To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice

Dear Colleagues,

I just swiftly read an article by Colin Grant in Prospect magazine which reviews three new books on Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. The overall thrust of the article is suggestive of a re-radicalisation of King's legacy, and not least his political analysis of the failures of capitalist economic life. You can read the article here:

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-america-erased-the-radicalism-of-martin-luther-king-jr

The article includes a new book by Michael Honey, To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice. And this book reminded me of the final book by Martin Luther King. The one he didn't complete prior to his murder, and instead was finalised by Coretta Scott King.

This book, Where do we go from here: Chaos or community? is one of the most profound I have ever read. It rests on King's fundamental commitment to non-violence, yet proposes an almost violent assault on an economic and political system that structured the brutalisation and exploitation of black people as part of the day-to-day existence.

Although King never proclaimed a political allegiance, and was on record as denying socialist or communist inspiration, it is clear that the book's call for equality and fair treatment rested on a radical imagination.

I think of this book a lot as has many lessons for organised labour in recognising how best to attract the most marginalised in society into active social and political activity. In fact, one of my other favourite books, Poor Workers' Unions by Vanessa Tait, includes a section on King and the Civil Rights Movement in calling for the active engagement of the poor in political struggle for economic change.

Two great books - and well worth reading!

In Solidarity

Ian

Striking to Survive: Workers’ Resistance to Factory Relocations in China

Dear Colleagues,

Apologies for the delay between the last post and this; there was an odd global occurrence, whereby Blogger blogs had been taken over by some unknown source, and it took Google some time to resolve this.

Anyway, all is back to normal, and just a quick plug for a new book by Fan Shigang, worker-activist-scholar and contributor to the periodical Factory Stories:

https://www.gongchao.org/en/factory-stories/

I've written previously on independent workers' movements in China, and their relevance to labour movement resurgence globally, and this book helps move this analysis further. As the book's marketing blurb states:

The struggles of these workers in China’s industrial centers are shaping the future of labor and democracy not only in China but throughout the world. These vivid stories of workers at factories that supply multinational corporations Walmart and Uniqlo, compiled by worker-activists and circulated underground, provide a unique, on-the-ground perspective on the most recent wave of militancy among China’s enormous working class.

As a dimension of labour studies the central importance of Shigang's book is an appreciation of how autonomous workers' movements occur despite systematic state repression. Additionally, they offer fresh insight to the relevance of labour geography as a feature of organising strategy.


At a more basic, political level the book helps reject the common notion of Chinese workers stealing the jobs of workers globally, and helps those workers outside China appreciate their common degrees of vulnerability under global capitalism.

Further book details are here:

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1159-striking-to-survive

In Solidarity

Ian