By
The Associated Press
BERLIN - Far-left demonstrators battled police in the streets of Berlin and Sydney yesterday, while hundreds of thousands of workers from Russia to Bangladesh marched in traditional May Day labor parades.
Proclaiming causes from anti-globalization to prisoners' rights, demonstrators marched, sang and occasionally scuffled with police in cities across Asia and Europe.
Riot police in Berlin turned water cannons on hundreds of young anti-capitalists activists who pelted them with bottles and rocks, smashed cars and threw up flaming street barricades.
On the other side of the city, jack-booted skinheads hoisted banners calling for foreigners to be kicked out of Germany. Thousands of police ringed far-right marchers to protect them from counterdemonstrators who blew whistles and chanted "Nazis out." Skinheads also rallied in several other German cities, including Frankfurt, where they clashed with leftists. Some 9,000 police patrolled the streets, and authorities in Berlin banned anti-capitalist demonstrations this year in hopes of breaking the cycle of violence they say draws "riot tourists."
But protesters ignored the ban: In one case, police said they confronted up to 6,000 people in a Berlin park.
"This is a revolutionary Labor Day and I'm demonstrating against the capitalist system," said Vincent Gephard, a 23-year-old protester.
In London, thousands of demonstrators poured into the main shopping street to demand the government - as one banner put it - "overthrow capitalism and replace it with something nice."
They confronted police in riot gear and on horseback. Determined to avoid the destruction of last year's May Day march in London, police corralled the protesters in Oxford Circus.
As riot police with sticks and shields penned some 3,000 protesters into the intersection for about five hours, the widely predicted violence sputtered and flared. At about 8 p.m., police began to allow some demonstrators to leave. Police said they arrested 42 people.
Police and protesters also clashed violently in Australia, where thousands of anti-globalization demonstrators tried to shut down stock exchanges and big corporations. Traffic was disrupted in Sydney, Melbourne and other cities.
Two police officers were hospitalized in Sydney, and 28 others were injured in fighting. Brisbane police arrested about 35 activists and several people were injured as protesters tried to storm the stock exchange. Sydney police detained about 30 protesters and charged four.
In Cuba, President Fidel Castro led hundreds of thousands of workers in a noisy march outside the U.S. mission to protest a trade agreement he predicted would bring more McDonald's and other U.S. corporations to the Americas but impoverish the region's people.
"How marvelous! Surely two or three Disneylands will be built in Central and South America!" Castro said.
Castro was referring to a proposal for a free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Argentina by 2005 that was approved last month at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec.
In France, where May 1 marches are traditionally peaceful, thousands of workers and trade unionists took to the streets to celebrate the labor holiday and protest recent layoffs.
In Istanbul, 20,000 people marched, many of them calling for government compromise with prisoners who are staging a hunger strike over prison conditions in Turkey. Twenty hunger strikers have died. People were also protesting corruption that many believe helped trigger an economic crisis.
In Moscow, where May Day rallies filled Red Square in Soviet days, about 28,000 marchers turned out. But hundreds of thousands paraded in other Russian cities and towns. Many marchers carried Soviet mementos such as red flags and portraits of Josef Stalin.
Croatian workers, struggling to make ends meet in an economy mired in recession, celebrated in Zagreb with free bean stew in a downtown park. The president and the prime minister mingled with leaders of major trade unions, promising better conditions.
The leisurely atmosphere was pierced by chants of "We are hungry!" and "We want a job!" from disgruntled residents.
In Bangladesh, thousands of workers with red ribbons tied around their heads marched through Dhaka, demanding minimum wages and better working conditions. They also called for free flow of workers across international borders.
In many countries, May Day is more of a holiday than an occasion for protest.
The Chinese got a week off and were encouraged to travel - in part to try to stimulate the economy.
In Seoul, 10,000 South Korean workers and students beating gongs and drums marched, following a large banner that read: "Down with (President) Kim Dae-jung, who ruined workers' lives."
About 20,000 Taiwanese workers, waving placards and purple banners reading "Give Me Work," marched through Taipei demanding better employment policies.
