More than 100 arrested in Russia May Day rallies, group says

An activist group says more than 100 people have been arrested at May Day rallies across Russia, with more than half of the detentions taking place in St. Petersburg.

The OVD-Info group said Wednesday that at least 68 people were detained in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, in an anti-government contingent that authorities had sanctioned as part of the main May Day demonstration. Two people reported injuries.

Police brutally manhandled people in the opposition contingent, including local lawmaker Maxim Reznik. He was released quickly because of his status as a public official.

Reznik told the Dozhd TV station that officers detained almost everyone in his protest group and would not give the reason for the arrests.

Some of them were carrying placards saying “Putin is not immortal” in reference to President Vladimir Putin who has been at the helm of the country since 2000. Most of them are supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In Goteborg, Sweden’s second-largest city, police briefly clashed with protesters, and in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, as May Day rallies were being held.

Protesters threw cobblestones and fireworks at police as they were being kept away from reaching a rally by a neo-Nazi movement that had received official permission to march.

In Copenhagen, helmeted police circled their vans around a group of hooded people in black who were shouting anti-police slogans, trying to keep them away from other May Day demonstrations.

A handful of people were detained in both countries.

Cubans protest U.S. sanctions

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have taken part in the country’s annual May Day march, filing past former President Raúl Castro and successor Miguel Díaz-Canel in an event dedicated to denouncing new restrictions and sanctions announced by the U.S. government.

The crowd held an enormous white banner that read, “Unity, Commitment and Victory” in red letters.

The U.S. recently said it would place a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send relatives in Cuba and moved to restrict “non-family travel.”

Loudspeakers blared the words of a march leader: “No foreign or extra-territorial law will take decisions in our country.”

Biggest event in Paris

French police and some violent protesters have clashed again during a May Day march in Paris.

Some of the troublemakers, wearing masks and black hoods, could be seen throwing rocks and other objects at riot police, who responded with tear gas and flash grenades near the Place d’Italie square.

More than 7,400 police officers were deployed on Wednesday for May Day events in Paris. More than 200 people had been arrested by mid-afternoon.

Authorities had warned against the presence of “radicalized protesters.”

The masked protesters clashed with police earlier at the starting point of the main march, near Montparnasse train station.

Activists with France’s yellow vest movement joined the traditional march to show solidarity with labor unions in rejecting French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies.

In Germany, car-sharing companies were urging customers in Berlin not to park vehicles in areas where May Day protests are expected.

Miles, which has a fleet of cars in the German capital that can be reserved with an app, warned customers against leaving them in parts of the Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain districts until Thursday.

Rallies and May Day celebrations are planned in both areas and have in the past erupted into violence, with protesters torching vehicles.

In Spain, workers marched in major cities to make their voices heard days before acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez starts negotiating with other parties to form a new government.

Spain’s leading labor unions are pressing for Sánchez to roll back business-friendly labor and fiscal reforms that have remained in place since the previous conservative administration.

Sánchez’s Socialist party won Sunday’s election on Sunday, but will still need other parties to form a government and pass laws. Sánchez will meet with the leaders of the three other top vote-getters next week. The far-left United We Can party is offering to enter the new Socialist government.

Unai Sordo, leader of Spain’s CCOO union, says in Madrid that “the result of the general elections gives us the possibility for a progressive political majority.”

South Africa rally

An opposition party in South Africa is using May Day to rally voters a week before the country’s national election.

Economic Freedom Fighters members, wearing their signature red shirts and berets, gathered at a stadium in Johannesburg to cheer in support of populist stances that have put pressure on the ruling African National Congress to address issues like economic inequality and land reform.

The EFF has made some South Africans uncomfortable, however, with comments about foreigners and whites.

Greece has been left without national rail, island ferry and other transport services for a day as unions hold strikes and rallies to celebrate May Day.

Hundreds of people gathered in central Athens Wednesday for three separate rallies and marches to parliament organized by rival unions and left-wing groups.

Union strike in Greece

The Greek capital was left without public bus, trolley bus and urban rail services all day due to a 24-hour transport union strike, although the city’s metro trains were running most of the day.

The national train and island ferry services are set to resume Thursday.

Turkish police detained May Day demonstrators who tried to march toward Istanbul’s symbolic main square in defiance of a ban.

Turkey declared Taksim Square off-limits to May Day celebrations citing security concerns. Roads leading to the square were blocked Wednesday and police allowed only small groups of labor union representatives to lay wreaths at a monument.

Still, small groups chanting “May Day is Taksim and it cannot be banned,” attempted to break the blockade. The official Anadolu news agency said more than two dozen were detained.

Trade unions and political parties will mark the day with rallies at government-designated areas in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.

Taksim holds symbolic value for Turkey’s labor movement. In 1977, 34 people were killed there during a May Day event when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building.

Asian gatherings

Thousands of trade union members and activists are marking May Day by marching through Asia’s capitals and demanding better working conditions and expanding labor rights.

A South Korean major umbrella trade union has issued a joint statement with a North Korean workers’ organization calling for the Koreas to push ahead with engagement commitments made during a series of inter-Korean summits last year.

Many of the plans agreed between the Koreas, including joint economic projects, have been held back by a lack of progress in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

May Day rallies are also being held in the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and elsewhere in Asia.