The whole of Europe took to the streets on 1 May. In Athens - a 24-hour general strike, with public transport at a standstill. In Paris - mass protests, with more than 100,000 participants. In Berlin, Madrid, Brussels - demonstrations for higher wages, more social rights, and greater recognition of labour. In Macedonia - 260,000 workers earning under 600 euros, and a single SSM rally where only a few thousand turned up to shout.

Greece in particular was paralysed. The main unions in the public and private sector declared the strike - trains, metro, schools, customs - all were halted. Athens public transport ran nothing the whole day. Tourists who wanted to use the holiday got a new layer of messages at the hotel entrance: „Today there is a strike, there is no way to get up to the Acropolis".

In Paris, the demonstrations were organised by the CGT and FO - the two major French unions. Their demands - a rise in the minimum wage above 1,700 euros net per month, and a return of the pension age to 62. The French police were present, with a few incidents but no major clashes. That is several degrees more civilised than Istanbul.

In Spain, Italy, Germany - the same picture. Different forms, different demands, but the same base: labour in Europe is valued, but underpaid. With energy inflation, a more expensive life, an invisibly rising rent burden - real purchasing power is falling, and workers know that the only way to say so is to go onto the street.

The Balkans, again, no. We have symbolic gatherings in Skopje, Sofia, Zagreb - but with no mass. In Macedonia, the SSM demonstration had a few thousand. Of the 260,000 workers living under 600 euros, a few thousand came out to shout - while the other 250,000 are working, or asking themselves how they'll pay the electricity bill. That isn't apathy. It is fear. When a worker knows that going to a protest will cost him his job, he does not go. And that is what separates Western workers from Balkan ones - not the strength of the union, but the right to protest without consequences.