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All Hail the Revolutionary King: Dr. King’s Challenge to the Democrats, as Biden Finally Speaks out on Voting Rights

We’re proud to present Eric Mann’s “All the Revolutionary King” article with a new introduction to bring into the present the everlasting legacy of Dr. King on the civil rights, Black Liberations, internationalist 3rd world movements of today.

Eric Mann will read this great new introduction and piece of the article on Voices from the Frontlines tomorrow at 3pm PST on KPFK Pacifica 90.7fm (kpfk.org to stream the audio live at 3pm).

Tune into the full show and please send your thoughts, reelections and even your enthusiastic plans of how you plan to help rebuild a world movement against “Racism, Poverty and Militarism” to eric@voicesfromthefrontlines.com and channing@thestrategycenter.org

Introduction

On January 11, 2022 President Joe Biden made an impassioned speech in support of the Voting Rights Act and against the right-wing fascist take-over. It was a critical speech in the fight between the center-right Democrats and the arch rights fascist Republicans and deserves our support.  But, once again we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and fight to protect his revolutionary legacy from Democratic Party white washers, including their cover-up of their treachery against him when he was alive.

The goal is to protect Dr. King’s historical legacy and explain Dr. King’s independence from the Democratic Party, his lifelong fight with the Democratic Party, and to call on “social justice groups” who have become adjuncts the Democratic Party to have the decency to look history squarely in the face. You don’t have to agree with Dr. King’s independence from the Democratic Party, his strong Black Liberation politics, his profound internationalism, anti-imperialist, and pro-communism, but please do not take the name of the Revolutionary Dr. King in vain or use him to advance the neo-liberal, anti-Black Democratic agenda.

Joe Biden, trying to invoke every possible image to his side, says,

“Will you stand against election subversion? Yes or no? Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
I know that many of us who were taught by Dr. King, who marched with him, CORE, SNCC, Malcolm X he Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and yes, the Black Panther Party would respond,

“Joe Biden. Do not use Dr. King to advance your objectives. You Democrats spent your lives belittling him, defaming him, surveilling him, character assassinating him, and contributing to his actual assassination. And, in case you think we forgot, Bull Connor was a Democrat, George Wallace as a Democrat, and Kennedy and Johnson conciliated with them. They saw Dr. King as an adversary and when he refused to advance their agenda, they turned J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI on Dr. King whom they came to see as an enemy.

Every year on Dr. King’s birthday, thanks to Jeffrey St. Clair and Counterpunch, we publish my historical analytical article on Dr. King’ revolutionary legacy— “All Hail the Revolutionary King.”  And every year I write a new introduction to situate Dr. King’s historical role in the specific time, place, and conditions of today’s movement.  Those of us who knew him and studied his work know that had he been alive, and he is for many of us, he would continue to be a strong force in challenging the two-party U.S. Empire—and yes, the Biden initiated wars against China and Russia.

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