The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) carried out an eight-hour work stoppage at West Coast ports on May 1 to demand an end to the war in Iraq.

The work action halted activity at 29 ports from San Diego, California to Washington State. According to both the ILWU and the employers’ organization, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), 25,000 dockworkers represented by the union did not report to work for the first shift on Thursday, shutting down the country’s principal gateway for cargo container traffic from the Far East. In the course of a typical work shift, some 10,000 containers are loaded and unloaded from ships docked at West Coast ports.

Under the slogan, “No Peace, No Work,” the “work holiday” was called on the traditional day of international workers’ solidarity as a demonstration of opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A resolution passed by the union in February called for an end to the occupation of Iraq and for the troops to be brought home immediately.Read more by going to the World Socialist Website (click here).

Some of the biggest demonstrations and events celebrating May Day were held in Europe. Public transport services, ships and flights ground to a halt in Greece as unions called a May Day strike to protest at privatisation and pension reforms.

In France up to 120,000 marched to demand higher wages and pensions and to protest against the rising cost of living. The French CGT and CFDT trade unions held a joint protest in Paris for the first time in four years. Demonstrations were held in many other cities, including Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and Lille.

Around 10,000 people turned out in Hamburg, Germany to stop a planned march by the Nazi NPD, which had to march between cordons of riot police to protect them from the protesters. Protesters also clashed with police defending the NPD in Nuremburg.

Protesters across Germany called for the introduction of a national minimum wage and drew attention to the growing divide between the rich and poor.

Some 25,000 marched in Madrid, Spain, where Candido Mendez, the general secretary of the General Workers Union, rejected the idea of cutting wages to fight inflation.

Some 10,000 people marched in Belgrade, Serbia calling for better living standards and protesting against privatisation.

Protesters in Singapore and Bangkok, Thailand carried signs reading, “Expensive rice prices, cheap labour wages. How can labourers live?”

Manila in the Philippines saw thousands of workers march to demand President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s resignation for refusing to raise the minimum wage in the face of rising food and fuel prices. Protesters carried signs reading, “Jobs, Justice, Food” and “Lower food prices now”.

Thousands of people from many trade unions joined a May Day protest in Jakarta, Indonesia. People protested against the outsourcing of work and high food prices. Demonstrators marched from central Jakarta to the presidential palace.

Protests also took place in other big cities across Indonesia, including Medan, Surabaya, Bandung, Jogjakarta and Makassar.

Up to 500,000 people joined May Day protests in Turkey. They were met by violent repression by riot police using water cannon and batons. Hundreds were arrested and dozens injured.

Tensions were running particularly high this year after government plans to raise the retirement age and attack social security provision.

Around 10,000 marched through Beirut, Lebanon, on the eve of national strikes over the price of food and low wages.

Thousands of people in major cities across the US demonstrated on May Day, demanding rights for immigrant workers and protesting over the increased hardship workers are facing after sharp rises in food prices.

Hundreds marched through New York demanding an end to anti-immigrant raids on workplaces. Around 4,000 marched in Chicago demanding immigration reform. Workers rights and an end to war were major themes on the marches in Washington.

May Day saw hundreds of thousands of workers take to the streets across Latin America. Major themes of the protests were food shortages and rising prices, unemployment and demanding better wages and conditions.

Around 70,000 workers marched in Mexico demanding that the government end food shortages and unemployment. In Ecuador over 15,000 protested against subcontracting and labour conditions.

Thousands of workers demanded an end to corruption and food price rises in Guatemala. Protesters marked the day in Nicaragua by calling on the government to stop food price rises and create more jobs. Police arrested 96 people in Santiago, Chile, after a May Day march.

President Evo Morales attended a May Day event in La Paz, Bolivia and demanded that the US withdraw troops from Iraq. President-elect Fernando Lugo took part in May Day celebrations in Paraguay, the first time an incoming president was invited to participate in May Day events.

Thousands took part in May Day events across Venezuela. And in El Salvador, thousands marched through the capital San Salvador to protest against price rises and demand higher wages.

Thousands attended a May Day rally in South Africa, where workers and speakers called for an end to poverty wages and an increase in land distribution and protested against rising food prices.

In Kenya, president Mwai Kibaki rejected a call from thousands of workers at a May Day rally for pay rises to cope with the rising cost of food and fuel.

This piece was adapted from an article from Socialist Worker, the original can be seen here

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The trial opened on June 21st 1886 in the criminal court of Cooke County. However, the candidates for the jury were not chosen in the usual manner of drawing names from a box. In this case a special bailiff, nominated by state's attorney Grinnell, was appointed by the court to select the candidates. The defence was not allowed to present evidence that the special bailiff had publicly claimed "I am managing this case and I know what I am about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death".

The composition of the jury was farcical; being made up of businessmen, their clerks and a relative of one of the dead policemen. No proof was offered by the state that any of the eight men before the court had thrown the bomb, had been connected with its throwing, or had even approved of such acts. In fact, only three of the eight had been in Haymarket Square that evening.Further to this,no evidence was offered that any of the speakers had incited violence, indeed in his evidence at the trial Mayor Harrison described the speeches as "tame". No proof was offered that any violence had been contemplated. In fact, Parsons had brought his two small children to the meeting.

At the end of the trial Attorney Grinnell said that  "Law is on trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the Grand Jury, and indicted because they were leaders. There are no more guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury; convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions, our society."

On August 19th seven of the defendants were sentenced to death, and Neebe to 15 years in prison. After a massive international campaign for their release, the state 'compromised' and commuted the sentences of Schwab and Fielden to life imprisonment. Lingg cheated the hangman by committing suicide in his cell the day before the executions and on November 11th 1887 Parsons, Engel, Spies and Fischer were hanged.

Following the executions, over 600,000 people attended the funerals of the men, lining the streets for the procession and a sustained campaign for the freedom of  Neebe, Scwab and Fielden continued, resulting in their release and pardoning on June 26th 1893.

On May 1, 1890, in accordance with the decision of the Paris Congress (July 1889) of the Communist Second International to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs, mass demonstrations and strikes were held throughout Europe and America. The workers put forward the demands for an 8 hour working day, better health conditions, and further demands set forth by the International Association of Workers. The red flag was  created at this congress as the symbol that would always remind us of the blood that the working-class has bled, and continues to bleed, under the oppressive reign of capitalism.

From that day forward (starting in 1891 in Russia, by 1920 including China, and 1927 India) workers throughout the world began to celebrate the first of May as a day of international proletarian solidarity, fighting for the right of freedom to celebrate their past and build their future without the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist state.

That is the story of Mayday! Be Proud, be Loud, because our ancestors fought for the things we take for granted today, many of which have been and are being eroded by current governments around the world.