Accounts of the life of Martin Luther King Jr often present him as a singularly great individual. Yet MLK was profoundly shaped by a vibrant ecosystem of socialists and labor radicals, from Myles Horton and Rosa Parks to Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison.
Martin Luther King Jr had a rich relationship with socialist politics: he sympathized with but ultimately rejected Marxism, and he settled on a Christian socialism that viewed the struggle against racism and class oppression as fundamentally intertwined.
Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, like much of MLK’s legacy, is selectively remembered. It attacked the material roots of American racism, just as his anti–Vietnam War speech five years later excoriated American militarism.
Throughout his adult life, Martin Luther King Jr believed in striking down not only racial apartheid but class exploitation. That twin commitment was embodied in his final effort: the often-forgotten Poor People’s Campaign.
Today is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. Ignore the lies and distortions — the reality, as the latest research shows, is that scores of socialists influenced or were themselves key figures in the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated 55 years ago today while in Memphis standing in solidarity with striking sanitation workers. His life and radical words stand as a beacon of hope, urging us to keep fighting for economic and racial justice.
Martin Hägglund’s This Life deftly weaves religion, philosophy, and political economy to produce a moving vision of a socialist ethos. But it fails to grapple with the problems that will attend the journey beyond capitalism.
In the summer of 1990, Nelson Mandela toured the United States to raise money for the South African anti-apartheid struggle. His trip highlighted the historic links between the struggle for freedom in South Africa with the Civil Rights Movement in the US — a spirit of international solidarity that the US left must rekindle.
Mandela was a revolutionary committed to the wholesale transformation of his society.
Michael Eric Dyson's attack on Cornel West signals the bankruptcy of the black political class.
Whenever mass protests of any kind kick off, defenders of the status quo immediately accuse protesters as being duped by “outside agitators.” Don’t fall for it — the lie of the outside agitator is designed to weaken protests and downplay our widespread anger at injustice.
Starting in the 1960s, more and more Hollywood films depicted an increasingly violent and alienated American society quickly losing its mind. It’s hard not to see their relevance to our times.
Workers at a Memphis Tennessee Starbucks say the company fired them for publicly speaking in support of a union drive. Retaliating against workers for organizing is illegal — but virtually routine.
Martin Hägglund speaks about This Life, his new book about love, grief, wealth, and Karl Marx.
Born in rural Ireland and a veteran of the IRA, “Red” Mike Quill went on to form one of America’s most militant unions — and to stand side by side with Martin Luther King Jr in the fight against racism.
As a movement builder, spokesperson, and candidate for the presidency, Jesse Jackson’s accomplishments were massive. He was one of the towering figures of American progressive politics in his era — or any era.
Bill Clinton’s decision to disparage Kwame Ture, born Stokely Carmichael, at John Lewis’s funeral was a disgraceful attempt to drain the Civil Rights Movement of its radicalism and limit the horizons of political possibility today. But internationalism and black radicalism speak much more to the present moment than Clinton’s tired, centrist politics.
From the struggle for civil rights to opposing apartheid in South Africa and the war against Cuba, Harry Belafonte was a fighter for justice both at home and abroad.
The Teamsters’ Martin Luther King Jr Day mobilization was an encouraging early sign that recently elected union reformers intend to hit the ground running by organizing members around concrete contract demands. They’ll need that energy during contract negotiations in 2023.
Mainstream columnists’ justification of Israeli violence against Palestinian protesters sounds a lot like condemnations of black civil rights activists five decades ago.