Lessons on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
If Dr. King had not been assassinated, he very well might be celebrating his 93rd birthday this week. Acknowledging that means remembering that the civil rights movement is not a distant relic of the past, but just one part of an ongoing legacy of the fight for justice and liberation. On this day honoring his birthday, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the question: What can we learn from that legacy for the work we have laid before us?
We must demand the world we need, not the world we think we can get
While he was alive, Dr. King was not the broadly popular figure he is today. He died with a 75% disapproval rating, which was largely due to the ‘radical’ demands he was making of society as a whole. Although the organizing efforts he was the face of had achieved so much, from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he and the matriarchs at his side knew that was only a fraction of the change needed. He envisioned “a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values,” one which would “look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.” In addition to his civil rights work, he was outspoken against the Vietnam war and US militarism as a whole, and called for the uniting of black and poor white people in class solidarity in the struggle against capitalism - all of which he saw as different parts of an inextricable whole.
Dr. King believed in the interrelatedness of all struggles for justice. He famously insisted that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
What Dr. King was describing might be seen today as an ecology of justice. Just like an ecological understanding of nature views all parts as interrelated, interdependent, and necessary, King saw the struggle for justice as a network, of which all these seemingly disparate causes are but a part. He was harshly criticized in his day for that view. In 1967, The New York Times ran a piece accusing Dr. King’s opposition to the Vietnam war as being hurtful to the “cause of Negro equality.” The article argued that “This is a fusing of two public problems that are distinct and separate. By drawing them together, Dr. King has done a disservice to both.” But to King, the interrelatedness of these causes was plain to see, and he didn’t find an issue with demanding the world that was so clearly needed, not just the changes that could be easily won.
At FCAC, we have learned from racial and social justice movements, building our coalition on the foundations of a similar conclusion. We see climate justice as being inextricably connected to all of the other struggles for justice in our community and across the world. This is why we speak up when the Supreme Court takes away the right to reproductive autonomy. It’s why we have been doing our own internal reflection to understand the history of white supremacy in environmental movements, and to undo that legacy in ourselves, our workplace, and our movement. It’s why we see Indigenous sovereignty and the landback movement as being essential to transitioning toward the new energy economy we need.
Some may say that this is too much. They might say that as a climate organization, we should focus just on climate. But like Dr. King, we don’t think that’s possible. All of these issues are part of the same ecological web, and you can’t tug on one without noticing the intersection points with all the others. And when you do start tugging, you begin to see that nearly all of them have roots in the same systems of oppression: capitalism, colonialism, militarism, white supremacy, and patriarchy - all themselves interrelated systems united by the need to dominate and control. And so - while some may believe that we should just focus on a “climate” niche, we see that niche as being something much more vast, and we refuse to only ask for half measures. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King says that “we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” This means that if we don’t ask for the world we need - we can be guaranteed that we won’t get it. Is it optimistic to aim for a radical restructuring of our energy systems, as well as our economy, our systems of justice, our relationship to the land, and our racial and gender hierarchies? Absolutely. But will we get what we need if we don’t demand it? We will not.
This does not mean that any one person or organization should feel a responsibility to single-handedly take on every cause for justice. It is self-aggrandizing to imagine this is even possible. Turning again to the ecological understanding of our movements for justice, we can see that each part of an ecosystem still must do its specific part. Ours is climate justice. But we do our part deeply knowing that our part is not in a vacuum, that it affects and is affected by all the other parts. And in that, we can find a sense of community, of companionship, or, as Dr. King would call it, “the beloved community.”
As Dr. King’s legacy teaches us, we must be bold and visionary in our demands, coming out of an understanding of the interconnections of all of our parts in the fight for a livable world. In doing so, we receive in turn a place in this magnificent ecosystem of justice, in our own beloved community.
