The Peoria Journal Star owes a long overdue public apology to the late Mark Clark, and especially to his remaining family members.

Peorian Mark Clark, then 22, was murdered by Chicago police authorities during the infamous predawn raid on December 4, 1969 at a West Side apartment where he and a group of fellow Black Panthers were sleeping. The renowned and charismatic Panther Fred Hampton, age 21, also was killed by police, shot point blank in the head while still on his mattress.

The incident became a landmark event in the urban civil rights movement with both Clark and Hampton considered martyrs to the causes of worldwide black liberation and the revolutionary human rights struggle. According to published newspaper reports, 14 police officers assigned to the office of then Cook County State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan (who died just last week, on June 9, at age 88) stormed the apartment at 2337 W. Monroe St. occupied by seven Black Panthers in a 4:40 a.m. raid.

Around 700 people demonstrated for an end to attacks on migrant workers on Saturday, May 2, 2009 in Greeley, Colorado. The event was sponsored by a Greeley-based community group, Al Frente de Lucha, which has long been involved in the Mexicano/Chicano community there. Greeley has been a focal point in immigration battles, with ICE raids continuing to affect the local community. read more

Joe Tougas writes:, On International Workers' Day, 2009, after living in Beijing for five months without leaving the city, I finally made it into the country. I traveled with a British national and three Chinese folks to a small village about four hours northeast of Beijing, called Hong Xing Cun, or Red Star.

This was the "year of hope," a year when many believed immigration reform was within reach, so I expected more people to be in the streets. But with the recession/ depression, perhaps workers were less likely to risk taking the day off to celebrate May Day. The march included union activists, students from around Puget Sound, socialists, gay activists, anarchists, peace activists, and the many immigrant rights groups.

At Occidental Park, there was a band that played loud and rowdy Mexican music. Some of the speakers spoke in Spanish to the mostly immigrant crowd. Others spoke in English. One of speakers told the crowd that we don't want to wait any longer for reform. Now is the time.

On May 1, 2009, immigrant rights and labor rights activists marched and rallied in Chicago to commemorate the workers' holiday, which has also been a capstone for immigrant rights efforts in recent years. The holiday holds particular significance for Chicago, given the origins of Mayday dating back to 1886, and the legendary immigrant rights protests which swept America and Chicago starting in 2006.

Mayday 2009 Coverage: Video of Mayday March | National Immigrant Workers Mobilization Dispatch | Photos: Mayday in Chicago

Anonymous communiques posted to Indybay report that on the evening on May 1st approximately fifty people marched through the streets surrounding Union Square in San Francisco. Blockades were made and the windows of numerous businesses were smashed. The action was completed in about ten minutes. Total damage is reported to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. No arrests have yet been reported.

May 1st, 2009 was an impressive showing of Worcester's solidarity for full rights for immigrant workers, and for all workers, in Worcester, across the United States, and around the world.

People around the world marched for workers' and immigrants' rights on May 1st.
Houston: On May 1st at 4pm around 70 people gathered in front of the Mickey Leeland Federal Building to host a rally for just immigration reform. People from the faith community offered prayers, a number of musicians sang, poets performed, and representatives from different community organizations spoke about their work, including SDS, who spoke about our work fighting immigrant detention for profit, and trying to shut down the T Don Hutto family detention center in Taylor Texas. [Full Story with Photos] Houston Indymedia's radio show addressed the history and legacy of mayday, and hosted a screening of This is America at Rice Cinema.

Austin: As the sound of Son Jarocho, traditional music from the Mexican state of Veracruz, echoed off the walls of the Capitol, more than 1000 people prepared to march across downtown Austin on May 1st to demand reforms of immigration policy. They had rallied to almost an hour of impassioned speeches from grassroots organizers [Full story with photos and audio]

Coverage of Mayday 2009 from Indymedia.us

May Day was reestablished in Miami Florida with pizazz with a song by the Raging Grannies on Friday as over 300 people representing a broad coalition of labor and immigrant rights groups marched down Brickel Avenue, n the heart of the city’s financial district. The lead banner read demanded “Bail Out People Not the Banks.” Other signs and banners declared, “Capitalism Sucks,” “Support the Employee Free Choice Act,” and “Legalization for Immigrants Now.”

On Friday, May 1st, a group of staff, students, and faculty held two rallies at Vassar College. We were loud. We were disruptive. For the first time in years students and faculty at Vassar are standing in solidarity with staff with more than just words.