Trade unions and other groups staged rallies around the world to mark International Workers Day on Sunday.
Fearing France’s worker protections are under threat, hundreds of angry youths on the sidelines of a May Day labor rally hurled stones and wood at police in Paris, receiving repeated bursts of tear gas in response.
Trade unions, teenagers, pensioners and families held nearly 300 largely peaceful marches Sunday in Paris and cities around the country. The traditional May Day rallies took on greater weight this year as parliament is debating a bill that would allow longer working hours and let companies lay workers off more easily.
The bill has prompted the most violent labor-related protests in a decade, with marches and sit-ins frequently degenerating into clashes with police.
Riot police encircled a few hundred suspected troublemakers on the sidelines of the Paris march Sunday, and frustrated youth threw projectiles. Later, protesters set fires at a subway entrance and around the Republique plaza that has become a rallying point.
The Socialist government hopes the relatively modest labor reform will reduce chronically high unemployment and make France more globally competitive, by allowing companies more flexibility. Opponents say it erodes hard-fought worker protections and call it a gift to corporate interests.
Thousands of Turkish demonstrators rallied for May Day in an authorized area of Istanbul while police cracked down on other protests.
Police used tear gas and water cannons on demonstrators trying to reach Taksim Square. One man died after being hit by a water cannon vehicle.
Taksim has symbolic meaning as the center of protests in which 34 people were killed on May Day in 1977.
The office of the governor of Istanbul said 24,500 security officers reported for duty Sunday, and that 207 people were detained.
Tensions are running high in Turkey after a string of deadly suicide bombings linked to either Kurdish or Islamic State militants.
In the capital, Ankara, police rounded up four suspected ISIS members who were allegedly planning to attack May Day demonstrators.
May Day marches were held elsewhere in Turkey without incident but were canceled in the southern city of Gaziantep after a deadly car bombing on a police station.
Tens of thousands of people marched across Moscow’s Red Square on a sunny Sunday morning in a pro-Kremlin workers’ rally. The protesters were carrying the Russian tricolor and balloons.
As is typical for rallies organized by the ruling United Russia party, the May Day rally steered clear of criticizing President Vladimir Putin or his government for falling living standards. The slogans focused on wages and jobs for young professionals.
Left-wing Russian groups held their own rallies.
This year the May Day coincided with the Orthodox Easter in Russia. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told Russian news agencies ahead of the rally that he celebrates Easter despite the Communist party’s history of oppressing the Russian Church. When a supporter greeted him with “Christ has risen!” Zyuganov echoed “He is risen indeed!” in a traditional Orthodox greeting.