“Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil” –Martin Luther King Jr.
The Civil Rights movement is a point of comparison with today’s anti-establishment and anti-hate moods spurred by growing resentment towards corrupted elections, leaders, and the capitalist system, with facets of struggle in many directions. Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for a great redistribution of economic and political power, challenging US classism, racism, and imperialism. To the inauguration day of recent, King would have told workers, students, and allies to walk out of the work and school and convene in peaceful protest and demonstrations against the Trump agenda and the system, protesting especially against the racist police brutality and criminal justice system, and for a living wage and right to unionize for all.
Dreier in Martin Luther King Was a Radical, Not a Saint notes that King’s radicalism largely erupted from sympathy of the suffering black community in the Great Depression. When Rosa Parks, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, violated civil law on the bus, King was one of only some black ministers nationwide to sermonize the opportunity for a nationwide bus boycott. After King was elected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, thousands of students demonstrated and boycotts pursued for 381 days, a powerful moment in history less known today. Many believe that in order for conditions to improve for people of color, more must become involved with similar massive and organized acts of civil disobedience again. Black Lives Matter will continue to hold meetings of agitation and loudly pronounce their demands for the betterment of the lives of people of color, and King would have supported it.
King had a deep understanding of the tie between class and racial disparities from capitalism. After the passing of the Civil Rights Act, he asked himself what good is sitting at a lunch counter if one cannot afford food to eat? King was a strong ally of the national union labor movement urging people to connect with the “people in the shacks and hovels." The FBI aggressively monitored him and other Civil Rights movement leaders, and between 1963 and 1965, finding at least 14 hotel rooms he booked. Likewise, Hoover called him the “most notorious liar in the country." This hatred from the state and elite shows his deeply rooted radicalism, Marxist tendencies, and actual power to change the status quo. Today, international movements to increase the minimum wage and expand union rights by eliminating the Right to Work Act and more are at the forefront of progressivism on the streets. He would today commend the on-going struggle for a 15 dollar-an-hour minimum wage and better union rights to directly improve living conditions and local economies. Indeed, King would have advocated for massive active advocacy for humanitarian improvements in the human condition.
Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th spurred both attention and resistance all around the world. One member of the Committee for Workers’ International says that three million, or 1% of America’s population was involved in protest for the event, more than anything the US has ever seen since the Civil Rights movement. Indeed, on January 19th, Martin Luther King Day was celebrated in Seattle with a demand for better rights for all and respect and education for and from the radical man. With a continuation of methods to force politicians, bosses, and the global elite to make concessions for the improvement of the most vulnerable lives today.
