And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to…

The internet erupted with outrage at the announcement of the winner of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. A prize that is supposed to be given to those who have advocated for peace, and helped bring about a more peaceful world. Of course as you most likely know, this year’s prize went to the European Union. After having given the prize to other capitalist imperialists such as Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger, this only helps solidify the meaninglessness of the prize and its control by those who wish to advance, not human rights or democracy, but capitalist control over everyone and everything. Their rationale for awarding the peace prize to the EU was that it had solidified unity on a continent that used to be torn by war. This may sound reasonable to some, but if you dig just below the surface you’ll see that this is a farce, and that giving the peace prize to the EU is like giving a prize for outstanding human rights to the keepers of Guantanamo bay. Now I’m going to tell you why.

Peace and Human Rights my Ass

While it’s true that Europe has managed not to kill off the entire globe yet, that is hardly cause for a Nobel Peace Prize. Hell, I’d qualify for that shit if that was the case. What is the EU’s stance on human rights? Have they actually produced a more peaceful world? The answer to both, unfortunately, is a negative one. Let’s start with the first question, human rights. Is Europe upholding human rights? The answer is an unequivocal NO. Let’s start with the support of many EU countries for and complicity in illegal CIA renditions. No less than 14 EU member countries have been explicit in helping the US with their illegal kidnapping and imprisonment structure in Europe. Countries like the UK, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Sweden among others. Want to read more about this? Glad you asked, because here is a link for you from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/world/europe/07iht-prisons.1915898.html

And that’s not all. Amnesty International reported that migrants to Greece, many of them minors were being unfairly and illegally imprisoned in detention centers. Here’s the story here:  http://www.amnesty.eu/en/press-releases/security-and-human-rights/detention-of-minors-in-greece-shows-failings-of-eus-immigration-policy-0463/

Migrants left to die: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/left-to-die-migrants-boat-inquiry

These problems are important egregious violations, and I could talk about support by the EU member nations and participation in the US’s illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that has killed upwards of a million people, but there is something closer to home that I want to focus on.

The EU financial crises is years old now, and the struggle continues as Brussels, Germany and France try to squeeze the poorer member nations for all they have. Greece, Italy and Spain among others are floundering in ridiculously high unemployment, sagging economies and corrupt governance. Hundreds and hundreds of people in countries like Spain and Greece have taken their own lives because of austerity programs that took away from them what they had worked hard their whole lives to build. Men who had worked for a lifetime found that their guaranteed pensions were being stripped away from them, leaving them with nothing to live on. The disabled and sick are left hanging as the government cuts and cuts and cuts social programs that helped these people live with a modicum of decency. Surely it was because all those social programs had bankrupted those countries, right? (this is what the right likes to bray every time you bring up the trouble in Europe) NO. It is the fault of none other than the EU itself. It brought poorer countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal under the common currency when they were not ready to do so, and created a tidal wave of economic excess. Banks borrowed at ridiculously low rates and bet on bad debt over and over again, and the whole economy was managed very very badly. A mountain of debt piled up and the banks were about to go under so the governments bailed out the bad decision making bankers and put themselves deeply into debt. The bankers, the governments made out like bandits, and the working people were thrown under the bus. Higher taxes, for less government services. That’s not fiscal responsibility, that is straight up theft from the working classes. That is reprehensible. Mothers in Greece are abandoning babies they can’t feed, homeless numbers are growing, riots in the streets and anger abounds. The EU is in the throws of a social movement that could possibly bring down the whole damn apparatus. The police hit, shoot, beat and gas protesters for expressing their anger against this travesty, and pictures of bloodied and beaten protesters abounds. Speak out against this sickening fleecing of Europe and you’re thrown in jail, kill millions of jobs and steal pensions, you’re a hero. It is down right sickening. Here’s some pictures from “peaceful” Europe:

This is all going on RIGHT NOW. People are suffering and dying thanks to the economic terrorism wafting out of Brussels, Berlin and Paris, and there are loads of riots and talks of war, separatist groups and economic collapse. And it is to this region, that they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Seems legit.

Dear Europe, you don’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. You don’t deserve it because there is no justice in Europe, only class warfare. And as you may have heard before, no justice, NO PEACE.

FUCK the EU and its capitalist tyranny. End the EU and build socialism in your countries.

Also, give up on ever respecting the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s a joke and has been for some time.

It is important enough to say again:

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.

Free Speech in the UK

Countries in the West like to hold themselves up as the paragon of democracy, civil liberties and human rights. This week there were three news stories that showed that this facade of freedom and democracy in the West is just that, fake, a facade and a lie. Let’s look at these stories, and what people in the UK are facing under their oppressive hypocritical government.

Clothes Make the Man

This first story is a man from Radcliffe, UK who made a t-shirt expressing his opinion about a gun and grenade attack that killed two Manchester police officers only hours earlier. The t-shirt read on the front “One Less pig, perfect justice” and on the back “killacopforfun(.)com ha, haaa?” Now, you may guess that some people were not amused by this, and that some understood the sentiment being from the bad reputation that cops have as oppressors of the working class. However, apparently this was such an egregious crime that it warranted a sentence of 8 MONTHS IN PRISON. EIGHT. Two thirds of a year in prison for making a t-shirt expressing an opinion? Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you have freedom of speech unless you say something someone doesn’t like.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/914746-man-jailed-over-offensive-t-shirt-worn-hours-after-deaths-of-female-officers

Bad Taste Notwithstanding

A 19 year old Matthew Woods from Lancashire UK has been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for making jokes about two young girls who have been missing since 2007. He posted the unsavory jokes to twitter and was then subsequently arrested. Were those jokes in bad taste? To be sure. Was he breaking any law or really hurting anyone? No. Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you have freedom of speech unless you say something someone doesn’t like.

Talk About Morality

And finally, a man has been sentenced to 240 hours of community service for daring to say things against the UK military. 20 year old Azhar of West Yorkshire was found guilty of “grossly offensive communication” after he posted on facebook that he thought that all soldiers should die and go to hell. The message was in a response to a page that was commemorating the deaths of six British soldiers killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in Afghanistan in March. Mr. Ahmed was told that “with freedom of speech comes great responsibility” meaning apparently, “with freedom of speech comes no freedom of speech”. You can’t fucking uphold your country as better than others because of “freedom” when you arrest and imprison people, not for committing actual crimes, but for speaking words that you don’t like. The imperialistic UK has spent decades terrorizing the middle east, bombing and invading and killing away, but don’t you dare disrespect the troops who are committing these crimes against humanity. The UK government, like the US government and others has proved that it only cars more about supressing unpopular speech than it does in respecting the right of people to voice their opinions. The next time someone tells you that communists don’t believe in freedom of speech, send them a link to this blog and then laugh in their faces. The UK is not democratic, it is a plutocracy, it is for the rich by the rich of the rich. Tear down the monarchy, build a republican socialist nation that will respect not only the freedom of speech but the freedom to fight against imperialism, capitalism and war.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19883828

Tattoos, Japan, and Hashimoto

It may seem a bit frivolous to write on this rather political blog about tattoos in Japan. After all, this is a political blog, and most people would wonder (at least in the English speaking world) what the hell tattoos have to do with politics. In Japan though the issue of tattoos is currently a small manifestation of a much larger problem. Before we cover the political implications of this story, let’s cover briefly how tattoos are viewed in Japan, as it will be important to understanding this problem

Irezumi & Japan

Irezumi is Japanese for tattoo. It has a connotation of the flowery swirling artistic tattoos replete with crashing waves and jumping carp. Many people around the world will be familiar with this type of art, having seen it in one place or another before. The problem is that in Japan tattoos of any kind are associated with Yakuza, Japan’s famous mobsters. Yakuza are known in Japan for having extensive body tattoos that cover much of their bodies. Because of this connotation, different businesses ban anyone with tattoos altogether. Many public baths, hot springs, swimming pools and other businesses will deny entry to people who are tattooed. There is still a social stigma against the body art. The younger generations though, have a different view of tattoos. Like many old attitudes in Japan, the social stigma against tattoos is not as strong as it used to be. However, that doesn’t stop some old fashioned people from trying to use the old stigma to their advantage.

Enter Hashimoto

 

Toru Hashimoto (橋本徹）used to be the youngest governor of a prefecture in Japan, when he was Governor of Osaka Prefecture. In 2011 he was elected mayor of Osaka, leading his new local political party, the “Osaka Restoration Association.” A hardline nationalist, he has made huge waves ever since he entered politics by being a lot bolder compared to many of his older and more reserved colleagues. However, it’s not just his youthful demeanor that is catching the world’s attention.; it’s also his right wing policies.  While one thing he did was good (opposing the reactivation of nuclear power plants in Japan) many of his actions since being in politics makes one wonder. He recently forced all Osaka teachers to sing the national anthem “Kimi ga yo” that many have a problem with. Kimi Ga Yo is a remnant of the emperor worshiping past when Japan was attempting to colonize all of Asia. He is fighting to prevent municipal employees from engaging in any political activity, denying them their constitutional right to participate in their government and their communities. His most recent one though, is the most bizarre. He is making city employees take surveys, asking them if they have any tattoos in any place that might possibly be visible at any time. If the workers do have tattoos, they are to get the removed. He has threatened that all who refuse to answer the survey will not only be denied any promotions or raises, but may also be  suspended.

Why this Story?

You may be wondering why I’m blogging about this issue. Surely most of the world doesn’t care about tattoo policies for public servants in Osaka, Japan. This is important, because it is, I believe, very indicative of the problems that Japan faces.

Japan is facing a tough time of it, and the future is not looking too bright for many of its citizens. Due to one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Japan’s population is shrinking. This means that , along with their extraordinarily high life expectancy, that their society is rapidly ageing. With more people leaving the workforce, and not nearly as many people entering  it to replace them, Japan faces a monumental demographic problem. This could cause very dire problems for the Japanese not too far down the road.

Japan is littered with US military bases. From Sasebo, to Okinawa, to Yokosuka, to Misawa, thousands upon thousands of US military personnel are stationed there. The people of Japan want them gone, but the government continues to ignore the cries of the oppressed people such as the citizens of Okinawa who have put up with a heavy military presence since the end of World War II. Rapes, assaults and environmental disasters have marked the long visit of the Americans, and there is no end in sight.

Japan is facing energy problems left and right. The price of gasoline is going through the roof as Japan struggles to keep its lights on. All of its nuclear power plants deactivated, Japan is mostly surviving on the power of oil for its power. Even before the nuclear crisis, Japan was using far too much oil. They need to transition to clean, safe, affordable and renewable energy to meet the needs of the Japanese people.

I raised all these issues to make a point. Just like in other countries like the US or the UK, reactionary politicians are using trivial, unimportant hullabaloos to gain popular support, all while the country sinks further into trouble. While the Japanese people are facing terribly important decisions, the Japanese government, with nationalists like Hashimoto play the fiddle while Osaka burns. Instead of focusing on really addressing the problems that Japan faces, he prefers to attack innocent city workers for the non-crime of having tattoos. I hope the Japanese people reject this idiocy, and demand substance from their politicians. They need to rise up and tell the likes of Hashimoto that they will not be bullied, they will not be intimidated, and they want results from their government. He is restricting civil and human rights with these policies and he must be stopped. He is not good for Japan, he is another self-serving careerist who wants nothing more than to stroke his own narcissistic ego and hold more power. Unless Japan starts demanding a change in their useless government, they may not like the changes that are coming. When you keep putting off your problems instead of facing them, you’re just making things worse.

 

 

Land of the Free

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

That song was written in 1814 by a man looking at the battle of Ft. McHenry; who famously wrote of still being able to view the flag of the land of the free after a harsh battle. The land that was wrenched from the hands of the Native Americans by invasion, sickness and gun, their villages destroyed, their families killed before their eyes by foreign invaders eager for vast profits to be had. From the first slaves arriving in the 16th century, dragged away from their homelands in chains, pulled by that illustrious profit motive, 300 plus years would pass before we would end slavery. Land of the free, like the millions of African Americans who unwillingly toiled in the hot sun for no pay, only to be whipped if they stopped. Their masters sell their families away, because they were not people you see, they were property. The land of the free, where the Cherokee people were marched hundreds of miles away from their land, to a strange place, thousands dying on the death march to Oklahoma. Land of the free!!! The land where the exalted Thomas Jefferson wrote proudly of the “unalienable rights” of human beings, like the human beings he owned. Land of the free!!! 620,000+ dead from a war in which the institution of slavery was only ended after years of war and a shattered country. Land of the free!!! The country that denied the right of self determination to the Philippine people, and in doing so murdered an estimated million and a half Filipino civilians, not counting the 20,000 dead Filipino soldiers.  Land of the free!!!  That proclaimed ourselves the possessors of liberty, even as we denied suffrage to anyone who was not white, male, or a land owner. Land of the free!!! We used Chinese labor to build our transcontinental railroad, it’s trestles resting on the bodies of their dead. Land of the free!!! We taxed the Chinese-Americans gold miners heavily, but only because they were succeeding and white people were jealous.  Fake tax collectors shot and killed Chinese-Americans, or tricked them into giving them money, since they were easy to fool because of the language barrier. Land of the free!!! For example when we made laws stating that Chinese were not allowed to testify in court against white Americans, even in heinous cases such as rape or murder. Land of the free!!! Chinese Americans denied the right to citizenship, and forced to live for generations as foreigners in their birth land because, and I quote: “ …a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior, and who are incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point, as their history has shown; differing in language, opinions, color, and physical conformation; between whom and ourselves nature has placed an impassable difference” and as such had no right ” to swear away the life of a citizen” or participate” with us in administering the affairs of our Government.”-The California Supreme Court. The land of the free!!! 3 million dead Vietnamese testify to our steadfast dedication to their “freedom”, whether they wanted it or not. Land of the free!!! 50+ countries whose governments have been overthrown by the US, regardless of the nature of the government, to suit American greed. Land of the free!!!  Where millions starved in a great depression that wasn’t the fault of capitalist greed at all, oh no no no. Land of the free!!! Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghans, again, freeing them whether they like it or not. Land of the free!!! Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians nuked in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, right before the US tried and hung Japanese military men for having biological weapons. Land of the free!! That busted unions, shot workers, threw dissidents in jail, restricted the rights of socialists to organize, or even be socialists and speak their minds. Land of the free!!! That has imprisoned Bradley Manning for daring to expose the truths about American war crimes. Land of the free!!! The land of the new NDAA, the Patriot act, and the very grabby TSA. Land of the free!!!

Don’t you worry your little head about history!! You have McDonalds, and the Gap, and SUVs, and television. We’re the Land of the free, don’tcha know?  Do what’s expected of you. Vote! You have the freedom to vote for the parties they tell you that you can vote for. Land of the free, where you can go to college, if you’re OK with amassing a huge amount of debt that will only be surpassed by your debt that you accrue when you buy a house, and god forbid a car. You see, we’re the land of the free!!! Don’t worry that gays and lesbians have been beaten to death for their sexual orientation, it probably doesn’t happen /that/ often. Don’t worry about the millions of inmates locked up for really petty crimes, their lives ruined forever because they smoked weed, you see, we’re in the land of the free! Don’t worry about high rates of teen pregnancy, or poor school districts without money. Don’t worry about the fact that that US has the highest income inequality in the developed world. Don’t worry about Trayvon Martin’s murder, you didn’t know him. Don’t worry about the rotting carcass that is American society, politics and economy.
Don’t worry.

Here’s all you have to do. Go to a ball park. See a game. Get a nice hot dog, with lots of mustard. Drink your cola.

Put all of that misery out of your head, all the rising poverty, all the inequality, all the war and the death and the destruction. It’s a million miles away from you now. Just put your hand over your heart, and as your blood stained flag raises in the air to that old familiar tune, and sing along. When it gets to the part that goes: “…O’er the laaaaaaaaaaaaand of the FREEEEEE…” just hold that thought in your mind and keep saying it over and over again until you can’t think of anything else.

Now repeat after me: ” I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free .

See? There ya go. No need for rational thought. You’re free, and as the tears of patriotic fervor roll down your face, boy do you love big broth-er I mean your country.

 

Liberal = “Ultra-Leftist”?

I was shocked on twitter tonight; and trust me, that’s saying something. Of all the ridiculous, foolish, moronic and ignorant things I’ve seen.
As you may have heard, there was a big story in Oakland on Saturday, as that city’s fascist mayor sent her brown shirts out to harass protesters. Over 400 protesters were arrested, and many were tear-gassed, beaten and brutalized for no reason. One pregnant woman who has lukemia was even attacked by Oakland’s renegade police force, also for no apparent reason. Occupiers around the world spoke out against the oppression of free speech. The movement was even re-energized by that eventful day. Something else happened that night as well. A piece of colored cloth was burned in front of city hall. Now some people think that is more important than people’s lives, and that burning the US flag is a crime punishable by death. (Ignoring of fact the Supreme Court ruling that established that act as a form of protected free speech under the US constitution.)

A flag loving woman on twitter wasn’t having any of that. Here’s what she said, straight from the horse’s mouth:

Maliheh_ Maliheh

occupiers who burns american flags in usa deserve to be shot and killed with live rounds on sight..no questions asked! #p2 #ows #oo

1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Maliheh_ Maliheh

@

@Mike_Czech burning american flags on american soil is an criminal seditious act and is against the law. #p2 #ows #oo

Of course the above tweet is completely incorrect. Burning a US flag is a perfectly legal act.

Maliheh_ Maliheh

@

@timthesocialist i believe occupiers deserved to be dealt with force on account they been burning american flags in public. #p2 #ows

Maliheh_ Maliheh

ultra left wing actually - #p2 “@TheLibertyLamp: @Maliheh_because you’re a right wing fascist bitch @timthesocialist”

Maliheh_ Maliheh

liberals,independents and conservatives have died for this country for you to be free..american flag means alot to some #p2 #oo #ows

So there you have it. A flag means more than human life, means more than critical thinking means more than freedom of speech. One of the most insanely stupid parts of her little idiotic diatribe was claiming to be both a liberal /and/ an ultra-leftist. Sorry Bourgeois Betty, you can’t be both. You are a capitalist, you are a conservative, you are a complete and utter fraud.

Her facebook page claims she cares about social justice, while she calls for the murder of protesters for burning a flag as a form of protest. Ultra-leftist my ass.

If you feel like giving her a piece of your mind, her FB link is here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001527498988

Her twitter (from which I am blocked after exposing her stupidity to the world) is here:

https://twitter.com/#!/Maliheh_

With “leftists” like her, who needs an enemy?

The Good, the Bad,the Ugly

I have a few things to talk about today, so let’s alternate between the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:

In an exciting bit of news from the infamous Huffington Post, Washington State (my home state) has secured enough votes in both houses of the state legislature to legalize gay marriage. Gov.Christine Gregoire has already promised to sign this bill if passed. If this law passes, Washington will become the 7th state to legalize gay marriage. It’s about time we started giving civil rights to our LGBT citizens. Already the disgusting bigot organization known ironically as the “National Organization for Marriage” (Or the National Organization for Denying Marriage to People Whose Existence Our Religion Doesn’t Approve Of) has already promised to give $250,000.00 to a primary campaign to oust any GOP legislator who crosses the isle to vote with the democrats.

The Bad:

Drone strikes continue in Pakistan, a recent attack killing 4. Another nearby strike hit a house, but did not kill anyone, reports said. The US is on unsteady ground with the government of Pakistan after repeatedly violating that country’s sovereignty to rain down terrorist attacks on the Pakistani countryside from above. The CIA who conducts these murderous attacks doesn’t have to prove anything, or disclose anything, and is allowed to kill with abandon with little to no oversight. It is hypocritical to say the least, that a country like the US that lectures other countries on their human rights is the one of the largest state sponsors of terror and human rights abuses in the world.

The Ugly:

For the ugly category I have a couple of stories. Let me start with the horrifying story of the brutal killing of a family pet, perpetrated by disgusting and hateful right wing extremists. From Addicting Info: “Jacob Burris, campaign manager to Arkansas Democratic Congressional candidate, Ken Aden, arrived home to a horrifying site Sunday evening. The Burris family cat was laying dead on the doorstep of their house with its head bashed in, an eyeball barely hanging from the socket and the word ‘liberal’ in black marker on its side.” The extreme right cannot even abide a moderate left of center candidate, let alone real leftists who want systemic change. Be ready in your political activism to fight these mindless drones and heartless selfish people.

My next, and last story for this post is to highlight the ever misogynistic Rick Santorum, and the deplorable remarks he made in a recent interview with Piers Morgan on CNN. When discussing the issue of abortion Morgan asked about the possibility of making exceptions in his anti-abortion view for the occurrence of pregnancy that is a result of rape. Santorum roundly rejected that as a legitimate reason for abortion, stating that forcing the woman to have the baby was making the best of a bad situation.  Since there aren’t words in the English language to adequately express my outrage and disgust at that opinion, I’ll just leave the unthinkable story to simmer in your mind. Maybe you’ll get mad enough to fight back against monsters like him.

See ya next time comrades.

Indonesian Man Faces Jail for being an Atheist

   The Jakarta post reported a story recently of a young Indonesian man who is facing jail time for simply expressing his views on religion. The man, a 30 year old civil servant is from the very Muslim area of West Sumatra. His arrest followed his creation of an atheist Facebook page in which he stated that he did not believe in god. The authorities reason for his arrest seems to stem from their claim that he was “causing unrest in the community”. Indonesia has harsh laws against blasphemy, and Alexander faces a prison term of five years if he is convicted, in addition to losing his job as a civil servant. Indonesia recognizes six official religions, Islam,  Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism and Confucianism. In spite of being attacked by angry mobs, being faced with jail and unemployment, Alexander is defiant and strong in his defense of free thought, saying that he realized what he had said and was prepared to lose his job to defend his beliefs. End the tyranny of government sponsored religion, and free the mind of humanity. We will move beyond this ridiculous barbarism.

Here is the link to the source story: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/20/atheist-civil-servant-arrested-blasphemy.html

Martin Luther King Jr., the radical

Martin Luther King Jr., the radical.

Martin Luther King Jr., the radical

 

How we can honor his legacy today

By Caneisha Mills

JANUARY 16, 2011

Today, Martin Luther King Jr.’s name has become synonymous with the entire Civil Rights Movement, and that movement has been portrayed as just another chapter in the unfolding story of constant American progress. Unfortunately, he is rarely remembered for his evolving critique of the U.S. economic system, his dedication to uplifting the poor and his view that mass social movements were needed to continue to transform society.

King did not cause the Civil Rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Greensboro sit-ins and 1963 March on Washington all would have happened without him. These heroic actions took place because of the mass awakening of the African American people. It was the people, the oppressed workers, rising up against the apartheid South.

The 1940s and 1950s witnessed a large-scale migration and urbanization of African Americans. This corresponded to a breakdown of the traditional sharecropping arrangements that Jim Crow segregation had served and reinforced.

In the north, where African Americans could vote, the growth of urban communities increased their political clout. In the South, this process concentrated new migrants into close-knit communities and led to the growth of independent institutions, such as the large urban churches. This is the context in which Dr. King and the other young pastors of the Southern Christian Leadership Council emerged.

The rapidly expanding movement used non-violent civil disobedience and the language of freedom to put a spotlight on the hypocrisy of the government’s Cold War rhetoric. At a time when the United States projected itself as beacon of democracy and individual liberty, the “Negro problem” became an international issue that demanded reform.

Thanks to a decade of tireless work, sharp confrontations and the physical sacrifices of millions—most of whose names will never be known—the civil rights movement succeeded at dismantling Jim Crow segregation.

The Third American Revolution

To date, there have been three revolutions in the United States—the American Revolution, the U.S. Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, or what is better termed a Civil Rights Revolution.

The American Revolution was a political revolution that shed the country’s colonial status. While it unleashed some forces from below, it preserved the economic system of chattel slavery and capitalism. The ruling phrase of the time was liberty,  but women, African Americans, non-property-owning whites and Native Americans—who were largely slaughtered by pillage, plunder and disease—were excluded from the calls for equality and freedom.

The U.S. Civil War was a social revolution that smashed slavery. Rather than being a purely political transformation, the social and economic relations were overturned in half the country. Slave owners were stripped of their “property,” as African Americans won the basic human dignity to control their own bodies. During the Reconstruction period, from 1867 to 1877, the old slaveocracy was deprived of political power while African Americans became a decisive political force in the South for the first time.

The overthrow of Reconstruction led to the construction of a new Jim Crow segregation system aimed at depriving Blacks of social, economic and political rights, and preventing any sort of unity between Black and white sharecroppers and farmers. It represented a full-scale political counterrevolution, characterized by fascist Klan terror against anyone who crossed the line.

It took the Civil Rights revolution nearly a century after Reconstruction to destroy Jim Crow’s rule and re-establish the full citizenship rights of African Americans.

King’s legacy, distorted by the ruling class

Today, King is remembered primarily for stressing the need for civil rights for Blacks, but he constantly fused the concept of legal equality with the rights of workers and the poor. He frequently pointed to three universal problems in the United States—war, racism and poverty.

He became particularly involved in the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tenn., where he was assassinated. At that stage, King was trying to organize a Poor People’s Campaign to address the massive poverty and inequality for all people in the United States.

King’s opposition to the war in Vietnam is often omitted—particularly by those pro-war politicians who like to claim his legacy. King said, “I had to speak out if I was to erase my name from the bombs which fall over South and North Vietnam. The time had come, indeed it was past due, when I had to disavow and disassociate myself from those who, in the name of peace, burn, maim and kill.”

King’s ideas and positions have been stripped of their potency. Officially, he is only remembered for having a dream of a “color-blind” country. In fact, he had an expansive definition of justice for Black people and all poor people, and a vision which would force this country to reckon with and pay for its historic crimes.

Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin once remarked: “During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons.” This applies well to Dr. King.

King in context

Some dismiss King for what appear to be moderate tactics. They point to how his leadership was surpassed by the growing radical and militant trends in the late 1960s.

But this often misrepresents or crudely generalizes his political ideas. King was dealing with practical issues of how to build a movement. His critics often fail to account for the difficult odds facing the movement in the South and the Cold War climate in which he emerged, and leave little space for his own political evolution. They forget just how radically the Civil Rights movement shook U.S. society.

In fact, King can be considered revolutionary in his own right, insofar as he led a political revolution in a particular phase, and attempted to push it further.

After the Civil Rights Act was passed, he emphasized how far the country still was from real justice, asking, “What good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger?” He was ridiculed for trying to advance the political direction of the movement by calling for more direct action, and dealing directly with economic issues.

If we can digress for a moment to think of today’s anti-war movement, we see how the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), for instance, has adjusted its slogans over time according to the political mood and consciousness of the masses.

Right after the Sept. 11 attacks, ANSWER’s main slogan was “War and racism are not the answer,” which today may seem quite moderate, but it was tailored to the context of a repressive, pro-war hysteria and the consciousness of that moment. A little later that slogan became “Stop the War on Iraq Before it Starts!” After the war began, some “anti-war” groups believed occupation troops had an obligation to stay in Iraq; in contrast, ANSWER emphasized, “End the Occupation—Bring All the Troops Home Now.”

The movement against the war in Iraq developed into a movement against the occupations of Iraq, Palestine and imperialism altogether. Based on the real-life experiences of a decade of war, many people now see the war is not tied to a particular political party but instead to a system that makes profit from weapons and is addicted to war.

Brian Becker elaborated on this point in a piece titled “Civil Rights and the U.S. Revolution” (published in the PSL’s Socialism and Liberation magazine) when he wrote: “Human consciousness, including political consciousness, is perhaps the most conservative aspect in the historical process. Revolutions don’t start because of the ‘advanced consciousness’ of the participants who start the revolutionary process. Consciousness changes and grows in the struggle, based on the conditions of life.”

King’s enduring lessons

Dr. King was dangerous to the political establishment because he started to draw the connection between different struggles and unite them against a common enemy. We cannot protest the war in Afghanistan and forget the racist laws directed at the immigrant community; we cannot fight for women’s rights and not speak to the need for full equality for the LGBT community.

Today the struggle against racism is taking a new direction. A new movement exists in the Latino community that is standing up to the country’s many immigrant bashers and demanding full rights for immigrants. In the past three years, hundreds of thousands of Latinos have protested the assault on their family and friends. Supporting  this movement is honoring King’s legacy.

In King’s famous Drum Major speech, he said he wanted to feed everyone. He did not mean personally or in soup kitchens—he meant fighting poverty at its root. Here in Washington, D.C., the D.C. Council is taking a vote to cancel assistance to anyone who has received aid from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program for more than five years. According to the Washington Post, this will remove 8,000 families from the program. Fighting to expand such social programs is honoring King’s legacy.

The D.C. Council also refers to its budget deficit as a pretext to deny higher wages guaranteed in the newest Teachers Union contract, and institute hiring freeze. Defending public-sector unions is honoring King’s legacy.

When we remember Dr. King, we should remember him not as a speaker at a rally or leader in a demonstration. He was a man attempting to connect the various forms of oppression into a single struggle against social injustice. The only way to remove that injustice is to remove the foundation from which it grows. So let us remember this leader of the Civil Rights Revolution by talking about what it will take to build the next American revolution.

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