How is the conjunctive "and" used ...?

In the sense that these people skipped work, school and shopping in order to join the march. It might have been better written.

To make what i wrote more clear--"and" in the originally quoted material is used in the sense of "in order to."

Is "and" here not used in the sense of "but"?

The "and" simply connects two thoughts. Sample of compound sentence.

Hundreds / skipped work, school and shopping . . . and . . . marched

You could make the case--i'd not have thought so, but i see no objection to it.

LOS ANGELES, May 1 — Hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters skipped work, school and shopping on Monday and marched in dozens of cities from coast to coast.

Is "and" here not used in the sense of "but"?

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Allowing for the moment, with some reserve, that a 'but' is possible, it certainly doesn't have the same sense as an 'and', Fansy.

'and' is used as the simplest, most neutral conjunction. Using other conjunctions, eg, but, because would change the meaning/nuance at least slightly.

Could you do us all a big favor, Set? Could you rewrite all of Shakespeare and all the novels back a couple of hundred years to correct what you see as poor writing.

This is the drivel that teachers who know [knew] little to nothing about language fall back on to scare students into submission and make their job easier. There's not much a student can do when faced with this absolute non-argument.

Everything "might" be better written.

See what I mean, ehBeth.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters skipped work, school and shopping on Monday, choosing instead to march in dozens of cities from coast to coast.