REPORTS

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Global May Day 2024

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☆ Athens ☆ Brasilia ☆ Bristol ☆ Colombo ☆ Dhaka ☆ Fortaleza ☆ France ☆ Freiburg ☆ Hamburg ☆ Leipzig ☆ London ☆ Londrina ☆ Magdeburg ☆ Munich ☆ Myanmar ☆ Nicosia ☆ Pakistan ☆ Parma ☆ Rethymno ☆ Rio de Janeiro ☆ Spain ☆ Sweden ☆

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Athens

Comrades organised with the Base Union Assembly for Bike and Motorbike Riders (SVEOD) rallied in Athens to mark (Global) May Day and express their struggle for the rights of so called platform workers.

Brasilia

In Brasilia, the General Autonomous Union of the Federal District and Surrounding Areas (SIGA-DFE) took part in the May Our May plenary session with autonomous movements and a leafleting campaign with the Life Beyond Work Movement.
On the day before the first of May, an open political training session was held on the three basic militant tasks: agitate, propagandize and organize. In the days that followed, posters from the global May 1st campaign were pasted up at UnB (University of Brasilia), Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) and a secondary school.

source: lutafob.org

Bristol

This May Day (2024) radical workers in Bristol opened the shutters of Hydra Bookshop for the first time in 4 years. The bookshop had been a major anarchist educational and social space before being forced to close by the owners for gentrification as luxury housing.
On May Day the radical workers movement in Bristol gained entry and reclaimed the space so that once more it may be used and share a message of freedom, equality and international solidarity.

“Strike not for a few cents more an hour, because the price of living will be raised faster still, but strike for all you earn, be content with nothing less.” – Lucy Parsons

The Industrial Workers of the World Wales-Ireland-Scotland-England Regional Administration (IWW WISE-RA) released a May Day statment: iww.org.uk

Colombo

The feminist Dabindu Collective united in an alliance with four other women-led garment unions and took to the streets of the capital city of Sri Lanka to mark May Day.

Together they joined the UNITE rally with other labour unions and put forward the following demands:

  • Living wage for workers
  • An economy that benefits the working class
  • Right to unionise
  • Universal free healthcare & education
  • Protection of the livelihood and sovereignty of farmers and fisherfolk
  • Opposition to economic plans that threaten worker pensions

Dhaka

Thousands of workers joined the May Day rally called by the Garment Workers’ Trade Union Center (GWTUC) in the capital city of Bangladesh.

Fortaleza

The Federation of Revolutionary Syndicalist Organisations of Brazil (FOB) and the Classist and Combative Student Network (RECC) in the federal state of Ceará celebrated May Day together. They arranged a public cinema showing a film on the origins of May Day, diplayed the posters of Global May Day and held talks on state repression and problems within the healthcare system, while drinking soup and coffee.

In northeastern Brazil, FOB CEARÁ held a popular celebration in the Montese neighborhood of Fortaleza. The activity included coffee, movies, conversation and broth. The dialog, which began with the story of the martyrs of Chicago, reached the present day as a true community tribune, with denunciations of police violence, the neglect of public health and the opportunism of politicians.

source: lutafob.org

France

For the second year in a row the Confédération Nationale du Travail of France (CNT-F) supported the call for Global May Day. Comrades of CNT-F arranged rallies in many cities across the country.

Freiburg

The Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Freiburg joined an alliance of grassroot groups and shaped their own block at the labour union May Day rally together. FAU Freiburg put the mobilisation into the context of the call for Global May Day 2024.

Comrades set up two info booths in the city to reach out to the public and took part in a self-organised street festival with music and speeches.

Hamburg

Comrades of IWW and Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Hamburg expressed their solidarity with the struggle of factory workers at VIP Myanmar. The VIP factory union is a member of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM). Ahead of May Day they addressed the rally in a statement. This statement was translated into German, pre-recorded and played at the anarchist May Day rally called by the Schwarz-Roter 1. Mai alliance. It was joined by around 2000 people.

Leipzig

Up to 1500 people joined the call by the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Leipzig for the syndicalist May Day rally in the city. That’s a great success for the movement on the local level.

London

The anarchist initiative Class Struggle London supported the annual call for a Global May Day for the first time and joined the main May Day rally with their own sweet anarchist bloc and their class struggle sound system.

Londrina

In Londrina, in the interior of the state of Paraná, Alternativa Popular, a local federation affiliated to the FOB, held a demonstration that began in front of the Ouro Verde Cinema and continued through the streets, agitating for demands that are crucial for the working class: a real pay rise, an end to the 6×1 work schedule, a reduction in the daily working day from 8am to 6pm, freedom of trade union association, the full right to strike and an end to the persecution of workers in struggle.

source: lutafob.org

Magdeburg

More than 100 people joined the anarcho-syndicalist May Day rally in the city of Magdeburg organised by the local FAU union.

Munich

The anti-authoritarian May Day 2024 in Munich was organized by the FAU, the (Queer)Feminist Strike Munich, the Solidarity Network Dachau and the a-Tram collective. Significantly more people came this year. This couldn’t just have been because of the nice weather. Workers of various professions reported from their every day class struggles at their work places.

Myanmar

Like last year comrades of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) arranged actions in context of the call for Global May Day in different cities across Myanmar and Mae Sot (Thailand). In some factories workers took up great risks to take pictures as part of the struggle and on the countryside workers showed their unity with the syndicalist International Confederation of Labour (ICL-CIT).
More details on the activities might be published here soon.

Nicosia

Members of IWW Cyprus rallied in the city center of Nicosia, played revolutionary songs and distributed leaflets. Congratulations to IWW Cyprus for their first solo May Day action!

Full report: iww.cy

Pakistan

Members of the All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions (APFUTU) organised rallies in the following cities to mark this special day and put it into the context of Global May Day: Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Hyderabad, Jhelum, Layyah. Those cities are across the provinces of Punjab and Sindh.

Comrades of APFUTU fight for:

  • Serving and retired military officers should immediately be removed from government departments.
  • Officers with foreign citizenship should be removed from government departments.
  • The anti-labour policies of the IMF and the World Bank must end.
  • Industrial workers should be registered with social security and pension institutions without discrimination.
  • The minimum wage should be increased from US$75 to US$350.
  • Prices for electricity and gas must be stabilized – taxes and interest rates must be reduced.
  • Action must be taken against industrial owners who buy and sell workers.
  • Action must be taken to end child labour, bonded labour, forced labour, and slavery.
  • The USA should stop interfering in internal affairs of Pakistan.
  • Industrial inspections should be restored.
  • Labor and trade union rights must be restored and the ban lifted.

Parma

The Italian Syndicalist Union (USI-CIT) arranged a rally of more than 100 comrades to the city center of Parma and held a concerts in the afternoon.

Despite the rain arriving on time every time, this year’s First of May alternative to concerted unionism organised by USI Parma also went well.
In the morning, a nice procession of more than a hundred comrades, a few but (very) good ones, marched through the streets of Parma, arriving in the city centre.
In the afternoon, at least 500 people attended the concerts at the Ateneo Libertario.
We would like to thank the groups (Parma Rap, P.O.G., FFD), DJ Skawalker, the Anarchist group Cieri, the Gallo Rosso brewery, Parma Rude, in short, everyone who gave us a hand.
For a different, liberated and libertarian world …. USI PARMA!

Rethymno

Comrades of the Libertarian Syndicalist Union (ESE) rallied in the city of Rethymno on the island of Crete in Greece. They marched to the monument of Louis Tikas. Texts were shared and stickers related to the murder of Manolis Afratis and Fatos Dyli. The truck driver Manolis was killed in a road accident due to a lack of labour safety measures in 2020. (source: x.com)

Rio de Janeiro

In the southeast, the General Autonomous Union of Rio de Janeiro (SIGA-RJ) took part in a demonstration in the capital in front of the Madureira shopping center. The demonstration denounced the 6×1 work schedule, which locks workers into a 40-hour working week. The importance of reducing the workload to 30 hours a week, without reducing wages, was highlighted.
The São Paulo Revolutionary Syndicalist Committee held a Film Debate with the film “1917, THE GENERAL STRIKE” by Carlos Pronzato. The activity aims to strengthen the militant formation of the members and prepare them for the practical and theoretical deepening that the committee will have to face.

source: lutafob.org

Spain

The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) supported the call for Global May Day 2024 once again and rallied in cities across the country.

Sweden

The syndicalist SAC-Syndikalisterna mobilised for May Day in several cities across Sweden.
In Stockholm around 3 000 people joined the rally. The solidariska byggare section comprised of mostly migrant builders. According to comrades on the ground 2 000 workers rallied in Göteborg and 60 came together in the city of Umeå.

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