Martin Luther King day

Donna Brazile (in 2012)

For Dr. King, the right to vote was sacrosanct and foundational. It is the very essence of our social contract. Free elections create legitimacy. They imply the consent of the governed.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/15/opinion/brazile-mlk-voting-rights/index.html

Obviously MLK was no libertarian-socialist but he did say many things against capitalism and in support of the working classes which an aspect of MLK that is conveniently disregarded by both the mainstream of the capitalist media and by bourgeoisie politicians during public celebrations of MLK Day in America.

And although I don't want to fall into the error of overstating his support for gun ownership and armed defense, both of which MLK appears to have been normally quite disinclined to sanction, MLK was also not always as much of a pacifist as liberals like to make him out to be and in 1956 applied for a permit to carry a concealed firearm, an application which was subsequently denied by the authorities.

Below are a few quotes exemplifying the anti-capitalism perspective of MLK:

“Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad.”

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…–Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.

The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.