WORKERS took to the streets in cities across the world yesterday to mark International Workers Day, with trade unions warning that the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran, rising energy costs and growing income inequality are threatening livelihoods globally.
‘Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,’ the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 organisations in 41 countries, said.
‘Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.’
The International Trade Union Confederation reported that at least four major corporate CEOs each pocketed more than $100 million last year, while workers face mounting job cuts, with coalitions demanding governments impose fairer taxes on the wealthiest and curb excessive executive pay.
In France, unions rallied under the slogan ‘bread, peace and freedom’.
In Istanbul, marches gave way to clashes with police.
Some of the largest demonstrations were held in South America, including Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela, while in Argentina workers protested against President Javier Milei’s overhaul of labour protections.
Cuba held a mass rally in Havana in defiance of US ‘aggressions, threats, intensified blockade, and energy siege’.
In the Philippines, SENTRO leader Josua Mata said: ‘Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,’ while Renato Reyes of the left-wing group Bayan warned of ‘a louder call for higher wages and economic relief because of the unprecedented spikes in fuel prices’.
In Indonesia, trade union confederation president Said Iqbal said: ‘Workers are already living pay cheque to pay cheque.’ Across the US, where May Day is not a public holiday, hundreds of demonstrations were planned under the banner ‘workers over billionaires’.
In Gaza, the day carried a weight unlike anywhere else. Some 550,000 people are now unemployed, workers’ losses exceed $9 billion since October 2023, and GDP has contracted by 84 per cent, a collapse the United Nations says has erased decades of development.
Unemployment stands at 68 per cent, with 74 per cent of young people outside education, employment or training and women’s unemployment at 92 per cent.
In the occupied West Bank, unemployment has more than doubled to 280,000.
Palestinian trade unions, including the General Union of Palestinian Workers, the PGFTU and more than a dozen other federations, issued a joint statement calling on unions worldwide to escalate solidarity.
‘Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has hastened the onslaught of a ‘might makes right’ era that threatens humanity at large’, the unions wrote, calling on workers’ organisations to adopt ethical procurement policies, disrupt military supplies to Israel, refuse to handle Israeli-bound cargo, declare themselves Apartheid-Free Zones and expel Israel’s Histadrut federation from international forums.
‘Our struggle for justice in Palestine is inseparable from the global struggle against systemic racism, exploitation, climate devastation and all forms of oppression.’
Workers took to the streets in cities across the world yesterday to mark International Workers Day, with trade unions warning that the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran, rising energy costs and growing income inequality are threatening livelihoods globally.
stadrut federation from international forums.
‘Our struggle for justice in Palestine is inseparable from the global struggle against systemic racism, exploitation, climate devastation and all forms of oppression.’
