#mlk

tord_dellsen@diasp.eu

On this day in 1968, the Poor Peoples Campaign began. At a Southern Christian Leadership Conference in December 1967, Martin Luther King proposed a campaign to eradicate inequality and poverty in America. His vision was that the poor might organize and meet with government officials in Washington to address the ongoing war, lack of jobs, fair minimum wage, education, and a voice for the growing number of impoverished adults and children. The campaign was supported by many diverse groups including American Indians, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and increasingly poor white communities.

Source: World Beyond War's Peace Calendar

#MLK #PoorPeoplesCampaign #activism

tord_dellsen@diasp.eu

#MartinLutherKing #MLK #history #UnitedStates #war #militarism #capitalism

https://twitter.com/pslnational/status/1775964145730330894

faab64@diasp.org

"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice ..."

https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf

#MLK #MLKDay

nowisthetime@pod.automat.click

Originally titled ' #ElectronicLabyrinth ', this #short #film made in #1967 was the depiction behind the later #GeorgeLucas #SF classic, THX 1138 from 1971.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/VTmY9BtgX7ca/

An important piece of cinematic film #history in the genre of #dystopian #science #fiction.

It came out around the same time as Solyent Green (1973) and although they share many similarities, those similarities do seem to predict what we're seeing today. The differences are mostly cinematic plus the storylines, but unlike most of today's SF Hollywood polyfiller which lacks imagination and relies heavily on CGI and past worn-out regurgitated comic Marvel/DC paraphernalia turned franchises etc..
That earlier period of cinema produced much higher quality films without the need for multi-layers of technical wizardry but which more people seem to miss and relate to today.
It's also been compared to Stanley Kubrik's, 'A Clockwork Orange' - another classic social dystiopian film released in 1972 and 'Planet of the Apes' released even earlier in 1968, but that too unfortunately fell victim to the curse of the Hollywood franchise syndrome. Even when we fast forward ~1977 - Capricorn One, Coma, Star Wars, Moonraker and Close Encounters of the Third Kind all carry that theme of how an Evil Empire or the Deep State manipulates, deceives, oppresses and controls humanity...

George Lucas said in one #interview that it was a reflection of oppression and the feeling people generally had around the time of the Vietnam War and the string of assassinations from #JFK, #RFK, #MLK to #MalcolmX...and that feeling was to amplify even further just around the corner.

escheche@diasp.org

Martin Luther King Jr. ~ A True and Visionary Radical

January15,1929 - April 4,1968

As we celebrate #Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Day, let’s look at some of the things he said that challenged #capitalism and are left out of most history books.

“I imagine you already know that I am much more #socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic… Capitalism started out with a noble and high motive… but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has out-lived its usefulness.”

Letter to Coretta Scott, July 18, 1952.
“In a sense, you could say we’re involved in the #class-struggle.”
-Quote to New York Times reporter, Jose Igelsias, 1968.

“And one day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the #economic-system, about a broader distribution of wealth.’ When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole #society…”
-Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.

“Capitalism forgets that #life-is-social. And the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis.”
-Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.

“Call it #democracy, or call it #democratic-socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”

Speech to the Negro American Labor Council, 1961.
“We must recognize that we can’t 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 see now that the evils of #racism, economic #exploitation and #militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a #hypocritical nation and we must put our own house in order.”

Report to SCLC Staff, May 1967.
“The evils of #capitalism are as real as the evils of #militarism and evils of #racism.”
-Speech to SCLC Board, March 30, 1967.

“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective - the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed matter: the #guaranteed #income… The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate #abolition-of-poverty.”

Where do We Go from Here?,1967.
“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.”

Speech to his staff, 1966.
“We are saying that something is wrong … with capitalism… There must be better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”

Speech to his staff, 1966.
“If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of #life, she too will go to hell.”

Speech at Bishop Charles Mason Temple of the Church of God in Christ in support of the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike on March 18th, 1968, two weeks before he was assassinated.
#mlk #mlkday #martinlutherkingjr #civilrights

psych@diasp.org

And the winner of worst possible disrespect of Martin Luther King, and rationality too ... naturally, from Lord #TrumpVirus.
Surprise, surprise...

Trump Posts Very Dark, Disturbing and Threatening Message on Truth Social and People are Disgusted

#GQP #MLK #justice #accountability #karma. #MakeAmericaSaneAgain

escheche@diasp.org

A Lesson on Martin Luther King Jr’s Legacy

#MehdiHasan

https://twitter.com/MehdiHasanShow/status/1614803415225229312

#martinlutherkingjr #mlk #legacy

joebraun@diasp.org

I've skipped the first 3 minutes or so of this, to get right to the part that I find amazing. It is a scratchy, early audio recording from 1955, the week of Rosa #Parks' arrest, of King either making a "prophesy", or just exercising the full force of will and his charisma. Whatever the reason, he proceeds to #predict and proclaim exactly what the #CivilRights movement will do over the next decade or so. It kinda reminds me of the story of Joan of Arc, who proclaims at a young age that she will raise an army and liberate France - and then she does.
This 1970 documentary is imo one of the best ever made about #King.
https://youtu.be/xcab4YuTA8Y?t=185
#mlk #happybirthday #jan15 #freedom #leftism (the real thing)

berternste@pod.orkz.net

‘It felt like history itself’ – 48 protest photographs that changed the world

The Guardian

Protest can change everything. Which is why governments around the world want to suppress it. In a week when thousands in the US expressed their fury over Roe v Wade, we look back at some of the images that helped rewrite laws and change the way we think.

Governments tend to define democracy as narrowly as possible. The story they tell goes as follows: you vote; the majority party takes office; you leave it to govern on your behalf for the next four or five years. (...)

We have seen what happens if we leave politics to governments. Fairly elected or not, they will, without effective public pressure, abuse their power. (...)

Trust in governments destroys democracy, which survives only through constant challenge. It requires endless disruption of the cosy relationship between our representatives and powerful forces: the billionaire press, plutocrats, political donors, friends in high places. What challenge and disruption mean, above all, is protest. (...)

A government that cannot tolerate protest is a government that cannot tolerate democracy.

Such governments are becoming a global norm. In the UK, two policing bills in quick succession seek to shut down all effective forms of protest. (...)

In the US, state legislatures have been undermining the federal right to protest, empowering the police to use catch-all offences such as “trespass” or “disrupting the peace” to break up demonstrations and make arrests. (...) In Russia, a new law against “discrediting the armed forces” has been used to prosecute dissenters engaging in actions as mild as writing “no to war” in the snow. Similar draconian laws are being imposed by governments in many other nations.

Why do governments want to ban protest? Because it’s effective. Why do they want us to accept their narrow vision of democracy? Because it makes our power ineffective. (...)

The extraordinary people in these images understand this – from suffragettes picketing the White House in 1917 to Patsy Stevenson being manhandled by police at last year’s Sarah Everard vigil; from relatives of those killed at Amritsar in India in 1919 to those taking to the streets after George Floyd’s murder in the US.

Almost everything of importance is disintegrating fast: ecosystems, the health system, standards in public life, equality, human rights, terms of employment. (...) Business as usual is a threat to life on Earth. Disrupting it is the greatest civic duty of all. (...)

Complete article with photos

Photo of young woman confronting heavily armed riot police

Tags: #protest #pictures #photographs #china #tiananmen #tank_man #abortion #abortion_rights #ireland #democracy #freedom_of_speech #strike_action #great_britain #police #policing_bill #us #united_states #right_to_protest #russia #george_floyd #sarah_everard #pussy_riot #india #amritsar #amritsar_massacre #civil_rights_movement #alabama #racism #discrimination #birmingham #martin_luther_king #mlk #gezi_park #turkey #barbara_kruger #poland #rosa_parks #Thich_Quang_Duc #vietnam #israel #gaza #occupied_territories #palestine #palestinians #Emma_Sulkowicz #rape_culture #march_on_washington #egypt #tahrir_square #mexico #may_day #black_power #olympic_games #march_on_montgomery #handmaids #euromaidan #kyiv #kiev #ukraine #stonewall #gay_rights #standing_rock #dakota_access_pipeline #native_americans #indigenous_people #thailand #rubber_duck_protest #japan #tokyo #vietnam_war_protest #vietnam_war #narita_airport #war_protest #south_africa #soweto #soweto_young_lions #apartheid #earth_day #czechoslovakia #prague #russian_tanks #Dubček #pakistan #Notabugsplat #sweden #Växjö #neo-nazi #neo_nazis #ocasio-cortez #tax_the_rich #colombia #bogota #LGBTQI+ #woolworth #whites_only #germany #hitler #holocaust #posner #lviv #prams #Jan_Rose_Kasmir #south_korea #hong_kong #umbrella_movement #sudan #Alaa_Salah #jamaica #royalty #republican_protest #Greta_Thunberg #climate_strike #sufragettes #Arlen_Siu #Sandinistas #nicaragua #black_muslims #police_violence

diane_a@diasp.org

“Though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
#MLK #DrKing