Dr King's Legacy Still Lives

From the RampartsJunious Ricardo StantonDr. King's Legacy Lives“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” - Martin Luther King Jr.When I first read about the call to occupy Wall Street several months ago I immediately thought about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s campaign. In case you are too young to remember, in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was planning a massive nation wide poor people's campaign to draw attention to the class warfare raging in the country at that time. He was attempting to organize and galvanize hundreds of thousands of poor and working class people of all colors to amass on Washington D.C. The goal was to encamp in the nation's capital to apply pressure on Congress to stop the imperialist wars in Indo-China, focus more attention on the plight of the poor and suffering in this country and redirect governmental resources on their behalf.At the same time he was getting the Poor People's Campaign off the ground, King lent his support to the striking sanitation workers in Memphis Tennessee. These workers were attempting to unionize, gain the respect and recognition of the city administration to negotiate in good faith for fair and decent wages and the right to collective bargaining. To me the call to Occupy Wall Street struck a similar cord and their activism reminded me of King's earlier efforts. I was pleased to see activism and resistance bloom in the midst of the current political and economic climate. The Occupy Wall Street movement was a call to direct action.Too much emphasis has been placed today on arm chair activism, social networking, writing letters, calling legislators and community service. The time has come for decisive direct action, civil disobedience, strikes and demonstrations to challenge and right the wrongs of this society. Income inequality and corporate intrigue and influence is higher today than at any time in US history since the robber baron era. To their credit the young people behind the Occupy Wall Street movement did not elect to sit passively by and allow this form of fascism to go unchallenged. Just like King challenged racial apartheid and economic injustice these young people are bringing economic apartheid and the class war to the public’s consciousness.Marin Luther King Jr. was killed because the US government and their corporate puppeteers feared his talk of economic apartheid would further radicalize the masses who were already waking up to how they were being duped, used and ground up by the US military-industrial complex. King was the most prominent and widely recognized clergyman to come out against the Vietnam War. None of the other well known religious leaders of his day, Bishop Sheen, Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peal publicly uttered a word against the devastation and carnage the US was wrecking in Southeast Asia. King tied the war over there, the huge expenditures and profits being made by US companies to the economic privation in this country. King pointed out the direct correlation between the money spent on foreign wars and the failure of the government to address the poverty, hunger and oppression here. King’s stance gave a huge boost to the anti-war movement and put the government on the defensive to the point it stepped up its counterinsurgency operations against the civil rights, anti-war and other radical movements.The US government initiated a reign of dirty tricks, terror and violence against peace demonstrators, civil rights activists, the migrant worker movement, La Raza, Black Power, The American Indian Movement and numerous others. The FBI and CIA waged a vicious war against the American people in a fashion that would have made Adolph Hitler proud. CONINTELPRO and Operation Chaos were just two of the government's more infamous programs to attack the people. Numerous lives were ruined by the government's wickedness, both here and over seas. King's grass roots, direct action movement posed a major threat to the status quo, so the US government killed him.Lo forty-three years later we're seeing history repeat itself. The legacy of resistance to evil, war and economic oppression still flickers. The original Tea Party; meaning the asymmetric, energetic and unorganized group of protesters who were extremely concerned about the government's rising debt, taxes, the wars and expanding cost of government was a start of activism but they were subsequently co-oped by the Koch brothers who steered them into the Republican Party. The Occupy Wall Street movement saw this and refused to fall into that same trap. So they wisely kept the movement fluid with no identifiable (targetable) spokespersons. They also eschewed dialogue with the powers that be. They were merely attempting to raise consciousness about the collusion and corruption between corporations and the government, corporate criminality, the wars and the galloping fascism that is engrossing this country.If you stop and think about it the original Tea Party activists and the young people in the Occupy Wall Street movements around the country are not that different from what Martin Luther King Jr attempted; only they are doing it on the local level. So in this regard Martin Luther King’s legacy still lives. Alas the government response s been has exactly the same, co-option of the Tea party, first ignoring then using the media to demonize the Occupy Wall Street movement and finally employing violence to squash the movement altogether. In stead of assassinating the leaders (who they could not identify like they did King), they co-opted the Tea Party and then bum rushed the OWS encampments, beating, pepper spraying and arresting them.Four decades ago war criminals like Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger went Scott free. Today it's the Wall Street banksters turn to receive a get out of jail free card. The government is hoping the state's violence will discourage and deter future demonstrations and resistance against USA fascism. Congress just passed and Obama signed a draconian bill allowing indefinite detention without trial of US citizens and ordered the opening and operation of FEMA internment camps. Time will tell if they have succeeded in dousing the fires of resistance. They may have added more fuel to the fire. Private gun sales are at an all time high.As wrong and unjust as all this appears, rest assured things are not as they seem. King understood the nature of progress and struggle. He once said, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” So as we pause to reflect on and honor the real legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., let’s not get duped and side tracked with feel good once a year community service projects. These times demand more than that. Marin Luther King openly challenged the evil of racial apartheid, the wickedness of political oppression, the waste of war, and the immorality of economic injustice on a full time, full steam ahead basis. We can do the same.-30-

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