... and I can prove it.
Today I rise in support of brother DSWright in his view that the non-violent tactics of passive resistaence used by Occupy UC Davis are indeed in the same style and vein as those employed by MLK.
Sitting down, arms locked not threatening or being violent to police -> i.e lunch counter sit-ins civil rights movement.
For this Mr. Baldwin, who write for Andrew Brietbart's "Big Government" called DSWight a "Racist", and of course also called him the ubiquitous "Kos KooK".
Getting beyond the name-calling, I'd like to point out that this isn't just an idle comparison - It is Plain and Simple Fact that not only are the tactics employed by #OWS in directly alignment with those used by MLK and for that matter Ghandi the entire point of OWS is also directly in line with the point and goals of MLK, and that is not was not just Racial Equality, but in fact Social and Economic Emancipation from the tyranny of the monied and the powerful.
We are now, in the midst of the Third Civil War, and the Second Civil Rights Movement.
One has first to realize that the origins of transition from Semi-voluntary indentured servitude to Racial Slavery and Segregation in America were first and foremost Economic, and NOT based in bigotry.
As well documented by the PBS Series Africans In America that transition gradually took place over the course of several years. Initially anyone could be an indentured servant regardless of their race - unless of course, they were of the Christian Faith.
Historically, the English only enslaved non-Christians, and not, in particular, Africans. And the status of slave (Europeans had African slaves prior to the colonization of the Americas) was not one that was life-long. A slave could become free by converting to Christianity. The first Virginia colonists did not even think of themselves as "white" or use that word to describe themselves. They saw themselves as Christians or Englishmen, or in terms of their social class. They were nobility, gentry, artisans, or servants.
So Race was NOT a part of it. That didn't happen until later when economic realities began to present themselves.
As part of the deal for those who volunteered to become indentured servants for a period of years in exchange for passage to the new world, to pay of debts or to work off a prison sentence, freed servants were promised land of their own to farm and/or homestead.
Unfortunately, as the years went on and greater and greater number of former servants reached "freed" status they greatly outpaced the farmable and usable land that was not "Indian Country", so a solution had to be established to reduce the number of servants who had been promised this land. Also there was the problem that just about any servant could be free simply by converting.
Traditionally, Englishmen believed they had a right to enslave a non-Christian or a captive taken in a just war. Africans and Indians might fit one or both of these definitions. But what if they learned English and converted to the Protestant church? Should they be released from bondage and given "freedom dues?" What if, on the other hand, status were determined not by (changeable ) religious faith but by (unchangeable) skin color?
Also, the indentured servants, especially once freed, began to pose a threat to the property-owning elite. The colonial establishment had placed restrictions on available lands, creating unrest among newly freed indentured servants. In 1676, working class men burned down Jamestown, making indentured servitude look even less attractive to Virginia leaders. Also, servants moved on, forcing a need for costly replacements; slaves, especially ones you could identify by skin color, could not move on and become free competitors.
The solution to this economic problem, was to simply change the rules and no longer allow servants to be freed at the end of the dedicated years of service, but instead to make the slaves for life and also to increase and ensure the ongoing supply of a permanent inexpensive labor force - to automatically place their children in permanent servitude as well. Thus American Slavery Departed sharply from all other forms of Historical Slavery which had typically involved those captured in War, and became a Racial Issue.
In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to legally recognize slavery. Other states, such as Virginia, followed. In 1662, Virginia decided all children born in the colony to a slave mother would be enslaved. Slavery was not only a life-long condition; now it could be passed, like skin color, from generation to generation.
The fact is that what we call "Racism and Bigotry" is simply an after the fact excuse and rationalization of the ongoing practice of Economic Terrorism, Economic Slavery and Economic Servitude. It's the Economic Overlords, the Financial Aristocrats, the King's and Queens of Generational Wealth making sure that their Castles and Ramparts of Corporate Power are safe from the invading hordes of Serfs and Peasants who grow their food, tend their lawns and machines, and raise their little prince and princess children for them.
The fact is that Slavery didn't stop, it just got more sophisticated.
219 hundred years after this there was a Civil War which partially Emancipated The Slaves (only if they were held in Counties under Rebellion). Another few years later came the 13th Amendment which Banned both Slavery and Indentured Servitude (But not for the "Duly Convicted").
To this very day You Can Still Be Enslaved in a Corporate Private Prison, and it's perfectly legal, perfectly Constitutional. Just look it up and see.
Following the 13th, came the 14th which (allegedly) guaranteed the equal protection of the laws to all persons (regardless of race, gender or any other status - including immigration status) within the jurisdiction of the states. And then came the 15th Amendment which specifically granted negroes, as they were then called, the Right to Vote.
Yet still almost another 100 Years later the Right to Equal protection and the Right to Vote continued to be strategically Denied by Some States - and hence we had the movements both of Dr. King and Malcolm X challenging this inequitable status quo.
I submit to you that just as the underlying cause of America moving into Racial Slavery was not because of Racial Difference but rather, maintaining the Economic Dominance of Monied Powers-that-be of the time. So was Jim Crow and Segregation primarily of form of Economic Oppression, designed to Limit Economic Competition against those who were at that time relatively entrenched in power and money compared to those who were not.
Circumstantially, that happened to pit Poor and Middle-class White Southerners and Poorer and Lower-Class Black Southerners. But in all these cases, it was the 1% and their willing, mewling sycophants among the serfs, scrambling for their crumbs and giving an elbow in the eye to anyone who they think might grab them up first, and begin to climb the social/economic ladder upward to economic prosperity.
The poor oppressing the poor, like crawdad in a bowl pulling each other back down as soon as one begins to climb out, instead of cooperating and lifting each other up.
MLK stood not just for Racial Justice, but also Economic Justice, Equality of Opportunity and Fair Play. On the day that he was brutally murdered he was not going to a Voting Rights Rally as the Voting Rights Act had already passed. He was not going to a Civil Right Rally, as either as that Act had already passed. He was going to a Union Rights Rally in support of a Labor Rights.
MLK on the Dignity of Work, on the Day before he died.
MLK on the need for a Radical "Redistribution of Economic Power".
Here are just a few more Quotes by MLK on Labor, Spending and Civil Disobedience.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
Dr. King to the AFL-CIO in 1961.
I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream—a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality. That is the dream..
Dr. King to the UAW in 1962.
Labor has grave problems today of employment, shorter hours, old age security, housing and retraining against the impact of automation.The Congress and the Administration are almost as indifferent to labor's program as they are toward that of the Negro. Toward both they offer vastly less than adequate remedies for the problems which are a torment to us day after day.
Dr. King to Local 1199 Salute to Freedom, 1968.
We look around every day and we see thousands and millions of people making inadequate wages. Not only do they work in our hospitals, they work in our hotels, they work in our laundries, they work in domestic service, they find themselves underemployed. You see, no labor is really menial unless you're not getting adequate wages. People are always talking about menial labor. But if you're getting a good (wage) as I know that through some unions they've brought it up...that isn't menial labor. What makes it menial is the income, the wages.
MLK. It is a crime for people to live in this Rich Nation, and receive Starvation Wages
So the struggle for economic mobility, and away from perpetual wage slavery and debt imposed for the own economic benefit by Wall Street, the Banks and the 1% against the 99% that we see in the Occupy Movement is indeed the exact same struggle that MLK fought for, and ultimately died for.
We are continuing on his path. The Conservatives, who bash the Occupy Movement now, and bashed Dr. King in his day - are not.
Some like to argue as does Breitbart and apparently Mr. Baldwin, that it was Democrats who oppressed blacks during Jim Crow and Republicans who freed them. They argue, with the echoing support from the ilk of Un-indicted War Criminal Alan West and Accused Serial Sexual Harasser Herman Cain that the "Democrat Party are the True Racists".
That's frankly a load of bullcrap.
Yes, there were Republicans who supported the CRA, and Democrats who opposed it, but in the both parties overwhelming supported it. The Final Votes were as follows:
Senate: 77–19
Democrats: 47–17 (73%-27%)
Republicans: 30–2 (94%-6%) (Nays were Strom Thurmond and Barry Goldwater)
House: 333–85
Democrats: 221–61 (78%-22%)
Republicans: 112–24 (82%-18%)
Conference Report:
Senate: 79–18
Democrats: 49–17 (four Southern Democrats voted in favor: Albert Gore, Sr., Ross Bass, George Smathers and Ralph Yarborough).
Republicans: 30–1 (the lone nay was Strom Thurmond; John Tower who did not vote was paired as a nay vote with Eugene McCarthy who would have voted in favor.)
House: 328–74
Democrats: 217–54
Republicans: 111–20
It was in the end, a Bi-Partisan Bill. If it was split, it wasn't by party - it was by ideology. Conservative Republicans and Conservative Southern Democrats, mostly, Voted Against it, while Liberal Republicans Voted for it.
Yes, there used to be Liberal Republicans in this country.
Most of those Conservative Democrats then, Left the Democratic Party in Protest and become Republicans. Including Strom Thurmond who changed parties that year!
Thurmond represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 until 2003, at first as a Democrat and after 1964 as a Republican. He switched out of support for the conservatism of Republican presidential candidate and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who shared his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.[2]
As Lyndon Johnson Said at the time...
Democrats are going to lose the South for a Generation
As it turns out he was being kind, it's been essentially lost to Democrats for 2 1/2 generations. Johnson Presidential rival Barry Goldwater opposed the CRA on the grounds that it was an intrusion of the federal government into the affairs of states and, second, that the Act interfered with the rights of private persons to do business, or not, with whomever they chose.
So in his mind States Rights and Private Business Rights - trump the individual Rights of Consumers or Workers to be treated fairly.
Goldwater: I will never vote for a Public Accomodations cause in any Civil Rights Bill
Doesn't that sound just like Rand Paul and John Stossel who seem to think People have a "Right" to be Racists?
Property and Business owners have all the "Rights" to them, people don't. That is the 1% v 99% Battle in a Nutshell.
MLK's battle is not over. It goes on today in the streets and parks of America. It goes on with the Occupy Movement. Let's all hope they ultimately move us yet another step closer to Dr. King's Dream.
The American Dream.
Vyan
10:25 PM PT: Ok, I do understand the clear difference between Tactics and Strategy. Clearly the strategy employed by #OWS is different from that of Dr. King in his post Voting Rights, Equal Rights phase. There are also some inherent problems in how #OWS functions and I plan to do another diary detailing these problems in the next few days, probably after my next visit to the Occupy LA camp - which I expect will be on the evening of their pending eviction.
But to say they don't have goals or an agenda is incorrect - it simply hasn't been well reported. Keith Olbermann himself reported it as he read their very first Declaration On the Air weeks ago..
To argue that #OWS had no goals is inaccurate. Some of us may not agree with their goals or strategy, but it's not true or fair to say they don't have either.
Sat Nov 26, 2011 at 9:18 AM PT: Before you can define solutions, you have to determine your issues and concerns, and Occupy has done that here: http://occupylosangeles.org/...
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
This is a pretty long laundry list, it took generations for these problems to fester, it'll probably take generations to fix and heal.