(The following article is from the May 16-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

May Day rallies across the planet this year shared a common theme - resistance against the drive by big capital and compliant governments to make working people pay the full costs of the "economic recovery." In many cases, corporate news outlets limited coverage to fights between police and small groups of anarchists, but the real demonstrations were much larger.

     Over 140,000 union members and political activists gathered for the first legally-sanctioned May Day celebration in Istanbul's central Taksim Square in 30 years. Participants included relatives of 34 people killed when police attacked a rally at the square on May 1, 1977.

     For the past four years, union activists determined to commemorate the massacre have clashed with riot police who barred their entry. The governor of Istanbul said he authorized the celebration this year "to avoid tension ... and even to destroy certain taboos."

     Union organizers called the rally a victory. "It has very symbolic meaning for us," said Eyup Ozer, a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Workers Unions Confederation, DISK. "All the people who were murdered in the 1977 May Day demonstration will be represented by their photos."

     Thousands of flag-waving union members filed peacefully past security barriers, armoured personnel carriers and helmeted riot police often referred to in Turkey as "Robo-cops." Against a soundtrack of blaring labour anthems, activists chanted slogans like "Equal Jobs, equal Pay," "Free Health Care for Everyone" and "Long Live May 1st."

     In Athens, over 20,000 demonstrators protested against anti-worker measures adopted by the PASOK government to secure loans from the European Union. Two days later, the Greek protests escalated again with mass walkouts by public sector unions. Protesters led by the Greek Communist Party stormed the Acropolis on May 4, hoisting a huge banner calling on European workers to rise up.

     Similar demands were raised in other European cities. In Zurich, police used water cannons to disperse protesters as unions and politicians protested against excessive Swiss banking bonuses.

     Thousands joined May Day marches in Stockholm, where speakers blamed the right-wing government for failing to stem rising unemployment and eroding the nation's cherished welfare system. Thousands of demonstrators in Paris took to the streets to condemn President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to gut the pension system.

     Thousands of demonstrators in Moscow, carrying red balloons and Soviet flags, calling for the Russian government's resignation over rising prices and unemployment.

     The Bulgarian Socialist Party organized actions on May 1 under the slogan "Against the Crisis! All United for Labour and Democracy!" Demonstrators gathered at the National Assembly square to protest the policies of the GERB center-right ruling party, and then headed for an open-air stage in Sofia's central park. The Socialists were recently outraged at the refusal of the state-owned Bulgarian National Television and Radio to run commercials advertising the May 1 rally.

     Tens of thousands of workers thronged the streets of Asian cities, demanding job creation and minimum wage hikes. In Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, thousands of red- and blue-shirted workers marched on the presidential palace. Some 15,000 police lined the streets, barbed wire was stretched in front of the palace, and water cannons were at the ready as the crowd chanted, "Workers unite! No more layoffs!"

     "This corrupt government has taken the side of the capitalists and businessmen, not us, the workers," rally organizer Bayu Ajie said in a rousing speech. "Workers unite to fight corrupters! We'll not be defeated!" the crowd responded.

     The Indonesian workers' demands include social security guarantees, an end to outsourcing, the elimination of arbitrary layoffs and human rights for workers.

     In Tokyo, about 32,000 workers rallied in Yoyogi Park, wearing headbands and raising banners calling for job security. National Confederation of Trade Unions leader Sakuji Daikoku said more than 17 million people in Japan are temporary or part-time workers, and 3.5 million are jobless.

     "Under such working conditions, there is no hope or bright future," Daikoku said. "Let's make a change to create a society where full time employment is the norm."

     In Hong Kong, about 1,000 protesters - including janitors, construction workers and bus drivers - demanded the government increase the minimum wage to 33 Hong Kong dollars ($4.30). "We demand reasonable pay. We demand a share in the fruits of economic success," the workers chanted at an urban park before setting off to Hong Kong government headquarters. Hong Kong has never adopted a minimum wage, but the government says it aims to pass legislation by July.

     Thousands of Tehran residents chanted anti-government slogans as they marched towards Iran's Labour Ministry on May 1. At least 4,000 people marched down Azadi Street in central Tehran toward the ministry, according to witnesses. There was a heavy police presence in the area, including hundreds of anti-riot cops, while police helicopters hovered overhead. Security forces arrested at least 30 protestors. In nearby Baharestan Square, protestors chanted "Death to the Dictator" and "Death to Khamenei," referring to Iran's Supreme Leader.

     Elsewhere, in the north-western city of Tabriz, hundreds of people rallied outside the local Labour Ministry building chanting anti-government slogans. At least 20 protestors were arrested.

     Hundreds of workers took to the streets to mark May Day in Bahrain. Carrying the national flag and workers' unity banners, they marched from the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) premises in Adliya to the parliament. GFBTU secretary-general Sayed Salman Mahfoodh said that any development in the country would not succeed if it did not involve the input of workers, who are the key to economic growth. He called on the government to ratify international labour agreements and conventions.

     "Workers are paying for no fault of theirs and we have to take steps to lessen their suffering," he said. "We are also concerned that labour union activity is not allowed in many companies even though unions are legal. The government should intervene in this matter as well and ensure every worker has a right to take part in union activities."

     The May Day turnout in Havana was massive, as about a million Cubans turned out to voice support for the island's socialist government and its measures to protect workers.

     Bolivian President Evo Morales announced on May 1 that four power companies were being nationalized as part of the drive to increase public ownership over key sectors of the country's economy. Bolivia's key natural gas industry was nationalized soon after  e took office in 2006, followed by several utility companies and the biggest smelter and top telecommunications firm.

     "We're here ... to nationalize all the hydroelectric plants that were owned by the state before, to comply with the new constitution of the Bolivian state. Basic services cannot be a private business. We're recovering the energy, the light, for all Bolivians," Morales said in the central Cochabamba region.

     The state now controls 80 percent of electricity generation in Bolivia. Earlier, the Bolivian government had failed to convince investors to sell the shares the state needed to have a controlling stake.

     "It's the state's obligation to compensate investors for their assets. ... We made an effort to reach an agreement with the private, multinational companies, but they were unwilling to reach an accord," said Morales.

     In Chile, the May Day rally in Santiago, led by the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT) focused on discontent with the new right-wing government of President Sebastian Pinera. But some protestors also expressed their disenchantment with leaders from the centrist Concertacion alliance who attended the protest, after ignoring May Day events in previous years, when they held political power.

     CUT leader Martinez did not shy away from mentioning the targeted opposition members, saying, "We've been waiting years for reform. Take care when approaching the workers. We know who kept their word and who did not."

     Martinez attacked Pinera and his government, especially the billionaire businessman's conflicts of interest because of his vast wealth.

     Immigrant rights were a hot topic for May Day rallies across the U.S. this year, in the wake of Arizona legislation which makes it a crime to be in the state without legal status and requires police to check for immigration papers.

     In Los Angeles, 60,000 immigrants and their supports turned out for a May Day Immigration Rally, one the largest demonstrations in the city's history. The lively, animated march proceeded through downtown Los Angeles to city hall.

     Twenty-five thousand protested in Dallas, and more than 10,000 in Milwaukee. Washington, DC, and Phoenix, among more than 70 places around the United States which held rallies or vigils.

     New York City was the scene of a historic rally, organized by the labour and immigrants' rights movements, to demand government action on jobs, and end to harassment of immigrant workers, and to "reclaim May Day." The rally was planned before the Arizona anti-immigrant law was passed, but repeal of the law became a significant rallying cry of the demonstration. The other main demand was for jobs for all. Trade unions came together with immigration coalitions to "reclaim" May Day, creating an alliance of the two overlapping movements that drew 20,000-25,000 people.

     The May Day rally by ten thousand people at Chicago's Haymarket Square amounted to a declaration by the city's workers that they were re-claiming a holiday once derided as a day only "the left" celebrated.

     Al Martin, field director for the Illinois AFL-CIO, chaired the rally which was sponsored by the Chicago Federation of Labour. He was cheered as he compared the struggle of the Haymarket Martyrs for the eight-hour day and for justice on the job to the struggle today for passage of immigration law reform. "This whole thing is about racism being used to divide and conquer us and we are not going to let that happen," he declared.

     Fifty Japanese workers, members of Zenroren, Japan's national labour federation, were applauded as they joined the Chicago crowd. Komatsu Tamiko, the Zenroren international representative, paid homage to those who died in the struggle for the eight-hour day. Today, she said, "Japanese workers and American workers share the same fight for justice against corporations that are exploiting our brothers and sisters all over the world."