Category Archives: Anti-War

Dr. King Supported the Struggle of Black Workers

The following remarks were made by BWFJ member Ajamu Dillahunt during a Martin Luther King Holiday event sponsored by the Raleigh & Durham Workers’ Assemblies.

Good morning, Brothers and Sisters, comrades, and friends! Welcome to this important event at a critical time in the history of the US. I want to express my gratitude to the Raleigh & Durham Workers Assemblies for asking me to share a few thoughts about Dr. King and his support for Labor.

Every year in January since 1986 we are confronted with what I call the struggle for Dr. King’s legacy. The corporate media, the corporations themselves, the schools and the religious institutions serve up a version of Dr. King that stripped him of the analysis and vision that propelled him through decades of struggle. The focus on his “I Have A Dream” speech and his advocacy of non-violence ignores, if not buries, his view on labor, the economy, war and so much more that is relevant to our struggle for survival, much less social transformation.

Our friend, Charles McKinney, one of our most important historians in this moment suggested that these institutions are “Killing King Again.” James Earl Ray’s bullets took his life on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel and today a well-financed and orchestrated assassination of his body of work has taken place. Charles calls it Martin Luther King, Jr. 2.0. For people seeking the truth and those seeking to end exploitation and oppression, we have to ground ourselves in King 1.0 and enter this struggle for ideas and even more important, take ACTION.

We say that for Workers the best way to celebrate Dr. King’s Legacy is to Organize, Fight for A Union, For Dignity at Work. So let’s briefly put that in context. Continue reading →

THIS 2021 DR. ML KING DAY… STATE OF EMERGENCY…LET’S REMEMBER KING’S REAL LESSONS !

The following is a recent speech given by Angaza Sabubu Laughinghouse  a BWFJ leader.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is more remembered by most for his “I have a Dream Speech” and not his radical political actions or radical views about the failures of U.S. capitalism and its systematic racism or embedded white supremacy! Why are so many of us fuzzy, forgetful or just content with the political and media myth makers or just plain intentional lies about King?

Along with many others, I am a product of the 1960’s-70’s activism and movements. As an inquiring Black working class youth, born to Gloria and Charlie Jr. of Jim Crow segregated Greenville, NC, I was deeply impacted and shaped by this historic period and his April 4th,1968 assassination which occurred nearly 53 years ago.
 
 My family, by then, had long migrated, like many African –Americans, to New York City and the North. They escaped the intensity of southern brand of repression just to endure a more sophisticated systematic racism up North.  As we know, King was also influenced by the northern & large urban  Black leaders and movements ( ie.  militant  self-defense/anti-police brutality, youth organizations, Malcolm X ( Ballot or Bullet speech), Black workers unionizing/ tenant organizing/fighting for affirmative action, anti-Viet Nam War, League of Revolutionary Black Workers, etc.). So in the late 1960’s, King attempted to bring his southern civil rights tactics to Chicago and the North, with not only violent racist resistance from whites, but the more militant urban Blacks who wanted to challenge the entire systematic racism and economic oppression of this capitalist society!

No War with Iran!

The world is in significantly greater danger than it was before Thursday when Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a prominent Iranian General and political figure. This violation of international law is a declaration by US imperialism that it’s not accountable to the global democracy or human rights. Trump has been spoiling for this fight from day one of his presidency, but it is clear that this act is a diversion from the impeachment trial he faces.

Continue reading →

BWFJ DENOUNCES THE MURDER OF PALESTINIANS; SUPPORTS RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION, RIGHT OF RETURN

Date: Mon, 14 May 2018

Black Workers For Justice (BWFJ) calls on all Black leaders and activists to speak out and call for an end to the recent Israeli killings of Palestinians who are protesting in their own territories of Gaza and Jerusalem!  The Trump Administration and  U.S. government are supporting the Zionist colonial state and their murders of over 53 people and over 1000 injured!
Dr. Martin L. King stated in 1967, that the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of all violence in the world today. And as we approach Malcolm X’s 93rd birthday, we must remember his words that capitalism and Imperialism  are like vultures, preying on the oppressed.
Jerusalem was home to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, until the Zionists killed and expelled the Palestinians from their land in 1948. Today, the pro-Zionist Trump Administration is continues to force oppressed Palestinians from their homes. By declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moving the US embassy there amid controversy and protest, the Trump administration has insulted the Palestine Peoples Nation and struggle for liberation from Zionism and US/European  Imperialism.
BWFJ is calling on all African Americans to recognize and examine the connection between the Black struggle for self-determination here in America, and that of the Palestinian people. Our people here in America face attacks on our communities through gentrification, attacks on our bodies through police brutality, and attacks on our livelihoods as the cost of living rises but wages remain the same. Our sisters and brothers in Palestinian face similar threats as they remain severely oppressed under an Israeli system of apartheid.
We must hold rallies, informational pickets, student teach-ins, lunch and learns, and other activities to publicize and support the struggle of the Palestinian people!
Self Determination for African-Americans  and the oppressed Palestinian Nation!
End the murders of all Blacks, Brown, Palestinian, and oppressed people at home and abroad!

No to US Led War on Syria!

Again, we see the US government trying to start another war as a diversion from the capitalist crisis that is causing great suffering among masses of working-class and poor people. The U.S. wars violates international   laws and U.S. Constitution , while  attacking basic democratic and human rights to challenge the suffering and brutality carried out by the capitalist economy and the “State” (government).

Trump got elected president on the racist promise of making America great again !  Trump is intensifying the War on Black America – killing, maiming and jailing Black and Brown people, criminalizing immigrants and Muslims and fostering regime change throughout the Americas.

This attack on Syria is part of a US led global war that incudes the War on Black America. Black people must oppose this war on Syria, all wars abroad and in the US.  This war contributes to the economic and social crises . As our tax  money is spent by the ruling 1 % for war , there is more cuts to public services, schools, vocational education, jobs, healthcare, affordable housing, clearing up the environment, repairing the infrastructure, supporting veterans that are disabled and mentally broken from fighting in these imperialist wars.

The struggle for Black liberation must also be a struggle against imperialist wars. The European heads of the global capitalist system – US, France and the UK are again deciding what part of the world they want to dominate and control for increasing their wealth and positioning their militaries to dominate the world.

 

We Say No to US Led Racist and Imperialist Wars!