For MLK’s birthday, take to the streets! – San Francisco

In our case, to the buses! In SF, we will be having a rally and speak out starting at 12pm at 24th and Mission Sts. At 1pm, we will split into groups and get on buses, BART and through the neighborhood in order to inform our community about the real legacy of MLK and why his struggle is still so important today.

Please read the ANSWER Coalition’s “Call to Action” below for our orientation towards the commemoration of Dr. MLK:

The political establishment, from the White House to City Halls everywhere, will evoke Dr. Martin Luther King’s heroism and his “I Have a Dream Speech” as a way of legitimizing the tradition of dissent in U.S. history. Yet for the millions who have taken to the streets in reaction to the growing national movement against racist police terror, the words and legacy of Dr. King carry a different meaning. Having his life threatened by the FBI and finally being assassinated by the most reactionary elements in the United States, Dr. King was known in his later years as a staunch critic of the U.S. economic and political system that forced upon the Black nation poverty and violence, yet preached “liberty” and “democracy” abroad. Dr. King said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin — we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

Today, after the killings of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Ezell Ford and so many more – all racist police killings of unarmed Black men who have received no justice by the same system Dr. King condemned years ago – the growing movement against racism and police terror can reclaim the radical tradition of one of the key figures of the civil rights movement.

Across the country, the ANSWER Coalition and scores of other national and local organizations are taking part in speak-outs, actions on public transportation, contingents in parades and more demanding “Stop the War on Black America” and “Stop Racist Police Terror.”

Go to event: http://www.facebook.com/764964280264045