire to the Olympic flag. It’s worth noting that the Summer Olympics will be held in three months in France, which will cause severe inflation for workers and other people, benefiting only hoteliers and some merchants.
In the May Day gatherings in Germany, the slogan “Tax the wealthy” was prominent. In protests in British cities, demands included defending workers’ democratic rights, fighting poverty, especially child poverty, increasing wages, and halting aid to the Israeli government in the mass killing of Palestinians.
In Asian countries, protesters demanded an end to privatization, wage increases, stopping changes to labor laws favoring capitalists, and halting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In Iran, the Islamic Republic police, especially in Kurdistan, brutally prevented the organization of independent May Day ceremonies by labor activists in urban areas. Hence, ceremonies were held outside cities or in a clandestine manner. Despite these pressures, leading workers in Sanandaj Industrial Town No. 1 and in Kamiaran held May Day ceremonies.
Outside Kurdistan, workers at Haft Tappeh Sugar Company held ceremonies at the company site, and retirees in Kermanshah held ceremonies in front of the Labor and Social Welfare Office of Kermanshah Province, demanding the return of Ismaeil Bakhshi to work and the complete transfer of the company to the Haft Tappeh Sugar Development Plan. The speaker at the Haft Tappeh ceremony, Ibrahim Abbasi, a prominent active worker, addressed the problems of workers at this production unit and supported the strike of Pars Paper workers in Shush. He also raised two important demands of Haft Tappeh workers: the return of Ismaeil Bakhshi to work and the complete transfer of the company to the Haft Tappeh Sugar Development Plan. The speaker at the second ceremony was Farasti, a retiree from Kermanshah, who, in addition to mentioning the miseries and problems of retirees’ lives, demanded the release of Toomaj Salehi.
At the end of this ceremony, the resolution of Kermanshah retirees was read.
