Martin Luther King Day means struggle & unity

HOUSTON
End the death penalty

Thousands of Houston residents braved cold weather Jan. 21 to watch the Black Heritage Society’s 30th Annual Martin Luther King Day Parade. The theme this year was “Saluting the Great Debaters” and one of the grand marshals was Dr. Thomas F. Freeman, who is in his 58th year as head coach of the internationally acclaimed Texas Southern University Debate team.

The Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement’s contingent in the parade condemned Texas’ use of the racist and anti-poor death penalty. Thousands of flyers were distributed asking the public to get involved in this life and death struggle and to support Howard Guidry, Mumia Abu-Jamal and other innocent people on death row.

DETROIT
Fighting war, racism and poverty

Despite a bitter cold day of 20 degrees, those participating in the fifth annual Martin Luther King march and rally in Detroit came out in the hundreds to honor Dr. King and carry on his legacy of fighting war and injustice. This year’s theme: “Fighting the Shackles of War, Racism and Poverty.”

Detroit WW photo

At the beginning rally participants were welcomed to the Central United Methodist Church by its pastor Rev. Ed Rowe. Then participants heard main speaker Rev. Lucius Walker of the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and founder of Pastors for Peace describe Dr. King’s contributions, particularly his connecting the United States economic war against the poor and people of color within this country and the war in Vietnam. Walker called on participants to carry on Dr. King’s legacy by fighting back against political, social and economic injustice.

Detroit City Councilor JoAnn Watson introduced Walker and also brought on stage a delegation from Vietnam who expressed their solidarity with the day’s events. She and Walker also recognized two students from Detroit, Chinere Knight and Ese Agari, studying at the Latin American Medical School in Cuba. Throughout the opening rally many youth recited poems and sang, a 1967 Mike Wallace interview with Dr. King was screened, and much more. The rally site was imbued with Dr. King’s spirit as community members’ artwork adorned the vestibule along with a large banner declaring “Michigan says no to war!”

Following the opening rally hundreds marched through downtown Detroit with placards and banners declaring “Fight racism!” and “Money for people’s needs, not war!” Many labor, community and student organizations were represented including delegations from the Michigan Nurses Association and the Union of Part-Time Faculty-AFT.

Marchers returning to the church were treated to a meal and hot beverages while a second rally composed of cultural performers concluded the day.

The Detroit MLK Day Committee, a coalition of many progressive organizations in South Eastern Michigan, sponsored the event.

BOSTON
The first MLK hip-hop rally

A militant youth-led Martin Luther King Day rally, march and speakout against racism filled the streets of downtown Boston on Jan. 21 with chants, hip-hop and spoken word calling for funding Dr. King’s dream, cutting the military budget and using the money for jobs, housing, education and health care.

Boston WW photo: Liz Green

Youth from FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) and Voices of Liberation led the demonstration, which included strong participation by activists from the Boston Workers Alliance, a community organization that organizes against discrimination based on “CORI” past criminal records. The crowd of about 70 included strong representation of youth as well as older representatives from the oppressed communities and a good representation of supporters of all ages.

The opening rally at Park Street on the Boston Common featured hip-hop performances addressing issues affecting oppressed youth in Boston, including police sweeps in the community and a surge in violence affecting Black youth.

City Councilor Chuck Turner told the crowd he was honored to be addressing “the first hip-hop rally commemorating Dr. King,” and raised the need to continue the fight to fund Dr. King’s dream and abolish the three evils identified by Dr. King: militarism, economic exploitation and racism.

Minister Rodney X from the Nation of Islam also gave a rousing talk to the crowd, highlighting Dr. King’s legacy of struggle. The youth, including Jonathan Regis, D. J. Nomadik, Jesse and Augustin, coordinated and led the program and played hip-hop with a message that can no longer be heard over public media, where it has been co-opted and taken over by big business interests.

The demonstration marched through downtown Boston led by a sound truck playing excerpts from Dr. King’s final speeches condemning the Vietnam War, and raps and chants led by Miya Campbell of FIST and the Women's Fightback Network. Rev. Franklin Hobbs, director of Healing Our Land, highlighted the disproportionate incidence of HIV/AIDS among communities of color resulting from discrimination and failure to provide resources available to other communities, and led militant chants against racism.

The demonstration was closed out by messages from members of Boston Workers Alliance including Mr. Tim and Phil Reason, Sara Mokuria of VOL, and Bob Traynham of the International Action Center and the Boston School Bus Drivers Union. It was endorsed by City Councilors Charles Yancey and Sam Yoon, New England Human Rights for Haiti, and Bishop Filipe Teixeira, OFSJC.

NEW YORK
United action hits media racists Don Imus and Lou Dobbs

More than 1,000 people joined a dynamic March Against Racism on Jan. 21 despite its being one of the coldest days in New York this winter, and despite being on a weekday many workers don’t have as a holiday.

New York WW photo: G. Dunkel

Black, Latin@, Arab, Asian, Native and white, women and men, lesbian, gay, bi, trans and straight, young and old—all marched almost 30 blocks from Madison Square Garden, at the new studio of racist and sexist radio shock jock Don Imus, to CNN headquarters in Columbus Circle, studio of immigrant-basher Lou Dobbs. The chants included everything from “Free the Jena 6” to “End the Siege of Gaza.”

As the march was filling up the block outside CNN headquarters, Lou Dobbs, accompanied by bodyguards, crossed the street as if he were going to try to take over the stage and receive yet another platform.

He quickly learned that the crowd wasn’t going to let him turn its cause into a media stunt. While they chanted him down, Million Worker March leader Brenda Stokely, on the microphone, denounced Dobbs, his Time Warner bosses and the corporate sponsors who keep him on the air.

Flor Crisóstomo, a Mexican mother and immigrant facing deportation on Jan. 28, confronted Dobbs and asked him why he doesn’t talk about the effects of policies like NAFTA on immigrants’ home countries, which force workers to migrate when their livelihoods are taken away.

Speakers at the day's events included Victor Toro, a Chilean activist facing deportation; Bernadette Ellorin, secretary general of BAYAN-USA; Charles Jenkins, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Shahid Comrade, Pakistan USA Freedom Forum; Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition; Raja, Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; a recorded message from political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal; Teresa Gutierrez, May 1 Coalition for Immigrant Rights; Katrina survivors Ada Hann and Herbert Hubbard; LeiLani Dowell of the youth group FIST–Fight Imperialism, Stand Together; representatives of FIERCE, a New York community organization for transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, queer, and questioning youth of color; and CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities.

DENVER
A day of world solidarity

It was a bitter cold morning but that didn’t stop hundreds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supporters to come out for the “Marade.” Activists organizing for the March Against Racism called for a Day of World Solidarity.

Denver

For years State Farm Insurance has been the official “sponsor” of the “Marade,” which has gotten smaller as people have grown tired of the corporate co-opting of Martin Luther King Jr. Activists from the Black, Latin@ and Asian communities and white supporters had an alternative rally, calling for unity of the oppressed against racism and war and drawing attention to State Farm’s failure to pay back hundreds of claims filed by the victims of Hurricane Katrina, yet their slogan for the Marade was “We share the same dream.”

The activists drew many people to the alternative rally and community speak-out, where people spoke against the $600 million new jail being built, the closing of schools, police brutality, U.S. imperialism and the attacks against immigrant workers.

When the “Marade” started, a State Farm truck was supposed to be at the head of the march, but was successfully blocked by those opposed to its co-opting of the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. to sell insurance.

Later, there was a people’s video night where “The Murder of Fred Hampton,” “Welcome to New Orleans” and “Legacy of Torture” were shown.

SAN DIEGO
King/Chávez Coalition organizes rally for justice and unity

Undeterred by unusually inclement weather, King/Chávez Coalition organizers offered a powerful, people-oriented alternative to the “official” San Diego Martin Luther King Jr. parade, a downtown event that each year becomes more cop-heavy and more militarized. Community activists have pointed out that police forces and military units have no place in any event truly honoring Dr. King. In addition, they want the parade returned to the community where it originated years ago, with full participation by community residents.

The second annual King/Chávez rally was held in the heart of a working-class community of color in Martin Luther King Park. Gloria Verdieu, an International Action Center organizer and the initiator of the King/Chávez Coalition, chaired the rally. She opened making reference to the Al-Awda (Palestine Right to Return Coalition) T-shirt she was wearing, explaining that the key symbol on the T-shirt referred to the keys many Palestinians have to the homes seized from them by the Israeli apartheid state. Many Katrina survivors also have keys, she added, and they want their homes back too.

Then Jim Moreno, San Diego activist poet adopted by the local Chumash people, presided over a ritual invoking the spirit of fallen revolutionaries.

Other highlights of the rally included presentations by representatives of African American Artists and Writers, Border Angels, International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement, African Peoples Socialist Party, Colectivo Zapatista, All of Us or None, Nation of Islam, an organizer from SEIU Local 1877 and audio recordings of Mumia Abu-Jamal and of Dr. King’s less known but supremely important April 4, 1967, speech.

Following the scheduled speakers, Verdieu asked that all present join the coalition, that the coalition commit itself to organizing a community march next year, and that pressure be applied to the city government to rename Skyline Drive, a main thoroughfare in the community, to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Raymond Burruel, SEIU organizer, responded that his union local had the same goal of organizing a community march for next year and there was general agreement to cooperate on reaching this goal.

To close the rally, students from UCSD MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) led the assembled in an enthusiastic round of unity clapping.

Gloria Rubac, the Detroit WW bureau, Frank Neisser, Greg Butterfield, LeiLani Dowell, Maiysha Smith, Larry Hales & Bob McCubbin contributed these reports.