Alsatian Unions Call For May Day Demonstrations in Strasbourg, Mulhouse, and Colmar – Fight Against Austerity and Europe of United Workers

This Wednesday, May 1, The various Alsatian unions called demonstrations in the three main cities, Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Colmar.

According to the union, May 1 in Strasbourg, which started at 10:30 am, brought together between 2,500 and 3,000 people at the beginning of the demonstration. According to the prefecture, 900 people walked in the march led by the interunion, as well as another 700 for a “carnival of anger” that left the university palace to reach the city center. The main slogans are the fight against austerity and a Europe of united workers. The inter-union brings together the CFDT, the CGT, FSU, FO and the UNSA. That is, all the main unions except the CFTC, which are not marching in Bas-Rhin on May 1. Alongside them are student unions like the newly created Strasbourg Student Alternative.

Palestinian and Iranian causes

At the back of the parade, Palestinian keffiers and flags rub shoulders with blouses and flags of various unions. The Palestinian issue “de facto imposes itself”, for Étienne, the UNSA trade union.

The Iranian cause is represented by the solidarity council with the democratic movement of the people of Iran, which displays pictures of Iranian trade unionists, arrested by the regime, and of the rapper Toomaj Salehi, sent to death for his support of demonstrations against the power. .

Franco-German Convention in Deux-Rives

Shortly before 12:30 pm, the demonstrators slowly reached the Mimram footbridge to join German workers at the border. Some Palestinian activists joined the main march and placed a large flag over the edge of the walkway.

Coming from all over the border, the unions ver.di, IGM, EVG and the DKP, the German Communist Party, are represented by around thirty people.

The show broke up shortly before 1 p.m.

In Mulhouse there were nearly 700, including 300 Kurds, appearing for May 1. A non-stop show that ended after 1h39 of walking to Salvator Park for a big barbecue.

“We want to live better”

In Colmar, around a hundred demonstrators took to the streets this Wednesday morning, especially at the call of the CFTC and the CGT. “We want to live better,” said Jean-Marc Michalak, from the local union of the CGT, which denounces the additional reductions in rights planned by the government, especially the reduction from 18 to 12 months of the compensation period or the reduction. of allocation.

The march, which also included some members of the socialist party (PS) of the territorial FSU, passed through part of the city center before coming together in front of the prefecture.