He wasn’t a socialist (I think?) so he wasn’t a leftist. And he wasn’t a conservative obviously.
He just seemed like a radical and well-intentioned liberal. “We’ll do peaceful marches to achieve equality.” I guess it worked so you can’t blame him.
Maybe advocating violence or calling for the downfall of the capitalist system wouldn’t have done anything.
I dunno.
That's what you were taught by the people that killed him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign
That's what he was assassinated for, adding economic dimensions to his liberation theory.
The Poor People's Campaign was part of the second phase of the civil rights movement. King said, "We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and poverty".
King wanted to bring poor people to Washington, D.C., forcing politicians to see them and think about their needs: "We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on. People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, 'We are here; we are poor; we don't have any money; you have made us this way ... and we've come to stay until you do something about it.'"
:sicko-wistful:
Did he call out capitalism by name or was it just implied?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/21/11-most-anti-capitalist-quotes-martin-luther-king-jr
That has a lot of his 1967 quotes. He isn't a communist but he's more on the demsoc side of the socdem-demsoc divide. I think his problem there is that he grew out of liberation theology and the black churches formed a big chunk of his base. They're otherwise generally a conservative community outside of the narrow lines of the civil rights movement's social liberation. The Black Panthers and similar groups had a monopoly on anything more radical than that and he was committed to non-violence. The Poor People's Campaign strikes me as a more comprehensive Bernie Sanders platform: https://www.crmvet.org/docs/68ebr.htm
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, architects of the Poor People's Campaign, have outlined 5 requirements of the bill of economic & social rights that will set poverty on the road to extinction:
- A meaningful job at a living wage for every employable citizen.
- A secure and adequate income for all who cannot find jobs or for whom employment is inappropriate.
- Access to land as a means to income and livelihood.
- Access to capital as a means of full participation in the economic life of America.
He was a fairly outspoken anti capitalist, made clear in many of his speeches and letters. He considered himself a Democratic Socialist, a term which was more radical then than it is today.
A very big part about why he didn't identify as socialist, let along a communist, was because he associated communism with atheism, which is a dealbreaker for him. If you listen to his criticisms about the Soviet Union, it always revolved around the perceived lack of freedom of religion. He didn't give a shit about gulags or any other dumb anti-communist talking point. And he wasn't a liberation theologian for the simple reason liberation theology came after and were deeply inspired by him. MLK was just never able to square the circle between socialism and Christianity.
MLK was just never able to square the circle between socialism and Christianity.
interesting......
I would say that he started as a liberal but found liberalism to be insufficient, and by the end of his life he was clearly a leftist of some sort.
one would hope, but LibSoc has an... interesting posting history lmao
