Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
This video above is ection of a longer speech but it so clearly, without complication, personal attacks or verbiage, explains what history is and why it matters. Any discussion about the situation Black working class communities face should start with this. Imagine the advantage this gave to some and disadvantage to others. It was not a decision based on the white racist ruling class love for the white poor of Europe that were brought here, it was a solid political decision, a decision that was good for business.; a classic divide and rule decision. It was this taking land from one group and giving to another, while also barring another from participating in the benefits of it. In truth, the entire working class has been harmed by it and the damage cannot be rectified within the framework of capitalist and the so-called free market. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X drew this conclusion toward the end of their lives as the quotes below show.
Along with his ability to mobilize
hundreds of thousands of people from all different backgrounds Martin
Luther King was so dangerous because he was saying dangerous things and
expressing ideas that if taken up by masses of people threaten the
position of the ruling class and their exploitative brutal system.
Where MLK was a real threat to this
white racist ruling class was his bringing together all oppressed
peoples and toward the end of his life talking about the need to change
the system. and talking of socialism. Martin Luther King led a mass movement against exploitation
and injustice. His approach united the working class against oppression.
This is what made him so dangerous, the concept of working class unity.
In a letter to Coretta Scott in July 1952 King wrote:
“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.”
In a speech to his staff in 1966 he said:
“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.”
“[W]e are saying that something is wrong … with capitalism….
There must be better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move
toward a democratic socialism.”
And in a speech to the Southern Christian leadership Conference in Atlanta Georgia on August 16, 1967 he said:
“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…”
He said to New York Times reporter José Iglesias in 1968:
“In a sense, you could say we’re involved in the class struggle.”
Malcolm X
Same with
Malcolm X who was increasingly moving toward the
socialist alternative to capital. And both men were also moving closer to
organized labor as well speaking at rallies strikes and labor events. They
spoke in class terms.
Malcolm X said that "You can't have capitalism without racism".
What is that but a condemnation of a social system. It is far more
dangerous than going around saying all white people are devils. Malcolm X
was not killed by the state when he was saying that, he was useful to
the white racist ruling class who are not afraid of nationalism or
separatists that make no class distinctions at all between groups.
Toward the end of his life he was questioning the concept of black nationalism and what it meant. He said: “I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the
oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a
clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone
and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe
that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be
based on the color of the skin...” It is inconceivable that this
statement from Malcolm X, who, along with Martin Luther King is one of
the great US revolutionaries of the 20th century, did not terrify the
white racist ruling class in this country. It is a statement which opens a path to him and his ideas for millions upon millions of oppressed and exploited people,
In a January 19, 1965, Toronto television interview, Pierre Berton asked Malcolm X whether he still advocated a Black state in
North America he said he didn't and that, “I believe in a society in which
people can live like human beings on the basis of equality.”
In the same interview he told of meeting
the Algerian ambassador when he was visiting Ghana in 1964, a man who
he respected, the issue of black nationalism came up. Malcolm X said, the
ambassador asked him, “Well, where did that leave him? Because he was
white. He was an African, but he was Algerian, and to all appearances,
he was a white man. And he said if I define my objective as the victory
of Black nationalism, where does that leave him? Where does that leave
revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania? So he showed me
where I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries dedicated to
overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any
means necessary.” Malcolm X The Final Speeches. Pathfinder Press
The struggle for working class unity
does not negate the struggle for black liberation or the liberation of
any specially oppressed section of society----it strengthens it.
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