Now his thinking is a beacon to meet the giant threats of fascism in the US and the entire world
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.) was an American Baptist pastor, civil rights activist, and pacifist and one of the most prominent leaders of that movement from 1955 until his brutal assassination in 1968. A black church leader and son of the first activist and civil rights minister Martin Luther King Sr., MLK promoted the prerogatives of the African-American people in the United States through the use of resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against racist Jim Crow laws (1) and other forms of segregation in that country. MLK was politically “colorblind,” not only advocating for African Americans, but for all those who were victims of discrimination, inequality, and injustice. He was a prominent promoter of the unity of the less fortunate in the struggle for their demands. He was a bitter denouncer of the Vietnam War (2)
Massive demonstration of support for Martin Luther King in Washington D.C. Photo by Scholastic’s News
MLK was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his immortal “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, before an impressive crowd where all sections of the people of the United States were represented. the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
He had several dramatic clashes with the segregationist authorities, who frequently responded violently. King was imprisoned several times. The notorious repressor J. Edgar Hoover, who was director of the FBI at the time, considered King a radical and made him the object of atrocious persecution from 1963 onward. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, spied on his personal life, and secretly recorded him. In 1964, the FBI sent King an anonymous threatening letter, which he interpreted as an act of psychological warfare, seeking to drive him insane and perhaps suicidal.
The U.S. government and its subordinate media have tried mightily and abusively to conceal the deep anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist nature and vocation of Martin Luther King Jr. Three and a half years before he rose to national prominence as one of the leading figures during the Montgomery bus boycott (December 1, 1955 – December 20, 1956), in a letter to his wife, Coretta Scott-King, dated July 18, 1952, the 23-year-old preacher wrote: “I imagine you know that I am much more socialist in my economic theory than capitalist. Capitalism began with a noble and lofty motive, but like most human systems, it fell victim to what it rebelled against. So today capitalism is no longer useful.”
James Pandari, a veteran peace leader, and the president of the state university’s student association, present an analysis of the validity of MLK’s thinking. Photo by the author
The progressive organizations of the state of Connecticut in the northeast of the United States, organized a commemorative event in the historic city of New Haven, where the mayor of that city was kind enough to facilitate the town hall so that pacifist and progressive organizations of all kinds could unite in tribute and remembrance of that great leader. A sincere and profound act, not limited to the crime of MLK, but also to the current massacres in Gaza, to the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe that has the world on the verge of a nuclear holocaust, to the aggressions against Syria, Lebanon, Iran. To the criminal blockade against Cuba. To the imperative and urgent need to create a broad anti-fascist front All this was talked about and denounced at this event.
U.S. Communist Party leader and academic Yusuf Gursey and a Jewish student leader not only speak out about MLK, but also denounce the Gaza massacre and demand its immediate end. Both use kufiyah in homage to the long-suffering Palestinian people. Author’s Photos
While MLK, winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, will be eternally and correctly linked to nonviolence, he was also a staunch opponent of the oppressive system of capitalism. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929 and assassinated at the age of 39, I personally believe that his outspoken, top-down opposition to war (in Vietnam and in general) and capitalism was the real reason behind his assassination.
MLK again broached the issue during the AFL-CIO’s Black American Labor Council on December 1, 1961: “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children,” he stated.
MLK often demanded economic equality, as during a 1966 message to its staff: “We are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There needs to be a better distribution of wealth and maybe the United States needs to move toward democratic socialism.”
During a March 30, 1967, speech at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, he noted, “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and the evils of racism.”
Then, in May 1967, he advised: “We must recognize that we cannot solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power, this means a revolution of values and other things. We must now see that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all interlinked. You can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others, you have to change the whole structure of American life. America is a hypocritical nation and we must put our own house in order.” In the dissertation entitled “Where Do We Go from Here?” on August 16, 1967, Dr. King remarked, “And one day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there 40 million poor people in America?’ And when you start asking that question, you’re asking questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalist economy. And I’m just saying that, more and more, we need to start asking questions about all of society.”
Prominent pacifist leader Henry Lowendorf expresses MLK’s views on capitalism and social inequality and denounces crimes against immigrants and the Palestinian people. Photo by the author
He adds: “Capitalism forgets that life is social. And the reign of fraternity is to be found neither in the thesis of communism nor in the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis. The time has come to civilize ourselves through the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”
Councilmember and Director of the Legislative Department of the City of New Haven, Albert Lucas, and fighter extraordinaire Joelle Fishman, president of the Communist Party USA, in the state of Connecticut, emphasized the validity of MLK’s thought and its anti-imperialist commitment to social equality and peace. Author’s Photos
I don’t want to speculate what MLK’s reaction would have been if he had lived through the COVID-19 pandemic and seen more than 1.1 million Americans die so far in the richest country in the world.
In the U.S. government, truth is not a priority.
At the same time, from the White House, President Joe Biden said in a statement: “56 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took his last breath in the cause of redeeming the soul of our nation. I was in Memphis to march with health care workers rightly demanding safer working conditions, fairer wages, and basic dignity as part of the broader quest to realize America’s promise to all Americans.” J. Biden said it was an extremist armed with a rifle in his hands and fueled by the poison of white supremacy in his heart who shot and “killed a great American who loved his country so much to make it better, even greater” (3)
It is common for the current occupant of the White House to strictly abide by the precept of “do as I say, but not as I do.” We have seen them clearly in the tragedy of Gaza, where he has vetoed several demands for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council (and in the last one he abstained) and only a few hours ago vetoed a Resolution condemning Israel for the criminal attack on an Iranian diplomatic headquarters in Syria. J. Biden “demands” B. Netanyahu to protect civilians and first responders and at the same time sells him thousands of very lethal bombs and dozens of state-of-the-art stealth planes, so that he can continue committing his crimes. He promised to deal with the situation of the blockade against Cuba, but as we know, he did nothing, but rather made it worse.
President J. Biden’s honoring MLK is a consequence of his need to court the huge African-American vote for his rematch with D. Trump in the November 5 election. Nothing more and nothing less, pure politicking, I am sorry to express myself in that way, but it is totally and completely evident that it is so.
Anti-Blockade activist José R. Oro analyzed the similarities of anti-imperialist thinking between MLK and Apostle Jose Martí. Photo by Mary L. Porphyry
The main objective of the celebration of the immense figure of Martin Luther King Jr. was to show his unionism, his anti-tribalism, since the divisions of progressive forces are the trump card of the success of fascism in its most visceral form that threatens American society. The various leaders present called for immediate meetings and the development of a common plan of action for greater unity in the face of the enormous fascist challenges facing the U.S. and the entire world, demanding immediate peace in Palestine, the elimination of the policy of “sanctions and blockades,” and confronting the unbridled arms race that the U.S. NATO and other capitalist allies want to use unipolarity, a sort of current Millennial Third Reich, to “eternalize” it. It is necessary to organize an Anti-Fascist Front. To present MLK only as a leader of the African-American people, murdered by “chance” by a racist madman, is the worst tribute that can be offered to that giant, it is to tremendously diminish his universality, sincere pacifism and vertical anti-capitalist stance.
Notes:
1. Jim Crow laws were introduced in states and municipalities in the southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation (sort of “apartheid”), with “Jim Crow” being a pejorative term for an African American. These laws remained openly in force until 1965. Formal and informal segregation policies were also present in other areas of the United States, even when several states outside the South had outlawed discrimination in public places and in voting. Southern laws were enacted by white-dominated state legislatures who called themselves “redeemers” to disenfranchise and eliminate the political and economic gains made by African Americans. This continued racial segregation was also supported by the so-called Lily-White Movement
2. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence,” also known as the Riverside Church address in Harlem, New York, was an anti-Vietnam War and pro-social justice speech, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. King spoke out strongly against the U.S. role in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam “to occupy it as an American colony” and calling the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He connected the war to economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious moral change:
“A true revolution of values will soon look with concern at the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, he will look across the seas and see individual Western capitalists investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to withdraw the profits without concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not fair.” King opposed the Vietnam War also because it sucked up money and resources that could have been invested in the social welfare of the people. The White House and Congress in Washington spend more and more on wars and weapons than on anti-poverty programs. MLK in his day summed this up by saying, “A nation that continues to spend year after year more money on military defense than on social upliftment programs is approaching spiritual death.” He claimed that North Vietnam “did not begin sending a large number of supplies or men until U.S. forces arrived by the tens of thousands,” and accused the U.S. of having killed a million Vietnamese, “mostly children.” King also criticized U.S. opposition to North Vietnam’s land reform.
3. James Earl Ray, alleged assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., was then a fugitive from American justice who was convicted of that crime that occurred on April 4, 1968. After the murder, Ray fled the United States and was captured in the United Kingdom. Ray was convicted in 1969 after pleading guilty (thus waiving a jury trial and the possibility of capital punishment) and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. In 1993, Loyd Jowers, the owner of a nearby restaurant, began publicly claiming that he had been part of a plot to assassinate MLK and that Ray was a scapegoat. In a civil trial in the city of Memphis in 1999, a jury unanimously concluded that Jowers was responsible for the murder, that King was the victim of a conspiracy, and that several U.S. government agencies had conspired to assassinate King and frame Ray for the murder. The King family has consistently said they believe Ray was innocent. He has also stated that they believe the real killer (who fired the gun, not those who planned the crime) was an officer with the City of Memphis Police Department, Lieutenant Earl Clark. President J. Biden’s effort to show that the killer was a fanatic or a madman acting alone is very sad. Not enough resources have been devoted to determining the real causes of this terrible crime
mh/jo
