Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20080124065458208

By DANIEL GROSS
Counterpunch

In the watered-down version of what passes for history these days, what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was doing when he was assassinated is left out. In the current atmosphere of unbridled hostility to labor organizing, it's worthwhile to recall those final days of his life.

Dr. King traveled to Memphis in support of a watershed strike of mostly black city sanitation workers. The workers initiated their historic work stoppage to vindicate the basic right of free association in the form of a labor union. The government deemed their efforts illegal and worked aggressively to defeat them.

While wages and working conditions including health and safety were critical issues, there's no doubt that the strike was also about human dignity itself. Indeed, many of the workers and their community supporters carried picket signs readings simply, "I AM A MAN."

This was the struggle, a union struggle, which brought Dr. King to Memphis where he was felled by a sniper's bullet, the day after he gave his unforgettable "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.

Dr. King was a champion of working people years before those fateful days in Memphis in 1968. In addition to supporting union organizing efforts, King spoke emphatically in favor of a living wage and decried the sham cynically known as a "right to work" law, among other things.

On unions, Dr. King argued that, "the labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress." And King didn't shy away from emphasizing that, "the captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome."

Contrary to the treatment we're sure to get from the corporate media in this 40th anniversary year of Dr. King's murder, the dream he fought and died for was not some formalistic conception of civil rights devoid of economic rights. Dr. King spoke forcefully on behalf of economic justice and gave his concrete support to the labor movement as the means to get there.


FULL story at link.

[thunder rising]

1. I think it's bad the "The Grapes of Wrath" is no longer required reading

It must not be, cause all these young republicans sure think the corporations will take care of them.

[juno jones]

2. The problem is even present if they require such things as GOW,

Required reading is one thing, it is nescessary to put it in the proper context. My english teacher said nothing of the political ramifications of the book, it was all about the epic journey of the Joads and the symbolism of Rose-of-Sharon, etc. One can teach without really teaching.

[LucyParsons]

3. K&R

Thanks for this link. I am grateful - a fascinating article.

[Metta]

4. Here, here.

Exactly right. Thanks.