MOSCOW, May 1: Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Europe, Africa and Asia for May 1 celebrations supporting causes ranging from social justice to nostalgia for Soviet-era Communism
, to hostility to the war in Iraq and European Union membership.
In several cities the demonstrations ended in violence. Egyptians demanding better pay and shouting anti-US and Israel slogans were confronted by hundreds of police in riot gear, who used clubs to break up the Cairo gathering.
Turkish riot police also detained around 150 people who tried to hold a May Day march in Istanbul and in Diyarbakir, the provincial capital of the mostly Kurdish southeast.
On Friday night, in what has become an annual May Day ritual with no obvious political links, hundreds of youths clashed with German police in Berlin, but the violence was muted compared to that of recent years. In Switzerland there were clashes in Zurich between police and anti-capitalist demonstrators.
In northern China, celebrations were marred by reports that 35 coal miners had died and 16 were missing in two accidents that underscored the dismal plight of many workers driving the country's frenzied economic growth.
In Japan, around 42,000 people demonstrated about planned pension system reform, while some 12,000 others gathered in a Tokyo park demanding the government withdraw its 550 troops from Iraq.
In South Korea, around 20,000 workers, mostly members of the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, gathered at a downtown Seoul park, demanding the government retract its promise to send more than 3,000 soldiers to Iraq. Demonstrators in Kiev denounced the United States presence in Iraq.
About 5,000 people also marched in two separate rallies in Athens with banners calling "jobs not bombs" and "peace for workers, no to war and profiteers."
In Baghdad itself a thinly-attended demonstration called by the Communist Party was marked by scuffles between backers and opponents of the country's new flag.
In France and Germany, May Day celebrations by trade unionists and leftist groups took place against the background of the European Union enlargement, also on May 1.
Thousands rallied in Berlin at the landmark Brandenburg Gate, where the DGB trade union federation voiced its support for the EU enlargement with its giant "Our Europe - Free, Equal and Just" banner.
Rallies in Budapest, Dublin, Sofia, Slovenia, Vienna and Warsaw also had an EU theme.
Italian trade unions organized their joint demonstration in the far northeast of the country, at Gorizia on the border with EU newcomer Slovenia.
In Paris and other major French cities trade unions held separate marches, reflecting their political divisions, which were attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
In Thailand, 20,000 workers staged rallies in Bangkok to demand a hike in the basic wage and an end to the government's controversial privatization drive.
Other pro-worker protests took place throughout Asia, including Bangladesh, the Philippines and Pakistan.-AFP
