Over 1M turn out in May Day protests

Marchers call for more jobs

Turkish workers and activists gather for the celebrations marking May Day in Istanbul Sunday. Activists flooded Turkey's largest city Istanbul Sunday and marked international workers' day around the world with marches demanding more jobs, better working conditions and higher wages.

BERLIN -- More than 400,000 people took to the streets in Germany Sunday as marchers around the world demanded more jobs, better working conditions, and higher wages on International Workers' Day.

In Turkey, about 200,000 protesters flooded a central plaza in Istanbul, making it the largest May Day rally there since 1977, when at least 34 people died and more than 100 were injured after shooting triggered a stampede.

Turkish unions weren't allowed back until last year.

Across Germany, an estimated 423,000 people took to the streets to demand fair wages, better working conditions, and sufficient social security, the country's unions' umbrella-group, DGB, said.

In Austria, more than 100,000 people peacefully took to the streets of Vienna, protest organizers said. Social Democratic Chancellor Werner Faymann promised social policies and warned against leaving too much room to financial speculation.

In Cuba, hundreds of thousands of people marched through Havana and other cities in a demonstration touted as a show of support for economic changes approved by the Communist Party.

In South Korea, police said 50,000 rallied in Seoul for better labor protections. They also urged the government to contain inflation, a growing concern in Asia, where spiking food and oil prices could push millions into poverty.

Several thousand turned out for May Day demonstrations in Paris, including supporters of the far-right National Front party whose new president, Marine Le Pen, stressed her party's anti-immigrant stance.