Clashes break out during Swiss May 1 demonstrations

Demonstrations were held in many Swiss cities, including Zurich (pictured), on May 1. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Disturbances have broken out in Zurich as tens of thousands of people attended more than 50 Swiss Labour Day celebrations and demonstrations dedicated to inequality and to safeguarding wages and pensions.

By late-afternoon on Monday police used water cannon and tear gas against demonstrators after being pelted with objects, including fireworks, in Zurich.

Some properties were daubed with paint as crowds in Zurich swelled to an estimated 10,000 people. But by evening police said the situation was under control with 11 people taken into custody.

Earlier in the day, Basel police intervened to prevent splinter groups from staging illegal demonstrations.

Several politicians, including Interior Minister Alain Berset, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, addressed rallies in various cities to acknowledge that inequalities exist in Switzerland.

+ Why demonstrate on May 1?

In Zurich the May 1 rally was staged under the theme of the Iranian movement “Woman, Life, Freedom”.

The keynote speaker in Zurich is Iranian activist Niloofar RasooliExternal link, a doctorate fellow at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

“More wages. More pension. Equality now!” is the demand of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions. The public has less and less to live on, it wrote in its May Day appealExternal link. Prices, health insurance premiums and rents were rising, wages were lagging behind and pensions were to be reduced even further, it said.

The upper classes want an “even bigger slice of the pie – here in Switzerland and around the world”.

Wage discrimination against women is a concern for Unia, for whom the reconciliation of work and private life is an “obstacle course”. Raising the retirement age against women’s will is nothing more than a reduction in pensions, Unia saidExternal link.

According to the May 1 Committee, the struggle for feminist change is necessary. The event organised by the Trade Union Federation of canton Zurich has the motto “Women’s work is worth more”.