Workers throughout the world went out on the streets to attend demonstrations on the occasion of May Day, also known as International Workers' Day on Wednesday, amid some clashes with police.
During demonstrations across the U.K., over 1,000 workers blockaded the U.K. Trade Department in London and BAE Systems’ arms factories in Scotland, Wales, and Lancashire in support of Palestinians.
In rallies across the country, there were many Palestinian flags and banners expressing solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
In France, responding to the call by major trade unions and student associations, people from across the country, including Marseille, Reims, and Lyon, gathered in city squares to mark the day, according to broadcaster BFMTV.
In the western city of Nantes, where thousands rallied, clashes broke out between a group dressed in black identifying itself as Antifa and the police.
In Paris, police arrested 15 people before the main body of a demonstration departed.
In the southern city of Lyon, 17 people were arrested by police after clashes broke out between some groups and the police.
France’s General Confederation of Labor (CGT) announced early Wednesday that some 265 rallies were expected to take place nationwide marking the day.
Palestinian flags and banners condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza were visible in numerous rallies across the country.
In the Greek capital Athens, thousands of people, including students, public and private sector workers, and pensioners, gathered around the central Syntagma Square at the call of left-wing trade unions and political parties.
The participants also carried Palestinian flags and banners with solidarity messages in support of the Palestinian people and protesting US university students.
Addressing the crowd, Palestinian Ambassador in Athens Yussef Dorkhom thanked them for the solidarity they showed with Palestine.
In Sweden’s capital Stockholm, hundreds of demonstrators demanded an immediate end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza, calling for them to be acknowledged as war crimes.
They shouted such slogans as "Free Palestine, Free Gaza, Sanction Israel” and "Stop the Genocide in Gaza.”
In Italy, tens of thousands of people gathered in the northern city of Monfalcone, which was chosen to host this year’s celebrations by the country’s major trade unions, according to the state-run ANSA news agency.
In the Bulgarian capital Sofia, thousands of people from throughout the country marched through the main streets of the city demanding higher wages and better social security benefits, the state-run BTA news agency reported.
International Workers' Day, also known as Labor Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is marked every year on May 1 to pay tribute to laborers around the world.
The head of Germany's employers' associations said people should put in more hours on the job.
"We need more work in Germany, not less," Rainer Dulger said in a statement on the group's website on Wednesday.
"Germany discusses too much about the conditions of non-work and too little about the value of work," lamented the president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA).
The question of how to make Germany an attractive place to work again must take center stage, he said. "This also means that we will all have to work more and longer," Dulger stressed.
To achieve this, the framework conditions for work must be improved, he said.
"Work is much more than a necessity, and this must be brought back into focus on May 1," emphasized the BDA boss, adding: "There is no such thing as effortless prosperity. And added value is created by private entrepreneurs."
Dulger also emphasized the value of social partnership. "In times of low growth, an aging society and a high shortage of labor and skilled workers, we must work together to secure good jobs and prosperity in Germany for the future," said Dulger.
He called on trade unions and politicians to "finally help shape work constructively again. That will help everyone: When the economy is booming, wages will also rise faster."
More than 1,000 representatives from more than 100 workers' unions in Taiwan took to the streets in downtown Taipei on International Workers' Day, demanding that a workers' rights law be amended.
Waving banners and shouting slogans, demonstrators marched for hours in the capital on Wednesday, calling for the law to be revised to include higher wages, better work conditions and pension packages.
"Prices have been soaring, but wages have not," said Chiang Chien-hsing, head of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions.
"We don't want to see Taiwan remaining a country with low wages. This is an island where people are overworked. Our government should find ways to overcome difficulties," the union leader added.
Demonstrators also expressed their hope that Vice President and President-elect Lai Ching-te, who is due to be inaugurated on May 20, will further improve the well-being of Taiwan's workers in the next four years.
Taiwan's Ministry of Labour said on Wednesday in a statement that, when the new government is formed on May 20, the Ministry of Labour will continue to maintain a positive attitude, listen to the demands of all parties, and maintain open communication channels.
