Why the Radical Dr. King Matters Today: From Civil Rights to #BlackLivesMatter

Monday, January 19
5:00 – 7:00 pm
Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee

In Dr. King’s 13 years of political work, his radicalism was largely rooted in the interests, needs, and aspirations of the black working class and the poor. This was reflected in his determination to alleviate the economic, social, and political misery faced by working people and the poor with a programmatic call for a total redistribution of wealth, guaranteed annual income, the need to nationalize some industries, and a revolution of values.

These are the ideas that big business, the two-party system, the black leadership, and some members of the King family would like us to forget.

Speaker: Eljeer Hawkins is a community and anti-war activist, born and raised in Harlem, New York,; a member of Socialist Alternative/CWI for 18 years. Eljeer is a former shop steward with Teamsters local 851 and former member of SEIU 1199, currently is a non-union healthcare worker in New York City. He contributes regularly to the Justice Newspaper, Socialist Alternative and socialistworld.net