Centro Sin Fronteras and Pistolero organized the third major march this year for the rights of undocumented workers. Police estimated ten thousand marchers, while organizers said it was closer to forty thousand, but our own estimate is somewhere in between, though it certainly kept the pressure on the government with a strong voice demanding an end to deportations until immigration reform can come about.

Originally planned to march from Union Park to Federal Plaza, using the same rally points and march route of the March 10th demonstration, police successfully argued the second rally point out of the loop and back to the Grant Park field where the May Day final rally was held, helping the city reduce Loop congenstion.

One of the most notable shifts in the demonstration, though, was the huge move toward the more conservative visual representations that some activists say came largely from the influence of spanish-language radio host Pistolero. Participants were told to wear white, but the greater contrast came in the flag display. On March 10th, a strong majority of flags were US, though a large number of Mexican and Irish flags gave a certain counter-hegemonic flavor. One May Day, this was far more apparent, with a flag from almost every country of the world represented in the front of the march, and ample Mexican flags, red flags, and others that easily outweighed the influence of the US flags. Even in the latter march, conservative news sources and right-wing groups affirmed the high number of US flags. Well, today there were tons of flags all over the march, and they were almost all Old Glory, the flag of the United States of America, most likely at the request of protest organizers.

The speakers list was not as conservative, however. Hatem of the Arab American Action Networka and Jorge Mujica of the Mexican PRD political party both spoke eloquently about recent crises in the homelands of their respective communities, and gave a progressive counter-balance to Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Pistolero, and other figures on the stage. And with so many less marchers, the presences of Korean, Eastern European, Arab, and other immigrant communities was better felt.

In the world of capitalist news media, the local NBC and ABC affiliates gave all around much better and longer coverage than the local CBS affiliate. ABC was the only local affiliate to mention a small Minuteman press conference, even showing a clip of Rosana 'coconut' Pulido. The capitalist tv news gave a fair report on the demonstration, telling some of the stories of some marchers, and mentioning important messages like the common one that the deportations destroy families.

The only right-wing presence that was seen was a lone bicyclist carrying a Confederate flag who was run off by a Mexican bicyclist who carried his national flag on his bike. According to the Mexican bicyclist, the Confederate bicyclist later returned attempting to burn a US flag, but was run out again.