Large May Day rallies are taking place on 1 May in Kurdish-majority cities of Turkey and across North and East Syria, under a heavy police presence. The contributions of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan to workers’ rights were emphasised by May Day demonstrators in Kurdish-led North and East Syria.
Thousands of workers have gathered this morning in the city of Batman, southeast Turkey, to celebrate 1 May, under the banner of the Labour and Democracy Platform.
Batman Emek ve Demokrasi Platformu öncülüğünde gerçekleştirilen 1 Mayıs İşçi Bayramı için bir araya gelen binlerce işçi, emekçi kortej halinde mitingin yapılacağı alana yürüyorhttps://t.co/P86jRMa0kK https://t.co/gfWhL3YUy2
— Mezopotamya Ajansı (@MAturkce) May 1, 2024
A mass May Day demonstration is also underway in (Van) Wan, with workers marching to the Musa Anter Peace Park. The slogan for the demonstration is “Labour is ours, our world is ours”. Hundreds of women workers have joined the march together, chanting “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Women, Life, Freedom).
The march is supported by the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DİSK), the Wan Bar Association, the Wan-Colemêrg Medical Chamber, the Chamber of Dentists and the Union of Chambers of Turkish Architects and Engineers (TMMOB) Wan Branch, the Free Women’s Association (TJA), the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association (MKG) and the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG).
🔴 #canlı #zindi
Serhat’ın birçok kentinden 1 Mayıs İşçi Bayramı için Wan’a gelenler, miting alanında yerlerini aldı…
https://t.co/gWvahLCMgv— Mezopotamya Ajansı (@MAturkce) May 1, 2024
The demonstration in Van is surrounded by a heavy police barricade, which marchers have to pass through to access the demonstration. Demonstrators waiting to pass the police barricades are reportedly chanting “Rights, law, justice: what a disgrace!” and “Long live the first of May”. The rally is due to be addressed by People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Keskin Bayındır and KESK Co-General Secretary Ahmet Karagöz.
Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association (MKG) and Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) also took to the streets in Van, holding a banner proclaiming that they ‘will not be silenced’. The slogan is in defiance of the wave of arrests of Kurdish journalists that took place across Turkey last week.
In Izmir, employees of Amcor, a major factory in the Atatürk Çiğli Organised Industrial Zone, have taken strike action starting on 1 May and scheduled for several days until demands on wages and workplace benefits are met. The strikes are expected to have a significant impact on the wider industrial zone.
Meanwhile, the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), the civil society movement for democratic confederalism in North and East Syria, issued a statement calling for people to take to the streets and call for an end to the isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
TEV DEM wrote “Let’s celebrate this day together, let’s shout once again for the physical freedom of the Leader Abdullah Öcalan on this historic day.” Emphasising Öcalan’s contribution to worker’s struggle, they continued “We support the just struggle of all workers for a democratic, free and equal society.”
The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) has announced that 1 May will be a public holiday in North and East Syria.
