Vol. 78/No. 19      May 19, 2014

In Bangladesh thousands of garment workers marched in the capital Dhaka on International Workers’ Day, demanding a raise in the minimum wage, safer workplaces and union rights.

Garment workers there won a 77 percent increase in the minimum wage last year after six months of sustained strike mobilizations. Demonstrators also demanded compensation for the more than 1,100 garment workers killed and hundreds more injured in the 2012 Tazreen Fashions factory fire and Rana Plaza factory building collapse last year.

In Indonesia, tens of thousands rallied in cities across the country for the first time as part of an official government holiday, a concession won after several years of May 1 mobilizations by the country’s burgeoning labor movement. About 30,000 demonstrators in Jakarta demanded a 30 percent increase in the minimum wage, which was raised to $206 last month.

Among those in the Jakarta action were women who used to work for the Panarub Dwikarya factory making Adidas shoes. In 2012, 1,300 workers struck over working conditions, 65-hour workweeks and wages. The company offered a “voluntary” resignation with a $140 severance pay. Workers who refused the offer were fired. The workers, all women, still protest weekly outside the factory demanding payment.

In Turkey, the government banned May 1 demonstrations at Taksim Square, the traditional meeting site for trade union marches in Istanbul. Parts of the city were locked down, much of public transportation closed and 40,000 cops deployed.

Thousands defied the ban and were assaulted by cops, who employed tear gas and water cannons. More than 140 were arrested and 90 people injured. Last summer Taksim Square was the center of protests against the government, involving 2 million people demanding political and democratic rights for religious and national minorities, women and unions. Seven people were killed by cops in those actions.

In Cambodia, the government in January issued a ban on gatherings in public places after a government crackdown on a nationwide strike for a higher minimum wage by hundreds of thousands of garment workers. Cops and military personnel killed five and injured dozens. The ban was partially lifted in February, but enforced again as of May 1.

Freedom Park, the rallying point for the May 1 demonstrations in Phnom Penh, was sealed off with barbed wire and all roads leading there were barricaded by cops. Some 1,000 factory workers and supporters gathered near the park to demand improved living conditions and a lifting of the ban on public assembly.

Uniformed cops and plainclothes goons attacked the demonstrators; at least two were badly injured.

In Russia, some 100,000 rallied in Moscow to support President Vladimir Putin, Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and continued attempts to destabilize Ukraine. On the other hand, about 1,500 in St. Petersburg marched to condemn Moscow’s intervention, singing the Ukrainian national anthem. A contingent defending gay rights also took part in the St. Petersburg action without being attacked, unlike in previous years.

Hundreds also demonstrated in a handful of cities across the United States, where International Workers’ Day was born to commemorate the May 1886 government crackdown on the fight for the eight-hour working day in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Central demands of this year’s actions were an end to deportations, E-Verify checks and other government attacks on immigrant workers. A number of actions, including in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, also called for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

Nearly 100 people gathered at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, to support inmates on hunger strike at the immigration jail. Some then car-pooled to join a demonstration of 1,500 in Seattle. Another rally of 700, mostly farm and cannery workers, was organized in Yakima.

Some 500 people assembled at Haymarket Square in Chicago and marched through downtown to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. About 300 demonstrated in Milwaukee, 1,000 in Los Angeles and roughly 1,500 at each of two actions in New York City.
 
 
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