Jacob
>I was reading an article in the bourgeois media yesterday and it made some
>mocking reference to a "conspiracy theory" as an explanation for some
>media event. With that it is fully dawning on me that the bourgeois
>propagandists have succeeded in selling some of the U.S. left, such as it
>is and reflected on this list, on the idea that there are too many
>conspiracy theories circulating around as explanations of various public
>events and incidents. This came up recently here with all the ostrichlike
>responses to the idea that John F. Kennedy was assassinated according to a
>conspiracy by the rightwing in the federal government, probably J. Edgar
>Hoover, etc. Below is another brief, valid analysis of an actual and
>important political conspiracy and assassination right under the noses of
>the naive "left".
>
>
>CB
>
>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Jan. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>EDITORIAL: WHO KILLED DR. KING?
>
>It's the beginning of a new century. When will the
>culpability of this country's ruling class political
>establishment in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King
>Jr. be acknowledged before the public?
>
>On Jan. 15 and again two days later on the official
>holiday commemorating his birthday, much praise will be
>heaped on the great civil rights leader. It will come from
>ordinary people and from politicians. The former will be
>sincere, but much of the latter will be calculated and self-
>serving.
>
>There will be many glimpses on television of his courage
>facing the fire hoses and attack dogs of Southern
>segregationist police. We will again be moved by the soaring
>eloquence of his "I have a dream" speech at the historic
>1963 March on Washington.
>
>Then will come the shattering images taken at the motel in
>Memphis in 1968 when he was gunned down in cold blood.
>
>But why was King murdered? Who was really behind the
>trigger? Why did a jury in Memphis find just this Dec. 8, in
>a civil case brought by King's heirs, that he was killed by
>a broad conspiracy? And will this fact be given the
>prominence it deserves in the whirl of media around Martin
>Luther King Day?
>
>The impression given now is that only the die-hard
>Southern racists were opposed to King. But that's a coverup.
>King was under enormous pressure from FBI Director J. Edgar
>Hoover, who had him under constant surveillance and even
>attacked him publicly. Hoover, in turn, was the top
>political cop of the U.S. because he had a close
>relationship to those in power--that is, the super-rich
>ruling class of the North and South.
>
>King's death came the same year as the assassination of
>Robert Kennedy immediately after he won the crucial
>California primary assuring him the Democratic presidential
>nomination. It came three years after the shooting down of
>Malcolm X, who was building an anti-imperialist movement
>among African Americans in solidarity with the oppressed all
>over the world. It came five years after the assassination
>of President John F. Kennedy, who, although himself a true-
>blue capitalist, had angered the far right on Cuba, Vietnam
>and his domestic policy.
>
>These assassinations were planned by professionals who
>covered their tracks with the help of the bourgeois
>political establishment and the media. In every case, the
>involvement of some element of the state has since been
>uncovered.
>
>They were meant to change the course of U.S. history. They
>didn't succeed. They merely changed its tempo. The civil
>rights movement that King led and inspired had thousands of
>leaders and millions of stalwarts. The struggle continued
>and finally brought down the Jim Crow laws.
>
>But the bigger problem--that of a
>system in which racism is nurtured in order to keep a whole
>people super-exploited by bosses and landlords--goes on.
>This class of exploiters protects the individuals and, most
>importantly, the institutions that killed Dr. Martin Luther
>King Jr.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>ww at workers.org. For subscription info send message
>to: info at workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>------------------