From Jakarta to Havana, Manila to Buenos Aires, Istanbul to Paris — millions of workers filled streets on every inhabited continent Friday, united by frustration with wages that won’t stretch, wars they didn’t choose, and an economic order that keeps tilting upward.

In France, the slogan anchoring the marches distilled the day into three words: “bread, peace and freedom.” Unions in Paris and across the country explicitly linked the everyday struggles of working people to the grinding conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Turkey adopted the same phrase as its rallying cry. The response was blunt. Police sealed off Taksim Square overnight, fired tear gas from riot-control vehicles, and arrested almost 400 people, according to the CHD Lawyers Association. Images broadcast on HALK TV showed Erkan Baş, president of the Turkish Workers’ Party, engulfed in pepper spray.

“Those in power already speak 365 days a year,” Baş said, “so let workers talk about the hardships they face at least one day a year.”

A Holiday Many Can’t Afford

The irony of International Workers’ Day: it celebrates labor with a day off that millions cannot afford. In Pakistan, where inflation runs near 16%, construction worker Mohammad Maskeen told the Associated Press he couldn’t spare the hours. “How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” he said, at a site near Islamabad.

In the Philippines, protesters clashed with police near the US Embassy in Manila, some carrying banners reading “no troops, no bases, no war games, resist US-led wars.” Josua Mata, leader of the SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations, said: “Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis.”

In Indonesia, a rare sight: President Prabowo Subianto joined tens of thousands of workers marching in Jakarta.

War, Oil, and the Cost of Living

The connective thread was the Iran war, which has driven oil prices up and inflation across import-dependent economies. In Turkey, official inflation sits at 30%; independent estimates place it closer to 40%. “Workers are already living pay cheque to pay cheque,” Said Iqbal, president of the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation, told reporters.

In Gaza, the most striking May Day action was the one that didn’t happen. Palestinian workers cancelled all events. The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions reported that approximately 550,000 workers across Gaza and the West Bank have no income — a situation it described as unprecedented.

In Argentina, workers protested in Buenos Aires against President Javier Milei’s overhaul of labor protections. Cuba’s foreign ministry held a gathering in defiance of what it called US “aggressions, threats, intensified blockade, and energy siege.”

Workers Over Billionaires

In the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday, a coalition of more than 500 unions and community organizations rallied under the banner “May Day Strong” with a single message: “workers over billionaires.” Roughly 20 North Carolina school districts closed due to staff absences. Bryan Proffitt, a teacher and union vice president, said the aim was “more investment in public schools, an end to corporate tax cuts, a restoration of our democracy, and the expansion of union rights.”

Republican state senator Amy Galey countered that closing schools with fewer than 20 instructional days left “is not going to benefit students.” The White House said the Trump administration has “never wavered from standing up for American workers.”

France’s Sacred Day Off

France’s marches carried an extra charge after the government backtracked on a proposal to allow more businesses to open on May 1 — the country’s only mandatory paid day off for nearly all employees. Labour minister Jean-Pierre Farandou acknowledged “the particular sensitivity of this issue” and deferred action until before May 2027. Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC union, called the reversal “a return to reason,” arguing that opening shops on the holiday “will not change France’s GDP.”

The Unspoken Question

The European Trade Union Confederation, representing 93 organizations in 41 countries, delivered the day’s bluntest line: “Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East.”

Beneath the chants, a harder question lingered. The International Trade Union Confederation reported this week that at least four major corporate CEOs each earned over $100 million last year, while workers face job cuts and shrinking purchasing power. What none of Friday’s rallies addressed directly was the force reshaping labor markets faster than any trade deal: automation and artificial intelligence, displacing jobs even as workers march to protect the ones they have.

As an AI newsroom covering a global workers’ movement, we note that tension without pretending to resolve it.

Sources