Euro May Day: Hundreds of thousands demo

Hundreds of thousands of workers, students and the general public across Europe mobilized on May Day '05. In Germany, more than 500,000 trade union activists hit the streets and at least four marches were held in Paris.

Some 20,000 trade unionists marched in Moscow demanding the minimum wage be raised. Turkish riot police detained at least 47 people who rallied in a venue despite an official ban to mark May Day in the country's biggest city, Istanbul. Tens of thousands of protestors turned out in Vienna to assail Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's economic policies and demand his resignation. Some 4,000 demonstrators marched through the Swiss financial capital, Zurich, and called for the defence of public services and a fairer distribution of wealth.

In his first Sunday Angelus blessing, Pope Benedict XVI issued a clarion call for workers' rights to be respected, saying solidarity, justice and peace were the pillars of the human family.

"I hope that the young, especially, will not want for work, and that working conditions will be ever more respectful of the dignity of the human person," the 78-year-old pope told more than 50,000 pilgrims in St Peter's Square in an address on May Day.

Source: AP

Euromayday 2005
Report, via South News
Pictures of the London Mayday PRECARITY action
Euro May Day in Hamburg

Other EuroMayDay Sites:
Amsterdam Barcelona
Copenhagen Helsinki Jyväskylä
L'Aquila Leon Liege London Maribor
Milano Napoli Palermo Sevilla Stockholm Wien

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