Officially, May Day will be commemorated next Tuesday, following a Labor Ministry decision aimed at pleasing shopkeepers who feared that a strike during the week before Easter would harm business. But there will be enough protest marches and work stoppages tomorrow to make the May Day commemoration felt and, ironically, to hinder shoppers from getting around.

The General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE) and the civil servants’ federation (ADEDY) have called 24-hour strikes. Athens’s blue buses will operate only from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and trolley buses from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Metro and electric railway will work after 9 a.m. Olympic Airways will not fly between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Passenger ships will stop from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Intercity trains will carry out only one trip to and from each destination. Hospitals will treat only emergency cases, bank services will be affected and the stock exchange will be closed.

GSEE will hold a rally outside the US Embassy at 10.30 a.m., while communist-led unions will hold theirs at Syntagma Square. Both will then march to the Israeli Embassy.