Today is not just a day of celebration. It's clearly a day of protest - for a variety of reasons, all of which boil down to the objections of the people to the huge gap between rich and poor.

Hundreds of thousands of workers are gathering across the world to mark May Day. In the Philippines capital, Manila, around 8,000 demonstrators burned an effigy of President Benigno Aquino after he rejected calls for a pay increase

In Cambodia, garment factory workers in Phnom Penh released birds in an act intended to symbolise freedom

Workers in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, marched to the presidential palace to demand better pay and a halt to outsourcing

In Bangkok, Thailand, around 3,000 workers took part in a colourful rally to demand better working conditions

In Moscow, a drum band marched through the city as part of a rally organised by the Russian Federation of Trade Unions

A student demonstration against tuition fee increases took place in Taipai, Taiwan, where thousands of protesters marched through the city

About 4,000 members of civic and labour groups marched through Seoul to protest against government policies

The northern French city of Lille held a march

A demonstrator from the Occupy London movement offers a flower to a commuter during a protest inside London Liverpool Street train station in London on May 1, 2012. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images)