May 1st Over 3000 demonstrators on Labor Day in Basel
Over 3000 people gathered in Basel on Thursday for the traditional Labor Day demonstration. The demonstration under the motto "Solidarity instead of agitation - strong together" was peaceful until the official end point at Barfüsserplatz.
01.05.2025, 11:19
01.05.2025, 13:27
SDA
The procession was led by revolutionary anti-capitalist groups and Palestine activists. The trade unions and the Social Democratic Party (SP) were well behind at the end of the procession, and the Basel Trade Union Federation reported in a press release that over 5,000 people took part.
The demonstration marched peacefully from Messeplatz in the direction of the Rhine to Barfüsserplatz. The class-struggle slogans at the head of the procession were increasingly intermingled with slogans for the liberation of Palestine.
The slogans of the traditional participants in the May Day procession denounced in particular the fact that the extreme right had also taken over the political agenda in Switzerland - including through the exclusion of minorities and migrants.
While the participants from the ranks of the trade unions, the parliamentary left-wing parties and the Sans-Papiers group remained on the festival grounds on Barfüsserplatz, a few hundred people from the anti-capitalist block and the Palestine movement marched on to Bankenplatz.
There, after critical speeches against the trade unions and the SP, tomatoes were thrown against the façade of the UBS headquarters and against the few police vans. The police kept a low profile, even when the procession made a detour back to Barfüsserplatz.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the Basel City Cantonal Police announced on Whats-App that traffic in the city center area was running again without restrictions.
