Blog Post #1

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/20/martin-luther-king-and-the-black-revolutionary-tradition-2/

In this article a veteran of community organizing for racial and worker equality, Eric Mann, recounts his time during the tumultuous 60's civil rights movement.  As any person invested in the well-being, equality, and rights of all people, Eric Mann sought to the leaders of such movements such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X for moral and practical guidance.  Mann thought it important and pertinent to write about M.L.K., the real M.L.K., on his holiday to contravene against the propaganda and santa-clausification of the historical figure and hopefully educate those who aren’t aware of the real King and stoke the flames of passion among those who look up to who he really was.  Mann explains that King was virtually just as radical as Malcolm X and was a self-proclaimed black revolutionary socialist and an immensely important ally to the black independence and liberation movement and had reverence towards the pro-self-defense wings of the civil rights movement.  Mann correctly points out that the true fact of King’s non-violent philosophy was and is currently being used in the media and by political leaders today to skew the true radicalness and contentiousness of King.  Mann points to many beliefs of King that are whitewashed and muzzled in order to maintain his manufactured clean image that both Democratic and Republican working-class folks and elites can all love and praise, such as his anti-capitalist sentiment, pro-black revolution belief, anti-Vietnam war stance (and overall anti-war stance), and his disdain for gradualism and incrementalism.  All of these things, including the immense hatred and backlash against MLK and his beliefs during the 60’s from Democratic and Republican politicians and government officers alike, are kept out of mainstream “civilized” public discourse and press because it portrays the reality of King, the radical King who was against the U.S. government and who was constantly feeling the consequences of such beliefs by the U.S. government.

Mann’s article is extremely important today (as well as anytime) because in this buildup to the 2020 presidential election there is, like always, a widespread concerted effort to quash “radicalism” and “dangerous idealism” and promulgate the long-standing love of incrementalism and moderation.  This lifelong effort to maintain and instill incrementalism and moderation by the political and business elites, as well as any member of the ruling class (the rich folk), into the heads of masses is shown to be all too real in the portrayal and whitewashing of MLK as a nice non-violent pastor who wanted equality and nothing else and who was pretty much loved by everyone during his peak of prominence.  Mann’s article exposes the truth about King, a true radical who stuck to his ideals and spoke the truth about gradualism and moderation.  King’s eloquent orations and writings about how you should always fight for what you truly believe is right are as important today as they were in the 60’s.

There is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. - Martin Luther King, Jr.