CHICAGO - Thousands gathered in Union Park, then marched east with the flags of Mexico and the US, with placards of the UNITE-HERE union, with colorful banners in abundance. May Day was back to Chicago with demands for immigrant rights, for worker's rights, for human rights.

Chanting "Si, se puede!" (Yes, we can!) the march would periodically transform into a wave as protesters who bend down, then stand up with a collective shout like a wave coming in on Lake Michigan crashing with thunder on the beaches of Chicago.

The crowd, mainly Latino and young, rallied at Federal Plaza. Posters proclaimed "Immigrant Rights Now!" and "Legalization for All!" in Spanish and English; a SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) poster quoted C. Wright Mills "We must be realistic in our utopianism!", recalling the beginnings of the 1960s New Left.

Amidst predominantly black modernist architecture, across from a red modernist sculpture, speakers from the Latino, Haitan, Korean, and African communities as well as labor representatives called for immigrant rights and workers' rights as human rights.

There were 15,000 according to the Chicago Tribune (400,000 or more in 2006). There was music from Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, and Kinto Sol, the Mexican hip-hop group.

The Federal buildings were guarded by various police agencies, including some Chicago Police on horses, likely concerned about the Wobblies who marched from the Haymarket Square memorial in Chicago's West Loop feeding into the larger march.

For Chicago IMC images and reports:
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/82320/index.php
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/82333/index.php

For Chicago Tribune photos and report:
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-immigration-march-02may02,0,1186855.story

For Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasure of the AFL-CIO, speaking at the National Labor College:
www.youtube.com/watch

For reports on immigrants rights by labor journalist David Bacon:
dbacon.igc.org/Imgrants/imgrants.htm