MAY DAY DEMONSTRATION IN BAGHDAD
BAGHDAD– Iraqis celebrated May Day today with a march organized by the Iraqi Communist Party, the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions and other groups. Marchers paraded through central Baghdad chanting slogans and waving red flags.
Visual Diary: May Day
By Christoph Bangert AND Abeer Mohammed
New York Times
May 1, 2009
FIRDOS SQUARE– By ABEER MOHAMMED
May Day arrived in Baghdad again, but this time with something new. About 1,000 people – many of them members of the once-banned Communist Party – held Iraq’s first major march commemorating International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day.
Two groups streamed through Firdos Square in the center of Baghdad, carrying red banners and chanting songs in a small but spirited demonstration of labor solidarity that Saddam Hussein would never have permitted.
“We are simulating workers in Chicago who sat-in on this day years ago,” said Abbas al-Atabi, an old man dressed in a long, white robe. He was referring to the historic roots in Chicago of a holiday the rest of the world celebrates on May 1, not in September as the United States does.
“America could not defeat them,” he went on, referring to the early labor organizers, “and Saddam could not defeat us.”
Please read the complete article at:
http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/visual-diary-may-day/?scp=7&sq=may%20day%20demonstrations&st=cse