ATHENS, Greece —
No job at all, or a job without enough protections — millions of workers worldwide are marking international labor day trapped between hunger and fear, as more countries and states reopen for business even though the coronavirus pandemic is far from vanquished.
Beijing’s Forbidden City cracked open its doors, and shopping malls from Texas to Indiana were set to do the same Friday, while world leaders try to salvage virus-battered economies without unleashing new waves of infections.
With traditional May Day labor marches curtailed by strict limits on public gatherings, Turkish protesters attempted to stage a wildcat demonstration. California activists planned strikes, and Parisians sang from balconies to plead their causes: workplace masks, health insurance or more government aid for the jobless.
It’ was a melancholy International Workers’ Day for garment industry workers across southeast Asia such as Wiryono, a father of two in Indonesia’s capital who was laid off last month as retailers slashed orders. His side gig delivering coffee dried up, too, amid a virus lockdown. So he set up a clothing repair business to make ends meet.
“I don’t earn as much as I got from the clothing factory. But I have to feed my wife and kids every day,” said Wiryono, who goes by only one name.
In Bangladesh, production is starting back up even despite a rising number of new confirmed cases of a virus that has infected more than 3.2 million and killed at least 230,000 worldwide.
A government-ordered lockdown couldn’t extinguish the May Day protest spirit in Greece, where demonstrators lined up two meters (six feet) apart in careful rows in Athens’ Syntagma Square. Organizers, wearing masks and gloves, used tape measures to set out exact positions for the protesters with large colored squares.
Greeks who work by doing deliveries staged a motorized protest, driving through Athens on their motorbikes, and police were out in force to ensure residents don’t head from cities to the countryside, another May Day tradition.
“We are praying for all workers, so that no one will lack work, and all will be fairly paid and can enjoy the dignity of work and the beauty of rest,” Pope Francis pleaded during a private morning Mass.
May Day labor protests started in the 19th century in the United States, where this week the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits surpassed a staggering 30 million — and joblessness in April could hit numbers not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Essential workers were expected to strike around the U.S. on Friday to demand safer conditions during the pandemic, while other groups organized rallies to protest stay-at-home orders they say are crippling the U.S. economy.
Lacey Ward, an Omaha hairstylist, said she is worried that the Nebraska governor’s decision to let salons reopen on May 4 could put her and her family at risk. She would prefer to collect unemployment until the danger subsides.
“I feel like we are literally the guinea pigs in this situation,” she said.
May Day is a state holiday in many countries, but lockdowns mean this is the first time that Russia — whose prime minister has the virus — will not hold mass demonstrations on Red Square.
In Turkey, police and protesters wearing masks faced off in Istanbul, and 15 people were detained for defying confinement rules.
In the Czech Republic, people honked horns, played drums or shouted at midday in a special “noisy protest” over the government’s handling of the crisis. And hundreds of Czechs who commute to work in Germany and Austria plan to block a border crossing to protest restrictions imposed on them amid the pandemic.
In the French spirit of keeping leaders in check, some Paris residents defied home confinement rules to hold unauthorized protests. Others staged a midday musical protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s handling of the pandemic, singing from balconies and windows to the tune of the rebel’s anthem “Bella Ciao.”
Instead of the usual May Day concert in Italy, musical artists will take turns performing solo in empty venues. As Italy prepares to reopen some businesses Monday, unions demanded scrupulous attention to social distancing at work stations and on assembly lines, and the sanitizing of factories before they start up again.
A holiday atmosphere enlivened South Africa’s streets Friday, as the May Day holiday is also when the country has begun easing its strict lockdown. People were permitted to walk outside for exercise and some are returning to work in small batches.
The country where the coronavirus first erupted also is opening up: China’s ancient, majestic Forbidden City reopened on Friday with all tickets for the May 1-5 holiday sold out, and a limit of 5,000 visitors a day, down from the earlier maximum of 80,000.
Visitor Bian Jiang reveled at the chance to visit without huge crowds and said, “When walking in some areas without others around, I felt like I’m getting back to history.”
In Spain, the closing of a massive field hospital that had symbolized the country’s battle against the virus and its overwhelmed health system held significance.
Malaysia and Thailand prepared to reopen some businesses. Japan’s prime minister, however, announced his virus state of emergency would stay in place for another month.
Worker and customer safety is a key question as the biggest U.S. mall operator, Simon Property Group Inc., plans to open 49 shopping centers Friday across 10 states, with mask-wearing employees and a limited number of shoppers.
President Donald Trump chose not to extend the White House’s social-distancing guidelines past their expiration Thursday. Those guidelines encouraged people to work from home and avoid restaurants, groups and nonessential travel.
Trump continued to speculate on the origins of the coronavirus, and intelligence agencies said they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides that the pandemic may have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab.
The virus has killed over 230,000 worldwide, including more than 61,000 in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed infections globally topped 3.2 million, with 1 million in the U.S., but the true numbers are believed to be much higher because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.
As Australia plans to open up, Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged people to download a COVIDSafe app to help track cases, and warned: “The coronavirus is still out there.”
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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok and Charlton from Paris. AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.
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