May Day mayhem

Police say 17 officers were injured and nine demonstrators detained on the eve of annual May Day marches in Germany's northern port city of Hamburg.

Violence, brawls between left-wing and right-wing extremists, burning barricades and smashed shop windows have been an annual ritual for more than 20 years in Hamburg, Berlin and other major German cities in what was originally meant to be a public Labor Day holiday to celebrate workers' rights.

In Berlin, some 7,000 police mobilized to keep right-wing and left-wing demonstrators apart.

Friday night, some bottles were thrown at police, but gatherings were otherwise peaceful. That may change later on Saturday when some 10,000 leftists march against a planned neo-Nazi rally which is expected to attract some 3,000 rightists.

Less violence, more message

In the past, the message from trade unions across Germany was drowned out by the media attention given to the violent clashes between police and groups of masked demonstrators looking for trouble.

This year, however, despite the Hamburg riots, union members were heard in the wake of the global economic crisis as they gathered to demand curbs on unfettered financial markets, on widespread speculation and on bonuses for businessmen and bankers who were rewarded for taking questionable risks.

The head of Germany's DGB trade union federation, Michael Sommer, told a crowd in the industrial city of Essen that the country's leaders were in a state of "political rigor mortis" over the behavior of bankers and businesses, unable to take the initiative to rectify the problem.

Across Europe

Tens of thousands of people took part in May Day rallies across France, but the turnout fell well short of the show of force unions had hoped for to press demands for changes to President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform plans.

In Moscow, several thousand communist demonstrators on Saturday demanded the resignation of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Around 1.7 million people in 1,000 cities across Russia took part in the May Day rallies, although most of them were pro-government.

In Greece, tens of thousands of people and perhaps a hundred rock-throwing youths protested in central Athens against the harsh austerity measures the government is being forced to impose to overcome the country's financial meltdown.

gb/dpa/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Kyle James