ATIK | Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe | AHM-ATIK News Center
ISTANBUL | 02 – 05 – 2010 | 1st of May is the historical day in where the international working class celebrates its labor day. One of these countries is Turkey, for decades the ruling classes in Turkey didn’t allow the workers to celebrate May Day, every time there were incidents in where state security forces attacked the masses. In some occasions people were also killed like on May 1st, 1977 36 people were killed again on May 1st 1978 Mehmet Kocadag was kidnapped by police forces, tortured and killed. On May 1st, 1996 three people died during the clashes with police forces in Istanbul.
Since May 1st, 1977 also known as the ‘labor day massacre’ Taksim square was not allowed to be used as a place for labor day demonstrations. The progressive movement was forced to be in Caglayan a district in Istanbul in where there was no possibility to have a demonstration the way the trade unions, revolutionaries wanted it to be. During attacks the people were defenseless against the police. The main demand was always to be in Taksim but the state didn’t permit.
For the last three years the movement pushed forward to march towards Taksim but before entering the square they were attacked, beaten and arrested. Now, for the first time in 32 years thousands of people marched to Taksim and held their demonstration. The first ones that entered and that were saluted with applause and slogans were the Tekel workers who held their fists up and chanted the slogan“Long Live May 1st!”.
No real incidents occurred during the demonstration the 10 tons of pepper gas was not “used”. During the Labor Day preparations state representatives said that “we must take security precautions” and for this 22.000 police was 
stationed close to Taksim square a special elite positioned itself on the roof of the Taxim Hotel (the same place from where they fired down on the masses in 1977).
The gathering started at around 10:00 O’clock and by 12:00 the square was filled with thousands of people. The demonstration ended at around 16:00 O’clock.
