Associated Press
Jakarta, Indonesia, May 1: Workers across Asia rallied Monday to press for better factory conditions and higher wages, often encountering a heavy police presence and, in some places, outright resistance.
Demonstrations were planned in major cities across Indonesia, with up to 50,000 people expected in the capital alone to protest government plans to revise a labour law. The new law would cut severance packages and introduce more flexible contracts that would chip away at worker security.
"Don't change the law," thousands of labourers chanted at Jakarta's main downtown roundabout, as others arrived in buses and trucks, waving green, yellow and red flags and banners expressing their demands.
Fearing violence, about 13,000 police were deployed on the streets, some carrying riot shields and manning water cannons, said police chief Maj. Gen. Firman Ganisaid.
Embassies and companies told foreigners to stay away from the demonstrations, though there were no reports of incidents by midday.
In the Philippines, which has been plagued by coup rumours, government troops and police armed with batons and shields turned away hundreds of activists who tried to approach the presidential palace in Manila.
Other protests were planned at the historic Mendiola bridge, which has become a symbol of anti-government resistance. Some 500 policemen stood guard at the bridge, backed by troops armed with assault rifles and shoulder-fired weapons.
"We don't want Labour Day to be shrouded as a day of defiance to the law," he said.
In Sri Lanka, where violence between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military has heightened fears of a return to civil war, the government cancelled all May Day rallies in the capital.
In Cambodia, thousands of police brought the capital Phnom Penh to a virtual standstill during a government clampdown on an unauthorised May Day demonstration.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said one protest organizer was detained by police for two hours after hundreds of workers gathered on Russian Boulevard — a main road into the capital — seeking to march through the city.
The government had denied permission for the rally, allowing only one official May Day demonstration at Chenla theatre, and police armed with riot shields and batons physically prevented protesters from marching.
"Cambodia still lacks real democracy, there is no real respect for human rights," Sam Rainsy said.
Thousands of garment factory workers rallied in Bangladesh to demand the United States and Europe drop tariffs on their products, saying they could eventually cause the industry's collapse.
Other labourers wound through the streets of the capital, Dhaka, banging drums and singing as they called for better working conditions in the country's dangerous factories.
"No more death in factories," they chanted. And "we want duty-free access."