I think MILK, Jr. was killed because he began to speak about…

[harlinchi]

…the politics of the poor, domestically and internationally.

Prior to his death, MILK, Jr. was able to identify the primary underlying causes of many of the most awful woes besetting the world: racism and economic exploitation. There were two articles in the Philly Inquirer on Monday, 1-16-06 about King. Both mentioned the idea that King was concerned about poor folks. One article reminded people that King, in his last days, intended a ‘Poor Peoples March’, to include poor Blacks, Chicanos (and presumably now, Latinos), American Indians from the Plains and white coal miners from Appalachia. Imagine the possibilities of such a coalition! Who would have been (or would be) better to assemble it? The other article mentioned that, at around the same time, the multi-tasking King also spoke about international economic issues such as in 1967 when he asserted that "racism and its perennial ally - economic exploitation - provide the key to understanding most of the international complications of this generation."


http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13636198.htm
Dr. King's Complex Journey
Anyone's poverty must worry us all
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
… It is instructive to remember that in his last days, King was planning what he called the Poor People's Campaign, a multi ethnic march on Washington to demand action against poverty. At Canaan's Edge, the final chapter of Taylor Branch's epic retelling of the civil-rights years, recounts a summit meeting a few weeks before King's assassination. Chicano farmworkers, American Indians from the Plains and white coal miners from Appalachia, sat with King to explore the revolutionary idea that their peoples might have causes and grievances in common.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13636197.htm

Dr. King's Complex Journey
Don't forget King's harder edge
By Mary Sanchez

King was greatly criticized for linking the cost of the Vietnam War to a lack of funding for antipoverty programs in the United States. He also ostracized himself by speaking out about world issues, writing in 1967 that "racism and its perennial ally - economic exploitation - provide the key to understanding most of the international complications of this generation."

Neither article definitively asserted a cause and effect relationship between King’s last words and his death. I do.

I assert that the powers that be were comfortable with King as long as he only stirred up a few darkies. In their view, Blacks had no power anyway and King’s actions probably provided a sort of steam valve for the obviously oppressed communities. When he began to speak of uniting those poor Blacks with other groups of poor Americans however, those powers became very threatened. When such actions were compounded by King’s speaking internationally about similar coalitions between the world’s economically oppressed groups, the situation became intolerable and King became one who must cease to be. I’m sure King was referring to PSA’s or whatever agreements existed at that time from which evolved the PSA-thefts currently in use.

The viability of a resource-rich, developing country is inversely related to the number of foreign-corporation favoring PSA’s to which it must adhere. Dr. King recognized that and spoke of it. We should reexamine his words.

[Le Taz Hot]

1. This is not the first time this point has been raised.

And I always found it, um, interesting, that 4 great peace activists, leaders one and all, were all cut down in the prime of their lives, all by assassin's bullets and all within 5 years of each other. Then we got Nixon and this country hasn't seen sunlight since.

[Sperk]

2. yeah, that's why so many good die young....the bad kill them

n/t

wonder why no far right wingers have ever gotten shot down before their time? just wondering.

[still_one]

3. Martin Luther King was killed because of racism

which still permeates our country

It wasn't that long ago when the courageous Rosa Parks refused to be humiliated anymore

and it also wasn't that long ago when john mccain voted against making Martin Luther King day a national holiday

[chimpymustgo]

5. But when he started taking on economic issues and Vietnam, he became

dangerous.

That's been cited by historians and political commenters since his murder.

[still_one]

6. I don't disagree with that either, or the orignal premise

but in the end it came done to racism

hell, the FBI wanted him gone

[IndyOp]

4. Yes, you have it correct. (nt)

:kick:

[demnan]

7. The government can do anything

Hell they talked about killing Castro, a head of state and would have done it had JFK given the ok. Why would anyone believe that they couldn't kill a poetically spoken black activist who promoted peace and equality?

The thing is, in killing MLK, they immortalized him, and made him a hero for generations to come and a martyr for peace like his idol, Gandhi. Do you think the government didn't thing this one through? Do you think they act before thinking things through often? Isn't that what they always do?

[harlinchi]

9. No, I don't think they thought this one through.

They never do, though. In their wildest Iran/Contra dreams, do you think the powers that be figured that crack cocaine would hit their own communities as powerfully as it did? I doubt it. They were probably sure that the problem would remain in the Black community where it was intended to be. I'd imagine they might even re-think the idea of keeping a foot firmly planted on the throat of Black America, too! Imagine if the US had 30 - 35 million well-prepared Black citizens contributing to the national pot instead of having thrown away their potential contributions.

Poverty makes economic exploitation more easily possible, though. Considering infant mortality, of the top twelve nations on the descending list, nine countries are in Africa. I wonder how many PSA's exist in those countries!

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

[w13rd0]

8. This theory...

...has been raised before, and is not in any way implausible.

Just consider how the last three years of MLKs life, his fight on economic fronts and for peace, are completely washed out by history and the media. Most people have no idea what he fought for his last three years. Consider how the "liberal media" at the time marginalized him, with the WashPost saying he'd "marginalized himself" and was making statements "straight from Hanoi". The New York Times did this as well.

Many of our problems in this nation are due to institutionalized poverty as much as they are due to institutionalized racism. Just happens that minority Americans clearly see and suffer disenfranchisement enabled by a society still fairly racist at heart.

The ®evolution is long overdue...

[raccoon]

10. I read the Leonard Pitts article in my local paper , and I had

the same thought when I read those quoted sentences. You beat me to the punch!

The elite decided he was too much of a threat to the status quo. No way they were going to let him live.


What are PSA's?

[harlinchi]

11. PSA's are production sharing agreements.

They are the means by which corporate America acquires legal rights to the resources of a foreign nation. In such agreements, the corporation assumes some of the development costs in exchange for long-term rights to the product. We recently established over $200 million of PSA's in Iraq, that is to say that the agreements will cost Iraq more than $200 million; That amount will be earned by the corporations involved. PSA's are the legal means by which companies and corporations steal from countries thoughout the world.

PSA's are one of the 'freedoms' for which we are 'hated' by others!

[raccoon]

12. Thanks.

"PSA's are one of the 'freedoms' for which we are 'hated' by others!"

You know that's right.