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No demonstrations or parades. The planet celebrates May Day confined, due to the new coronavirus pandemic that has claimed 233,000 lives and undermines the world economy, while continuing to fuel tension between the United States and China.
International Labor Day, a holiday in many countries (with exceptions such as the United States, Canada or Australia) will pass without concentrations, for the first time in the history of unions, which called for other forms of mobilization, on the balconies or in the networks social.
As in Indonesia, where the main confederation displayed banners in 200 cities and launched an internet campaign inviting “to demonstrate from home.”
The main demand is that wages be guaranteed because, as in the rest of the world, the pandemic forced countless companies to reduce or suspend their activity.
In the Philippines, some 23 million people, almost a quarter of the population, are threatened by hunger, warned union leader Jerome Adonis.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), at least 1.6 billion people could lose their jobs due to confinement and the subsequent historical recession.
The United States, the country most affected with almost 63,000 deaths, has registered more than 30 million applications for unemployment aid since mid-March, a record. Boeing, hit by the cessation of international travel, announced the launch of a $ 25 billion bond offering.
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Tariffs in China
The litany of negative economic figures continued on Friday. Spain, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in Europe, announced a collapse of 9.2% of its GDP this year. Activity fell 3.8% in the euro zone in the first quarter and 4.8% in the annual rhythm in the United States. And the second quarter is announcing even worse.
In this context, Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he plans to impose customs tariffs against Beijing, because he says he is sure that the new coronavirus comes from a laboratory in Wuhan, a Chinese city where the pandemic broke out in late 2019.
The World Health Organization (WHO), criticized by the US president for its management of the pandemic, announced on Friday that it wanted to investigate the origins of the virus, and asked China to “invite” it to this end.
The UN body, which has so far praised China’s management of the crisis, explained that “it believed that a number of studies wishing to better understand the origin of the epidemic in China were either planned or underway.”
But “the WHO is not currently involved in these studies in China,” the spokesman lamented.
In total, the pandemic left 233,176 dead worldwide and more than 3.2 million infections, according to a balance established by AFP this Friday from official sources.
The country with the highest number of fatalities is the United States with 63,019 (1,070,032 cases). They are followed by Italy with 27,967 deaths and 205,463 cases, the United Kingdom with 26,711 deaths (171,253 cases), Spain with 24,824 deaths (215,216 cases), and France with 24,376 deaths (167,178 cases).
In China, the origin of the pandemic, there were 4,633 deaths from coronaviruses. In its attempt to return to normality, Beijing multiplies the tests throughout the population in the hope of definitively eradicating the pandemic. This Friday, the country reopened the Forbidden City in the capital on the first day of the five-day vacation on the occasion of May 1.
However, the emblematic tourist place did not receive many visitors, due to the distancing measures in force and the prudence of the citizens.
Billionaires, 10% richer
Confinement does not affect the rich and poor alike: Between March 18 and April 10, the fortune of US billionaires increased by nearly 10%, or $ 282 billion, mostly thanks to gains on the stock market of technology companies, according to a US study.
In Europe, a continent that has paid the highest human price with more than 138,000 deaths, the European Central Bank (ECB) claims to be “ready” to strengthen its arsenal of support for the economy.
In the UK, the peak of the pandemic was reached, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who promised to unveil a deconfinition plan next week.
Building on its success in fighting the pandemic, Germany took new measures for unconfinement, with the reopening of places of worship, museums and zoos. But cafes and restaurants will remain closed until at least May 6, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out opening the borders for the moment due to the risk of a second wave.
The “invisible of our society”
In Latin America, where the pandemic has already caused more than 11,000 deaths and 215,000 infections, according to official figures, several countries are also considering lifting some restrictions.
But “an immediate relaxation of the measures could be disastrous,” warned Marcos Espinal, director of the department of communicable diseases of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Meanwhile, in Cuba, athletes and musicians train on the roofs of their houses. Like William Roblejo, a 35-year-old violinist. “I am very happy, I was locked up for 20 or 25 days,” he says in Havana.
And in Bolivia, which will make the quarantine more flexible as of May 11, a protest with casseroles broke the silence on Thursday night in the cities of El Alto and La Paz, protesting the holding of general elections within 90 days. days in full pandemic.
In Brazil, confinement was prolonged in Rio de Janeiro until May 11, a decision taken against the opinion of President Jair Bolsonaro, who defends the resumption of economic activity at all costs.
In Japan, the state of health emergency will extend beyond May 6, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hinted.
In France, where the May Day tradition is especially important, the unions dedicated the day to the “invisible people of our society”, health workers or cashiers, who “continue to work, often risking their lives.”
In Istanbul, Turkish police detained several union officials on Friday who were parading despite the restrictions.
Finally in Germany, this May Day raised the concern of the authorities, with anti-confinement demonstrations by the radical left, the extreme right and the followers of conspiracy theories.
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