In Solidarity With Economic Refugees

March, rally smaller but still spirited
City immigration event draws about 15,000

By Antonio Olivo, Vanessa Bauzá and Carlos Sadovi Tribune reporters
9:14 PM CDT, May 1, 2008

Thursday's crowd of marchers was much smaller than those in years past, but for several hours they filled downtown Chicago with the echoing beats of drums and deafening chants for Immigration reform.

Nearly 15,000 demonstrators—a tenth the tally at last year's May Day march, far short of the estimated 400,000 in 2006—made up for their numbers with youthful energy, in what Chicago police said was a peaceful event.

Taking advantage of the warm, sunny weather, crowds of high school and college students skipped classes to join a movement that had been made up mostly of labor unions, older immigrants and middle-aged activists.

As the younger marchers made their way from Union Park to an afternoon rally in Federal Plaza, iPods dangling from ears, they carried a hardening conviction that the struggle is not over, even with hopes for congressional reforms fading. Read On

All people are created equally and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, except if you're trying to escape a desperate, poverty-stricken environment and improve your family's quality of life. In that case, you should expect to be vilified, terrorized, abused, and exploited. -EF Swagee