by Richard Mellor in California
Every third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Day is celebrated in the USA. The tape here is such a powerful and moving historical speech by King.
It is important for all workers to listen carefully and learn from this speech and I implore workers of all backgrounds no matter what colour race or religion you are; listen to this and think long and hard about it. Compare this historical analysis to the guilt ridden writings of the liberal lefty white middle classes today that make lots of money writing books and giving speeches about how bad white people are, how they are born racist and there are “white minds” and “black minds”.
Compare it to the bleating of some sections of the black petit-bourgeois prominent on social media particularly those in academia whose advances they owe to the heroic struggles of the black youth and workers of the Civil Rights movement and their allies that forced the white racist ruling class that King talks of here to open some doors. King points with no apologies at the culprits and their system. It’s brilliant.
Martin Luther King explains history here from a materialist perspective, the truth in other words. Answer the question: which is more historically correct, this or the argument that white minds are inherently racist and there’s no hope. If you are a Christian, which Christian more accurately expresses the teachings of Jesus (I am an atheist) Martin Luther King or the endless charlatans and con men (Trump included) that get rich exploiting those who seek a better place than this.
The US white racist ruling class have been forced to recognize black leaders like King and Malcolm X by the militancy of the black revolts just as they were forced to accept unions. And in the same way that they coopt workers organizations, render them harmless the same ruling class make carnivals after these two radical leaders, they ignore their ideas like these expressed above. They name some schools and a street or two after them and basically carnivalize their legacy. They certainly ensure that we see them as only fighters for “black” America when the complete opposite is the case. They included all workers in their quest for a sane and just society. We can’t change the course of history if we don’t understand how we got here and who our collective enemies are.
“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism.”
Martin Luther king 1966
