· Tens of thousands mark international labour day
· Turkish police fire water cannon and tear gas at protesters
· Cambodian police forcibly disperse demonstrators
11.36am BST
One Turkish policeman's view as tweeted by Amnesty International's Andrew Gardner.
Police officer on one of the roadblocks on the sealed off streets "no people, no problems"
11.32am BST
This tweet from the BBC's Moscow correspondent show what the Kiev interim government is up against in its restive eastern region.
May Day in one of Ukraine's largest cities & not a single Ukrainian flag in sight. #Donetsk today pic.twitter.com/futv7zp9n4
11.23am BST
At least five people were hurt in demonstrations in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, as police armed with clubs turned on protesters. The assaults appeared to be random and limited, and were over in less than an hour. The Associated Press reports:
At least five people were hurt, said Om Sam Ath, an officer of the human rights group Licadho.
"These security forces seem to be addicted to beating people," he said. "Every time they disperse protesters, they beat people, and not one of them has been arrested."
11.11am BST
Pope Francis urges leaders to do the right thing.
I ask everyone with political responsibility to remember two things: human dignity and the common good.
11.04am BST
A pretty reminder that May Day is also a celebration of Spring and love.
Happy #MayDay! Heres Walter Cranes 1874 design for a greeting card http://t.co/WOZhNAD7Io pic.twitter.com/AFR2rMO9Nz
10.55am BST
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, thousands of red-clad, vuvuzela-blowing marchers protested against a planned new tax on goods and services. They also vented their frustration over the government's handling of flight MH370 and a court ruling in March that convicted opposition leader Anwar of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in jail. Agence France-Presse reports:
Opposition politicians speaking at the rally denounced the case and called on demonstrators to rise up if Anwar is jailed.
"I want to tell the PM, don't you dare touch Anwar. The people will not allow Anwar to be jailed for even one second," top opposition politician Azmin Ali told the crowd, estimated by local media at around 20,000-strong.
10.27am BST
A tweeter remarks on a novel barricade in Ankara, the Turkish capital.
Wait, is Ankara preparing for zombie apocalypse? 1st time I see this type of armored wall barricade. ht @sendika_org pic.twitter.com/jD5Qpf4MDb
10.25am BST
More May Day reading material. If Piketty is not to your taste, try Atlas Shrugged, the 1,000 page plus doorstoper by Ayan Rand, muse to Alan Greenspan, former US Federal Reserve chairman. It's fiction, of course, but as a paean to unbridled capitalism, it's an unsurpassable romp. It's about captains of industry who withdraw their labour and seek refuge in their version of Shangri-La, wrecking the US economy - deprived of their ingenuity, their pursuit of profit and self-interest. The book features a speech by the hero, John Galt, that goes on for 60 pages setting out Rand's argument for capitalism. Apparently those pages took Rand two years to write.
10.09am BST
A timely May Day story on zero-hour contracts, which often tie a worker to a single company but in return do not guarantee employment from week to week, from the Guardian.
The number of workers on zero-hours contracts has almost tripled to 1.4 million since last year's estimate, according to official data on Wednesday that piled pressure on Vince Cable, the business secretary, to provide more safeguards for workers with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay.
More than one in 10 employers are using such contracts, which are most likely to be offered to women, young people and people over 65. The survey showed half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work. Retail and the care industry are also big users of zero-hours deals.
10.03am BST
This video shows police checking IDs in Istanbul.
9.57am BST
In North Korea, workers are being exhorted in Orwellian language to work hard beside the loving Comrade Kim Jong-un. This is from the Guardian's North Korea network.
To mark International Workers Day, state periodical the Rodong Sinmun has called for labourers across North Korea to take on Chosun speed and safeguard the socialist system under Kim Jong-un".
Chosun speed" follows on the heels of Masikryeong speed, an ideological tactic adopted by Kim Jong-un to yield maximum results during last years construction of the Masikryeong ski resort.
9.52am BST
This is via Instagram from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
9.45am BST
This shows the number of groups defying the ban to march in Taksim square in Istanbul.
33 Turkish organizations defy #Taksim rally ban for #MayDay http://t.co/xqL4RThID8 pic.twitter.com/hroD37W6LG
9.43am BST
There's a big turnout in Moscow, where about 100,000 workers paraded on Red Square for the first time since the 1991 Soviet breakup. Demonstrators waving Russian flags and balloons marched through Moscow's landmark near the Kremlin walls as trade union leaders addressed them from the podium. "Putin is right", "Proud of the country" and "Let's support decisions of our president" read the banners, in a show of support for Vladimir Putin's muscular policy on Ukraine. After Moscow's takeover of Crimea, Putin's approval ratings has rocketed to 80%.
9.25am BST
Back to what's happening in the streets. In Odessa, Ukraine, May Day rallies have turned into anti-government protests. Ukraine's acting president yesterday admitted his government has practically lost control of the east of the country with his security forces "helpless" to stop a rolling takeover by pro-Russia gunmen. Read Luke Harding's report on Ukraine here.
'Junta will fall' Commie May Day rally in Ukraine=anti-Kyiv separatist demo. Odessa today @dumskaya_net pic pic.twitter.com/pOYKZvA4J4
9.18am BST
It's been a story of stagnant wages in the US as well. Steven Greenhouse writes in the New York Times.
Wages have fallen to a record low as a share of Americas gross domestic product. Until 1975, wages nearly always accounted for more than 50 percent of the nations G.D.P., but last year wages fell to a record low of 43.5 percent. Since 2001, when the wage share was 49 percent, there has been a steep slide.
9.14am BST
Larry Elliott, the Guardian's economics editor, recently made the same point about the squeeze in living standards in recent decades in the UK.
Over the past 25 years, the trend has been towards an atomised and casualised workforce that has little or no bargaining power. The Britain of today is a land of secure workers on good incomes but also of gangmasters, zero-hours contracts, domestic servants and the self-employed scratching a living. Under the Labour government of 1997-2010, tax credits were used to top up low pay, but austerity means they have become less generous. There are now more people in poverty who are in work than there are who are workless.
Unless the state is willing to act as the guarantor of a living wage through the tax and benefit system, there are only two possible outcomes. One is that the labour share of national income will continue to fall, leading either to a reduction in aggregate demand and/or higher indebtedness. The other is that the bargaining power of labour is increased through full employment, stronger trade unions and collective bargaining.
9.08am BST
Why is May Day important to the union movement? In his surprise bestseller - Capital in the Twenty-first Century- the French economist Thomas Piketty argues that the long, mid-20th century period of rising equality was a blip, produced by the exigencies of war, the power of organised labour, the need for high taxation, and by demographics and technical innovation. If you are not going to read Piketty's tome, Paul Mason has this useful primer.
Put crudely, if growth is high and the returns on capital can be suppressed, you can have a more equal capitalism. But, says Piketty, a repeat of the Keynesian era is unlikely: labour is too weak, technological innovation too slow, the global power of capital too great. In addition, the legitimacy of this unequal system is high: because it has found ways to spread the wealth down to the managerial class in a way the early 19th century did not.
If he is right, the implications for capitalism are utterly negative: we face a low-growth capitalism, combined with high levels of inequality and low levels of social mobility. If you are not born into wealth to start with, life, for even for the best educated, will be like Jane Eyre without Mr Rochester.
9.01am BST
Turkey expert, Hugh Pope, tweets on May Day in Turkey.
#Mayday curfew postcard from #Istanbul: 10am & police only on busiest shopping street in Europe's biggest city pic.twitter.com/Z4FUYnzEmS
8.58am BST
In London, thousands of activists are expected to attend a May Day rally to pay tribute to rail union leader Bob Crow and Labour leftwinger Tony Benn. Both died a few days of each other in March.
Tony Lennon, chief steward of the London May Day organising committee, said: "This year's London May Day presents a huge opportunity for the trade unions and the community to both pay tribute to the massive contribution made by Bob Crow and Tony Benn to the fight for workers' rights, and to send out a clear message that the battle goes on."
8.53am BST
In Turkey, protesters have apparently resorted to throwing pineapples. Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to prevent hundreds of protesters from defying a ban on May Day rallies and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim Square, the focal point of weeks of protests last summer.
The authorities have shut down parts of the city's public transport and deployed thousands of riot police, blocking access to Taksim, a traditional union rallying point surrounded by hotels, restaurants and shops. Flag-waving demonstrators attempting to breach police lines, some throwing fireworks and stones, were met with water cannon and tear gas in the Besiktas neighbourhood on the edge of the Bosphorus not far from Taksim, a Reuters witness said.
#Mayday Protesters get creative in #Turkey -No rocks to throw at police? No prob, pineapples will do HT @zetkinchapul pic.twitter.com/Xg8QvmngjX
8.48am BST
Big turnout on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where there have been price increases in food following cuts in subsidies on sugar.
May Day rally hits over 25,000 in KL streets. More LIVE reports here: http://t.co/cKYWnCDVUA pic.twitter.com/UNoSsjLzEZ
8.42am BST
For many May Day is simply a public holiday to mark the start of spring - although it's grey and wet in London. But for those who still believe in working class solidarity, today means more than a day off (in some parts of the world) , it is a celebration of hard won rights in the workplace.
May Day, or International Workers' Day, has its roots in America as it commemorates what is known as the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, in which several demonstrators at a mass rally for an eight-hour workday were killed.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 7 hours ago.
· Turkish police fire water cannon and tear gas at protesters
· Cambodian police forcibly disperse demonstrators
11.36am BST
One Turkish policeman's view as tweeted by Amnesty International's Andrew Gardner.
Police officer on one of the roadblocks on the sealed off streets "no people, no problems"
11.32am BST
This tweet from the BBC's Moscow correspondent show what the Kiev interim government is up against in its restive eastern region.
May Day in one of Ukraine's largest cities & not a single Ukrainian flag in sight. #Donetsk today pic.twitter.com/futv7zp9n4
11.23am BST
At least five people were hurt in demonstrations in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, as police armed with clubs turned on protesters. The assaults appeared to be random and limited, and were over in less than an hour. The Associated Press reports:
At least five people were hurt, said Om Sam Ath, an officer of the human rights group Licadho.
"These security forces seem to be addicted to beating people," he said. "Every time they disperse protesters, they beat people, and not one of them has been arrested."
11.11am BST
Pope Francis urges leaders to do the right thing.
I ask everyone with political responsibility to remember two things: human dignity and the common good.
11.04am BST
A pretty reminder that May Day is also a celebration of Spring and love.
Happy #MayDay! Heres Walter Cranes 1874 design for a greeting card http://t.co/WOZhNAD7Io pic.twitter.com/AFR2rMO9Nz
10.55am BST
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, thousands of red-clad, vuvuzela-blowing marchers protested against a planned new tax on goods and services. They also vented their frustration over the government's handling of flight MH370 and a court ruling in March that convicted opposition leader Anwar of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in jail. Agence France-Presse reports:
Opposition politicians speaking at the rally denounced the case and called on demonstrators to rise up if Anwar is jailed.
"I want to tell the PM, don't you dare touch Anwar. The people will not allow Anwar to be jailed for even one second," top opposition politician Azmin Ali told the crowd, estimated by local media at around 20,000-strong.
10.27am BST
A tweeter remarks on a novel barricade in Ankara, the Turkish capital.
Wait, is Ankara preparing for zombie apocalypse? 1st time I see this type of armored wall barricade. ht @sendika_org pic.twitter.com/jD5Qpf4MDb
10.25am BST
More May Day reading material. If Piketty is not to your taste, try Atlas Shrugged, the 1,000 page plus doorstoper by Ayan Rand, muse to Alan Greenspan, former US Federal Reserve chairman. It's fiction, of course, but as a paean to unbridled capitalism, it's an unsurpassable romp. It's about captains of industry who withdraw their labour and seek refuge in their version of Shangri-La, wrecking the US economy - deprived of their ingenuity, their pursuit of profit and self-interest. The book features a speech by the hero, John Galt, that goes on for 60 pages setting out Rand's argument for capitalism. Apparently those pages took Rand two years to write.
10.09am BST
A timely May Day story on zero-hour contracts, which often tie a worker to a single company but in return do not guarantee employment from week to week, from the Guardian.
The number of workers on zero-hours contracts has almost tripled to 1.4 million since last year's estimate, according to official data on Wednesday that piled pressure on Vince Cable, the business secretary, to provide more safeguards for workers with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay.
More than one in 10 employers are using such contracts, which are most likely to be offered to women, young people and people over 65. The survey showed half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work. Retail and the care industry are also big users of zero-hours deals.
10.03am BST
This video shows police checking IDs in Istanbul.
9.57am BST
In North Korea, workers are being exhorted in Orwellian language to work hard beside the loving Comrade Kim Jong-un. This is from the Guardian's North Korea network.
To mark International Workers Day, state periodical the Rodong Sinmun has called for labourers across North Korea to take on Chosun speed and safeguard the socialist system under Kim Jong-un".
Chosun speed" follows on the heels of Masikryeong speed, an ideological tactic adopted by Kim Jong-un to yield maximum results during last years construction of the Masikryeong ski resort.
9.52am BST
This is via Instagram from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
9.45am BST
This shows the number of groups defying the ban to march in Taksim square in Istanbul.
33 Turkish organizations defy #Taksim rally ban for #MayDay http://t.co/xqL4RThID8 pic.twitter.com/hroD37W6LG
9.43am BST
There's a big turnout in Moscow, where about 100,000 workers paraded on Red Square for the first time since the 1991 Soviet breakup. Demonstrators waving Russian flags and balloons marched through Moscow's landmark near the Kremlin walls as trade union leaders addressed them from the podium. "Putin is right", "Proud of the country" and "Let's support decisions of our president" read the banners, in a show of support for Vladimir Putin's muscular policy on Ukraine. After Moscow's takeover of Crimea, Putin's approval ratings has rocketed to 80%.
9.25am BST
Back to what's happening in the streets. In Odessa, Ukraine, May Day rallies have turned into anti-government protests. Ukraine's acting president yesterday admitted his government has practically lost control of the east of the country with his security forces "helpless" to stop a rolling takeover by pro-Russia gunmen. Read Luke Harding's report on Ukraine here.
'Junta will fall' Commie May Day rally in Ukraine=anti-Kyiv separatist demo. Odessa today @dumskaya_net pic pic.twitter.com/pOYKZvA4J4
9.18am BST
It's been a story of stagnant wages in the US as well. Steven Greenhouse writes in the New York Times.
Wages have fallen to a record low as a share of Americas gross domestic product. Until 1975, wages nearly always accounted for more than 50 percent of the nations G.D.P., but last year wages fell to a record low of 43.5 percent. Since 2001, when the wage share was 49 percent, there has been a steep slide.
9.14am BST
Larry Elliott, the Guardian's economics editor, recently made the same point about the squeeze in living standards in recent decades in the UK.
Over the past 25 years, the trend has been towards an atomised and casualised workforce that has little or no bargaining power. The Britain of today is a land of secure workers on good incomes but also of gangmasters, zero-hours contracts, domestic servants and the self-employed scratching a living. Under the Labour government of 1997-2010, tax credits were used to top up low pay, but austerity means they have become less generous. There are now more people in poverty who are in work than there are who are workless.
Unless the state is willing to act as the guarantor of a living wage through the tax and benefit system, there are only two possible outcomes. One is that the labour share of national income will continue to fall, leading either to a reduction in aggregate demand and/or higher indebtedness. The other is that the bargaining power of labour is increased through full employment, stronger trade unions and collective bargaining.
9.08am BST
Why is May Day important to the union movement? In his surprise bestseller - Capital in the Twenty-first Century- the French economist Thomas Piketty argues that the long, mid-20th century period of rising equality was a blip, produced by the exigencies of war, the power of organised labour, the need for high taxation, and by demographics and technical innovation. If you are not going to read Piketty's tome, Paul Mason has this useful primer.
Put crudely, if growth is high and the returns on capital can be suppressed, you can have a more equal capitalism. But, says Piketty, a repeat of the Keynesian era is unlikely: labour is too weak, technological innovation too slow, the global power of capital too great. In addition, the legitimacy of this unequal system is high: because it has found ways to spread the wealth down to the managerial class in a way the early 19th century did not.
If he is right, the implications for capitalism are utterly negative: we face a low-growth capitalism, combined with high levels of inequality and low levels of social mobility. If you are not born into wealth to start with, life, for even for the best educated, will be like Jane Eyre without Mr Rochester.
9.01am BST
Turkey expert, Hugh Pope, tweets on May Day in Turkey.
#Mayday curfew postcard from #Istanbul: 10am & police only on busiest shopping street in Europe's biggest city pic.twitter.com/Z4FUYnzEmS
8.58am BST
In London, thousands of activists are expected to attend a May Day rally to pay tribute to rail union leader Bob Crow and Labour leftwinger Tony Benn. Both died a few days of each other in March.
Tony Lennon, chief steward of the London May Day organising committee, said: "This year's London May Day presents a huge opportunity for the trade unions and the community to both pay tribute to the massive contribution made by Bob Crow and Tony Benn to the fight for workers' rights, and to send out a clear message that the battle goes on."
8.53am BST
In Turkey, protesters have apparently resorted to throwing pineapples. Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to prevent hundreds of protesters from defying a ban on May Day rallies and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim Square, the focal point of weeks of protests last summer.
The authorities have shut down parts of the city's public transport and deployed thousands of riot police, blocking access to Taksim, a traditional union rallying point surrounded by hotels, restaurants and shops. Flag-waving demonstrators attempting to breach police lines, some throwing fireworks and stones, were met with water cannon and tear gas in the Besiktas neighbourhood on the edge of the Bosphorus not far from Taksim, a Reuters witness said.
#Mayday Protesters get creative in #Turkey -No rocks to throw at police? No prob, pineapples will do HT @zetkinchapul pic.twitter.com/Xg8QvmngjX
8.48am BST
Big turnout on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where there have been price increases in food following cuts in subsidies on sugar.
May Day rally hits over 25,000 in KL streets. More LIVE reports here: http://t.co/cKYWnCDVUA pic.twitter.com/UNoSsjLzEZ
8.42am BST
For many May Day is simply a public holiday to mark the start of spring - although it's grey and wet in London. But for those who still believe in working class solidarity, today means more than a day off (in some parts of the world) , it is a celebration of hard won rights in the workplace.
May Day, or International Workers' Day, has its roots in America as it commemorates what is known as the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, in which several demonstrators at a mass rally for an eight-hour workday were killed.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 7 hours ago.