While MLK may not have a formal economics education background that I'm aware of, a lot of things he said showed he had an excellent understanding of economics. I'm trying to think of some good examples, one is the war is a threat to "The Great Society" and "War on Poverty" which is basically what the whole "Guns & Butter" point is about. People that could be teachers, fireman, carpenters, etc are instead being used over here & the government funds being spent here. He also understand the power of striking & boycotts, & other things I could locate & mention.
He also mentioned his reason for the importance of nonviolence is because if there was a violence the media & the ones denying those rights would focus on the violence instead of the arguments or the point of the protests which is exactly the very thing that happened regarding the Memphis Sanitation Strike.
Course of the strike
On Monday, February 12, the vast majority of the city's sanitation and sewage workers did not show up for work. Some of those who did show up walked off when they found out about the apparent strike. Mayor Loeb, infuriated, refused to meet with the strikers.[4]
The workers marched from their union hall to a meeting at the City Council chamber; there, they were met with 40–50 police officers. Loeb led the workers to a nearby auditorium, where he asked them to return to work. They laughed and booed him, then applauded union leaders who spoke. At one point, Loeb grabbed the microphone from AFSCME International organizer Bill Lucy and shouted "Go back to work!", storming out of the meeting soon after.[4] The workers declined.
By February 15, piles of trash (10,000 tons worth) were noticeable, and Loeb began to hire strikebreakers. These individuals were white and traveled with police escorts. They were not well received by the strikers, and their presence led to altercations.[5][6]
Media coverage
The local news media were generally favorable to Loeb, portraying union leaders (and later Martin Luther King, Jr.) as meddling outsiders. The Commercial Appeal wrote editorials (and published cartoons) praising the mayor for his toughness.[7] Newspapers and television stations generally portrayed the mayor as calm and reasonable, and the protestors and organizers as unruly and disorganized.[5]
<snip>
A demonstration on March 28 (with King in attendance) turned violent when some protestors started breaking windows. Some held signs reading "LOEB EAT SHIT". Police responded with batons and tear gas, killing one sixteen-year-old boy with a shotgun.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Sanitation_Strike
This wiki doesn't mention the violence & the media attention but there were early versions of the violence.
What the disappointing Wiki page leaves out is COINTELPRO
(b) The inciting of violence by informants issue
The committee investigated the possibility that the violence that interrupted the sanitation workers march in Memphis on March 28, 1968, leading to Dr. King's return to the city, was provoked by FBI agents or FBI or law enforcement informants working within a militant organization known as the invaders.
The Invaders came into being in late 1967 when a number of Black youths, politically conditioned by the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement and economic conditions in Memphis, created what they envisioned would be a coalition of groups to challenge the established leadership of Memphis. The coalition came to be known as the Black Organizing Project; its most widely known group was the Invaders.
The committee found evidence that some members of the Invaders, resorting to inflammatory rhetoric and acts of violence, encouraged the disturbances that marred the sanitation workers march. In its investigation of the Invaders, the committee took testimony from several former members (the organization had since been disbanded), some of whom had provided written releases authorizing the FBI to turn over their files, investigative or informant. In addition, the committee reviewed reports of Invader activities in the files of the FBI and the Memphis Police Department, and it took testimony from FBI agents who controlled informants in Memphis and monitored the activities of groups and individuals connected with the sanitation strike. Finally, the committee took testimony from Marrell McCullough, an undercover Memphis police officer who had infiltrated the Invaders in 1968.
The investigation established the existence of five FBI informants who provided intelligence on the racial situation to the Memphis field office; their reporting touched on Invader activities. (13) The committee then gained access to the headquarters and field office files the FBI maintained on them. In accordance with an understanding that had been worked out with the FBI, all information that might identify the informants was excised before the files were turned over to the committee. The committee specified the informant it considered most likely to have been influential in Invader activities, and the FBI was asked to approach him and determine if he would agree to be interviewed by the committee. An interview was arranged, and the informant was questioned about the nature of the information provided to
http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-2d.html#inciting
There was a lot of FBI feeding the media in regards to their negative coverage of the strike but infiltrators committed the violent acts, then fed the media violence to obsess over to further portray the union in negative light. King was brilliant when it came to many things. Given the attention focus on the Sanitation Strike, King -- for many reasons was a threat to some very powerful people.
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