Countries across Asia rally on International Labor Day

Countries across Asia held rallies Sunday to celebrate the gains of laborers and to voice demands for their rights on International Labor Day.

More than 25,000 workers from around the Indonesian capital of Jakarta rallied this afternoon, with many wearing red shirts and carrying red flags and placards with various messages printed on them in Indonesian, such as ‘Stop dismissing workers’, ‘Reject the free market’, and ‘Raise the minimum wage.’

Some marchers drove trucks equipped with loudspeakers blaring similar messages, as the procession moved towards the presidential palace.

In Malaysia, over 100 people gathered to demand an increase in the monthly minimum wage from the current $230 to $380.

Many participants held up satirical sketches of Prime Minister Najib Razak alluding to the 1MDB corruption scandal, in which he is accused of diverting some $681 million from the state investment fund into his private bank accounts.

Cambodian unionists, meanwhile, congregated at Phnom Penh’s Olympic Stadium and the National Assembly to make demands on a number of labor issues, including calling for better working conditions and improved salaries.

Thousands of Filipino protesters congregated in Manila where they burned an effigy of President Benigno Aquino III as they, too, called for improved salaries.

Riot police, armed with batons and shields, responded to the action with water cannons in an effort to disperse the protesters.

In Bangladesh, around 2,000 garment workers, labor activists and union leaders joined a rally in Dhaka, which saw them march through a central street in the city.

Protesters called for the minimum wage to be raised and for safer working conditions. They also urged the government to make Apr. 24 a national holiday in commemoration of the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex, which led to the deaths of more than 1,130 workers.

In India, the world’s second most populous country, Labor Day marches were staged in the central city of Bhopal and in the technology hub of Bangalore.

On the streets of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, activists from the Communist Party of India led a rally of about 500 as they shouted slogans and carried red flags.

In the south central Indian metropolis of Bangalore, some streets were a sea of red, as crowds of men and women wearing red clothing carried red flags, which bore the white hammer and sickle symbol of communism.

Some 1,500 people, including union members, factory employees, and garment workers joined the peaceful early afternoon marches, which were confined to one side of a central road so that traffic could flow on the other side.

Labor leaders earlier called for stronger protections for workers and better labor rights.

In northeast Asia, in South Korea’s capital of Seoul, crowds organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KTCU) gathered on the streets to call for improved labor laws, with many holding up yellow and black placards and flags.

Seoul was one of 15 cities in South Korea where some 80,000 workers belonging to the KTCU and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) joined the May Day rallies, the Korea Herald reports.

Rallies were tenser in Istanbul, Turkey, where police clashed with May Day marchers as they tried to reach the central Taksim Square.

The labor march, which started with about 10,000 people, was reportedly peaceful until some 500 people tried to rally at Taksim Square, where protests were declared illegal by the government several years ago.

Police tried to take away the protesters’ large red placards, while others were arrested and some even sprayed with heavy water cannons.

International Labor Day, or May Day, started in the early 20th Century and celebrates the achievements made by workers and trade unions such as regular working hours and other labor rights.