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.'"
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign
That's what he was assassinated for, adding economic dimensions to his liberation theory.
:sicko-wistful:
Did he call out capitalism by name or was it just implied?
Opinion | The 11 Most Anti-Capitalist Quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. | Common Dreams
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