'Would Martin Luther King have Occupied Wall Street?' (Oct 18)
I've been reflecting on some possible similarities between the civil rights movement of the 1960's and the ever-widening 'Occupy Movement,' - the kindling lit, it has spread like an Australian bushfire across 1500 cities throughout the world. Barack Obama has just been at the dedication of the Martin Luther King memorial on the banks of Washington's tidal basin, which was seen as an attempt to galvanise waning support amongst the black voters.
Most of my friends on the left view the Occupy Movement as a worthy exercise largely bereft of any goals, merely the usual suspects out to protest, but that they need to come together and decide what they want first. Friends on the right see them as beatniks, hence nothing to see here. But the 'ragtag' label is a well-used label of denigration applied to any protest movement once they have the audacity and cheek to enter mainstream consciousness. Various groupings (trade unionists, anarchists, alternative world view people, anti war, quakers, and fascinated members of the public) all turning up, not really knowing what they're there for.
The critics of the civil rights movement in America said much the same thing. Yet pre-eminent oral historian Studs Terkel, for his epic book RACE, interviewed dozens of African Americans for this seminal work, and suggested this ragtag element was one of the underpinning strengths of the civil rights movements. In fact, as one protester said, it really wasn't about 'blackness' or being allowed to sit in the bus or use the same toilets, it was about poverty and about class. " They play off one race against the other. That white kid on the picket line got the same problems as that black kid who don't have a job. He's on strike because his wages aren't what they supposed to be," said Union steel worker, Joseph Robinson.
And says Little Dovie Thurman, heavily involved in the civil rights struggle: "At first I couldn't understand why they hated Dr King so much. Then I began to see he wasn't just working with poor black and white. He was talking at unionizing, and against the war, all kinds of issues. That gave him a force of power that they didn't want him to have. They had to get him. He know that black power, white power, wasn't going to work. As long as he (King) was saying, "Let the black eat at the counter, let them go to the washroom," that was fine. But that didn't get at IT."
Little Dovie realised, as Martin Luther King did, that the struggle and the civil rights movement wasn't just about race, but rather a far bigger issue of understanding power and class distinction. And some of the early protesters in the civil rights were students (The Student non-violent co-ordinating committee - nothing better to do with their time, was the common refrain), and poor working class white people. The race card by King was tolerated. As soon as he started planning the Poor Peoples' Campaign (which was a 1968 encampment in Washington) he became a total pariah. In other words, King focused on a multitude of issues.
Back in the 'Occupy' movement, that ragtag multi-focal element is its key strength to growing. If that is retained there is no reason why it couldn't evolve into a multi-generational debate about whether the feudal style inequality today is really that sustainable. Make no mistake, the critics of today's movement would have been the critics of the 1960's. Asking, "What exactly do they WANT?!"
Here's something for you. The last ever protest Martin Luther King attended wasn't a race protest. It was protesting against the pay rates of cleaners, both black and white. I asked myself, as the memorial to Dr King was raised in Washington by the US president, and as the 'Occupy' movement spreads throughout the world, would Martin Luther King have been at Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district, protesting against extreme inequality?
The answer is, hell yes.
Keep writing to us at backbenches@tvnz.co.nz or leave a message on the message board . We love using your thoughts in the show.
If you want Back Benches updates, just Facebook me; www.facebook.com/wallace.chapman
