May Day attracts extremes in worldwide protests

Nationalists, anarchists, pacifists and environmentalists joined traditional May Day marchers across the world yesterday with the biggest turnout in France, where well over a million people took to the streets.

Police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse young radicals in the Swiss city of Zurich and used water cannons against rowdy demonstrators in Berlin, where one injured woman was fighting for her life.

An estimated 1.3 million people demonstrated across France in a massive show of opposition to far-right presidential contender Jean-Marie Le Pen. The rallies eclipsed a march by some 10,000 supporters of Le Pen`s anti-immigration National Front party in Paris.

Chanting "N like Nazi, F like Fascist", anti-Le Pen demonstrators packed dozens of French towns and cities, while their main protest started later in the capital.

In eastern Turkey, security police clashed with some 1,500 protesters and used armoured vehicles to break up a May Day protest. Larger demonstrations in the capital Ankara and the country`s biggest city Istanbul passed off peacefully.

Almost every country in the world marks May Day in one way or another and the date is officially recognised by the United Nations as International Labour Day.

Droves of anti-globalisation and anti-pollution protesters clogged the streets of London with carnival-style protests including a picnic and a cycle ride, under the watchful eyes of police forewarned of possible anarchist attacks.

In other cities, trade unionists marched in more traditional May Day parades, calling for better workers` rights.

A sea of red flags and banners transformed a mediaeval piazza in the Italian city of Bologna, as some 75,000 labour union members, many clutching red carnations, attended a Labour Day rally with the slogan: "For peace, employment, the defence of rights and against terrorism."

Greek protesters used May Day marches to denounce Israel`s incursion into the West Bank, burning an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon outside the US embassy in Athens.

A huge workers` rally in the Syrian capital Damascus quickly turned into a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.

"Sharon you dog!" some protesters shouted.

In warm Italian sunshine some 18,000 people gathered in front of the basilica of St Peter`s in the Vatican to listen to Pope John Paul deliver his May Day audience.

"Today is Labour Day... through work, man becomes more human. But for hard work to allow man to become more human it must always exist within a social framework," he said.

Pro-Kremlin parties and trade unions stole the show from communists in Moscow by staging an estimated 140,000-strong rally in the Red Square - something the country has not seen since the Soviet days.

In the Philippines, 25,000 leftist workers and followers of disgraced former Philippine president Joseph Estrada marched on the heavily guarded presidential palace demanding the ouster of his successor, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Malaysian authorities arrested 17 people in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, after labour activists marched through the city centre with banners calling for better rights for plantation workers.

In Australia, where police arrested dozens of people after scuffles broke out at a picket to protest against the country`s immigration policies, union leaders expressed concern their peaceful cause was being hijacked by fringe groups.