Protesters marked International Workers’ Day with a rally in London’s Trafalgar Square on May 1, with some marchers holding up pictures of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
The demonstration was organised by United Voices of the World and the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, and included industrial disputes over pay, hours, union recognition and outsourcing.
It included workers involved in a long-running pay dispute at cinema chain Picturehouse, cleaners at the Ministry of Justice campaigning for the London living wage, and cleaners from King’s College pressing for work to be brought in-house.
Millions of people died in Stalin’s Russia, many of them transported to labour camps to work in extreme temperatures or executed in mass killings of political prisoners, while others died in disastrous famines.
Some marchers were seen holding up pictures of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, under whose regime millions died in Russia
The action, marking International Workers’ Day, which dates back to the early days of the trade union movement, coincided with a strike by some staff at McDonald’s over pay and union recognition.
Hundreds of employees assembled in London’s Trafalgar Square before taking part in a number of protests in the capital.