Martin Luther King Day: A Time to Celebrate??

by revolution now

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 1:04AM

If the US Government had offered MLK Jr. a small black middle-class at the expense of the imprisonment of all other blacks, the intense poverty and violence of inner-city ghettos, do you think he would have taken it?? When the fuck is Malcolm X day??

"If Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins or any of these compromising negroes who say exactly what the white man wants to hear, is interviewed anywhere in the country you don't get anybody to offset what they say. But whenever a black man stands up and says something that white people don't like then the first thing that white man does is run around and try and find somebody to say something to offset what has just been said. This is natural, but it is done." - Malcolm X

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§Divide and Rule

by fuck you asshole!

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 1:18PM

By the end of their lives, Malcolm and Martin were moving closer together. Don't take it from me, read what the men wrote and examine what they did. They certainly had their differences but MLK Jr. was always for the working class and he put his money where his mouth is. He walked picket lines, he organized, and he was killed for it.

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§MLK Jr.

by concerned citizen

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 1:54PM

I think the point is that people will get out on the streets to "remember" MLK Jr but where is the involvement in racism struggles today? Where are people when police brutality rears its ugly head in black and/or poor neighborhoods daily? Where are the unions to help out or even stand in solidarity with racism struggles? Will the "memory" of MLK Jr represent an urgent struggle or will it represent more liberal bullshit which gets us nothing but a more entrenched system of capitalism and exploitation?

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§To Concerned Citizen

by ??? (aka fuck you asshole!)

Thu, Jan 24, 2002 10:36AM

Plenty of people working in the tradition of MLK Jr. are against police brutality and working as activists in their communities. They are not only on the streets when "police brutality rears its ugly head" but are invoved in the day-to-day organizing that usually goes unnoticed. You ask, "Where are the unions to help out or even stand in solidarity with racism struggles?" Are you familiar with the recent case of the Charleston dock workers? Unions like the ILWU (and others) were very involved in that struggle. The UFW was against the racist Proposition that would deny benefits to immigrants and there are many other examples too.

Your last sentence gets to the crux of the issue:

"Will the "memory" of MLK Jr represent an urgent struggle or will it represent more liberal bullshit which gets us nothing but a more entrenched system of capitalism and exploitation?"

Whether we like it or not, the mass majority of people simply want a bigger share of the pie i.e they are reformists and not revolutionaries.

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§and why is that?

by watered down

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 1:48AM

"Whether we like it or not, the mass majority of people simply want a bigger share of the pie i.e they are reformists and not revolutionaries"

which comes first, the chicken or the egg? to me, if people who were on the fence would get some sense, realize that in any other country on the face of the earth their message would be considered conservative, and look at the historical advantage that zapatista / anarchist / anti-leftist leftism has right now.

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