May Day! World Capitals Erupt in Protest
Workers around the world have seized the symbolic first of May to stage demonstrations over wages and labor conditions.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty; Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty; Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty; Ed Wray/Getty
Tens of thousands of workers and labor activists marched through the central business district.
Ed Wray/Getty
Protesters were demanding higher minimum wages and better working conditions.
Ed Wray/Getty
Traditional Javanese dancers perform in front of the presidential palace during a labor demonstration.
Ed Wray/Getty
Taiwanese workers try to pull a roadblock down during a protest in Taipei. More than 10,000 Taiwanese workers took to the streets in the capital city Wednesday to protest a government-reform plan that would cut pension payouts to ease Taiwan's worsening fiscal problems. The protesters said the cuts reflect a longstanding government policy to bolster economic growth at the expense of workers' benefits and compromised workplace safety.
Chiang Ying-ying/AP
Policemen arrest a protester at a rally against a march of Ukrainian communists.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty
A man plays a brass instrument as the United Russia Party and government-linked trade unions take to the streets to mark May Day. Thousands of communists, members of Russia's main political parties, and opposition activists staged competing marches.
Mikhail Metzel/AP
Members of the pro-government Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM) attend an official May Day rally.
Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty
Supporters of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party. Bulgaria will holds snap parliamentary elections on May 12.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty
Communist Party activists carry red flags and banners in central Moscow.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty
Red flags are reflected in a window, with a police officer standing in the foreground.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty
France’s far-right National Front party members chant slogans.
Christophe Ena/AP
Supporters of the nationalist party Red and Black march on Tirana’s main boulevard, demanding the resignation of Premier Sali Berisha.
Gent Shkullaku/AFP/Getty
Cambodian garment-factory workers stage a rally. Participants called on the government for a raise in the minimum wage rate and for better working conditions.
Heng Sinith/AP
A cardboard caricature head of billionaire tycoon Victor Li, chairman of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd., is displayed as hundreds of dock workers take part in a protest over pay and working conditions. According to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the stevedores have lowered their wage demands as the strike action over pay and working conditions enters its 34th day.
Lam Yik Fei/Getty
A Greek presidential guard stands framed by the remains of a European Union flag half-burnt by protesters. About 8,000 people took part in subdued demonstrations in Athens as austerity-weary unions held a strike for May Day. The country's main labor unions protested soaring unemployment, which is the highest in the 27-country European Union, and the austerity measures the conservative-led government is enacting in return for crucial bailout loans.
Petros Giannakouris/AP
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