Workers unite for May Day rallies

By Richard Meares

LONDON (Reuters) - Workers, students and leftists took to the streets for May Day rallies that stuck to tradition but also showed how the world is changing.

In communist Cuba, whose vast holiday parade has been a fixture for years, illness kept veteran leader Fidel Castro away for the first time in decades.

"We need him to return," said Luisa Cuellar, who rose before dawn to walk with friends to Havana's Revolution Square, the political heart of Cuba. "He is the one who keeps us united."

Police fired in the air to disperse crowds demanding labour rights in the Macau enclave of communist China, while in the United States, where May Day is usually ignored, activists planned to march for illegal immigrants' rights.

Protesters called for better pensions in Greece, work safety in Italy, more HIV medication in Zimbabwe and anti-American defiance in Cuba, where all citizens are expected to march.

Apart from Macau, clashes also flared in Istanbul, Tehran and Berlin but there were few of the street battles seen in Europe in recent years between police and opponents of globalisation.

Police beat and detained hundreds of leftist demonstrators in street fights in Istanbul, in a Turkey already tense after army threats and a million-strong march by secularists opposed to what they see as an Islamist presidential candidate.

Riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons to break up the crowds. Youths threw Molotov cocktails and burnt cars.