On Thursday the streets bore witness to demonstrations ranging from mass mobilisations to local acts of defiance to mark International Workers’ Day
~ Alisa-Ece Tohumcu, Rob Latchford ~
From Paris to Athens and from Sao Paolo to Bandung, demands were raised against state violence, exploitation, and capitalist crisis.
NANTES
Around 10,00 marched for the day and were met with swift and heavy police repression. Riot units charged the crowd early, using water cannons and chemical agents in a coordinated effort to break up the demonstrations. Protestors are said to have held firm, with strong union solidarity allowing the march to regroup despite intense pressure.
BRUSSELS
Over 4,500 people joined the march, marking a record turnout for the third consecutive year. The demonstration brought together internationalist, anti-capitalist, and feminist blocs in a show of unity against militarism, fascism, and bourgeois power. Organisers emphasised the need to build revolutionary alternatives through collective struggle.
THESSALONIKI
Individuals marched behind banners from the Anarchist Political Organisation and grassroots labour unions. Chants denounced wage slavery, the state, and more; calling for organisation and struggle toward global social revolution. The demonstration moved through the city centre in a unified bloc.
PARIS
Police repression was swift and heavy-handed, with journalists among those struck with batons. Numerous banners were seized ahead of the march, and reports claim that multiple individuals were detained for carrying a Palestinian flag. After months of relative quiet following Macron’s autumn crackdown, authorities appeared eager to reassert control through brute force.
PRAGUE
Around 300 people joined the march in the Czech capital, bringing flags, banners, and more to the streets. The demonstration was followed by a concert and a focus on building new connections. Organised described the event as both emotional and energising, reaffirming the movement’s readiness to face the struggles of the present as well as the future.
ISTANBUL
50,000 police were deployed as the authorities cracked down and arrested hundreds of demonstrators. Taksim Square was under lockdown, with police and metal barriers along all roads leading to the area. Authorities were determined there were no major protests on the square, and they had enough riot police to ensure that.
TURIN
An anti-militarist and anarchist bloc marched in the demonstration under the banner “Peace among the oppressed, war on the oppressors”, organised by the Antimilitarist Assembly and the Turin Anarchist Federation. Over a hundred participants joined the contingent, which condemned the complicity of mainstream anti-war rhetoric with imperialist agendas, as well as the rise in workplace deaths, evictions, and precarious labour. Pushing forward the legacy of workers’ struggles and the need for renewed social emancipation.
SAO PAOLO
Demonstrators began at the citizenship station and ended at the Square of the Flags. Political groups, social movements, and militants from the OSL (Libertarian Socialist Organisation) joined the march, engaging with the workers alongside the route.
ATHENS
Several workers’ unions and trade unions staged a rally outside the parliament building, waving flags and chanting anti-government slogans. Student Foteini Douli said it was important to reflect and remember. “Of course we are here to honour Labor Day, which after many struggles and with great effort we, workers managed to achieve the eight-hour day, the working conditions and the rest,” she said.
LONDON
Several thousands marched from Clerkenwell Green on May Day for the International Workers Day March to Trafalgar Square. Those taking part included many from London’s various ethnic communities—Turkish, Kurdish, Latin American, West Indian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Iraqi, Iranian and more as well as many from UK trade unions, communist and anarchist groups. Many showed their support for Palestine and other international issues.
CUIDAD REAL
Nearly 70 people participated in the demonstration organised by the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) in Cuidad Real to commemorate International Workers’ Day. Through the reading of a manifesto in Plaza de las Terreras and a subsequent demonstration through several streets of the city in Castile–La Mancha. Reaching Plaza del Pilar, they denounced, among other things, that the world “continues to be governed by oligarchs, businessmen, and politicians who divide up our lives as if they were spoils”.
Top photo: Marseille, France
