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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan.18, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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On Jan. 15, the United States marks Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. It became a national holiday as a result of the demands of the Black community, the unions and all progressive forces. Because of these demands, the bourgeoisie--the class that owns and runs this country--has to shut its government down for a day. Unions at other work places have also won the holiday as a workers' right.
This is a concession by the ruling class, a response to the profound rage against racism that fueled the civil- rights movement Dr. King led and that continues to seethe. But in an annual insult to African Americans and to Dr. King's memory, the bourgeoisie refuses to shut down its business of making profits altogether on Jan. 15. On Wall Street--exploitation central--the stock market continues to operate.
This year, the King holiday shutdown follows another shutdown-- the one in the federal government. That was no holiday at all for tens of thousands of workers, a great many of whom are African Americans. Some federal offices have now been reopened, at least temporarily. But for many workers who were furloughed or forced to work without pay, there is no guarantee they will ever be paid for the shutdown.
Which makes it all the more timely to take another look at the essential element that made Martin Luther King such a tremendous threat to the racist capitalist system. He led a movement. He, along with Malcolm X and Medgar Evers and others who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom, brought people into the streets. Hundreds of thousands-- millions, eventually--were mobilized.
Masses of oppressed people in action. Sitting down at lunch counters, walking into universities, marching across bridges, facing down Klan sheriffs and governors. Taking over Washington for the great 1963 march. Marching forward despite water hoses, nightsticks and bullets.
It was a mass mobilization. That's what it takes. That's why workers of every nationality, and especially oppressed peoples, honor Dr. King's memory. We salute the movement that changed history.
We need a movement like that now. We need a mobilization that energizes and activates the class whose rights and standard of living are under assault. It's the only way to stop the war that Wall Street's servants in Washington have declared against the workers and oppressed.
It's got to happen. And it's coming. Great leaders will emerge. Their names will go down in history, as Dr. King's has, for what they represent--the mass struggle against racism, oppression and war.
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