Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate

78 Pages·2013·3.58 MB·English

the stock market is a racket | andrew S. FiScher
remember when people had pensions? | Sam pizzigati
with the beauties at atlantic city | linh dinh
T
Cold ype

writing worth reading ISSUE 78
“Madness alone is truly terrifying,
inasmuch as you cannot placate
it either by threats, persuasion or
bribes.”
Com– Joseıph Cnonrad, Tghe Secret Agent
to a
Shoppıng
Mall
Near
Trevor You
Grundy
?
examines
the causes,
and likely effects, of the terror attack
at Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Mall
ColdType
ISSUE 78
3. cover Story: coming to a Shopping mall near you Trevor Grundy
10. blurred viSion Michael Parenti
15. booK eXcerpt: operation maSSacre Michael Greenberg
17. obama’S new victory Norman Solomon
19. SupertanKerS on the great white SluShie Michael I. Niman
21. tilting at eaSy targetS David Cromwell
25. it’S policieS with teeth that get uS into trouble Philip Kraske
28. From berKeley to meXico city Chellis Glendinning
30. the declining beauty oF atlantic city Linh Dinh
38. Send money! Fred Reed
40. the StocK marKet iS a racKet Andrew S. Fischer
46. diet coKe FightS obeSity? Fat chance! Katherine Paul & Ronnie Cummins
48. Found at laSt! William Blum
53. remember when people had penSionS Sam Pizzigati
55. obama’S rogue State George Monbiot
58. cauSe For optimiSm John Pilger
60. licenSed to Kill John W. Whitehead
63. booK eXcerpt: the watchman’S File Barry Lando
70. droneS and gadFlieS Brian Terrell
74. red lineS and green lightS Jonathan Cook
76. drown? or live to write another day? Darrell Bristow-Bovey
Editor: Tony Sutton – [email protected]
2 ColdType | October 2013
CovEr Story
Coming to a shopping
mall near you?
Trevor Grundy examines the cause, and likely effects, of last month’s
terror attacks at Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Mall
‘Madness alone is truly terrifying, insomuch someone, possibly a white European wom-
as you cannot placate it either by threats, an, rented an office block in the mall and Security officials
persuasion or bribes.’ – First Secretary that men and women were seen carrying in israel long
Vladamir to the agent provocateur Adolf goods (maybe guns, ammunition, protec- time warned
Verloc in Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel, The tive clothing and telephones) into the area the Kenyan
Secret Agent for safekeeping over several weeks before government that
the September 22 assault. nairobi’s westgate
Vladamir, the first-secretary of an Then it came and, after a four day siege, mall was a prime
unnamed (but probably Russian) 67 lay dead and an unknown number more target for a
embassy in London in Joseph Con- were under the rubble caused by the col- terrorist attack
rad’s novel The Secret Agent was a lapse of part of the complex. As many as 200
man who knew a thing or two about 19th were injured after 18 heavily armed men en-
century anarchists. tered the mall from at least three entrances,
So it’s a pity that a modern day equiva- hurling grenades and shooting people – in-
lent of this smooth talking representative of cluding children – at close range. The Kenya
an autocratic foreign power who had diplo- Red Cross said that at least 59 people were
matic immunity to cover his violent plans still missing after three floors at the back of
wasn’t in Nairobi in September to plop a few the building collapsed on top of the super-
pearls of wisdom into the blocked ears of market.
Kenya’s policemen and government officials “It’s our 9/11,” said one of the Kenyan
about 21st century terrorists after security lawyers defending President Uhuru Kenyat-
officers and intelligence chiefs had so disas- ta and Vice President William Ruto. who
trously ignored warnings made months ago are facing charges at International Criminal
by al-Shabaab – the Somalia-based Islamists Court at The Hague of masterminding the
– that an attack on the Israel-owned West- slaughters of over 1,000 of their own people
gate Shopping Mall was on the cards. after the 2007 general election.
Security officials in Israel long ago As many as 600,000 people were dis-
warned the Kenyan Government that Nai- placed after an explosion of ethnic violence
robi’s Westgate Mall was a prime target for in the East African country lauded as “the
a terrorist attack. mirror of democracy in Africa “ by depart-
Several cafes and restaurants in the com- ing British officials after independence in
plex are Israel-owned, including the ground 1963.
floor Artcafe. Unconfirmed reports say that Back to Conrad.
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CovEr Story
“The sacrosanct fetish of today is sci- losopher John Grey said that at the begin-
Kenya’s politicians ence,” Verloc was told by Vladamir, who ning of the 21st century science lives on as a
knew an attack went on to instruct his wayward, overweight ‘sacrosanct fetish’ and that the middle class
would come, but mercenary agent to blow up the Royal Ob- believe that the Internet is the source of all
didn’t bother to servatory at Greenwich in order to shock their prosperity, “linking up economic life
put on guards Britain’s middle classes. For, at the end of everywhere in a network of beneficial ex-
around westgate the 19th century in Britain and most other change. Yet, at the same time, in a develop-
Shopping mall parts of the Western world, science was the ment that attests to the power of Conrad’s
which was an quasi-religious belief symbol for never end- darkly ironic vision, the symbols of trade
obvious soft target ing prosperity and material progress. It was and technology have come under terrorist
the age’s sacrosanct fetish. attack. On 11 September 2001, the suicide
An attack on the London Observatory, warriors of al-Qaeda carried off a terrifying
the first meridian, said the gloating, schem- assault on the spirit of the age of precisely
ing, Vladamir, would be “an act of destruc- the kind that Mr Vladamir recommended.”
tive ferocity so absurd as to be incompre- Twelve years later, there are new and very
hensible, inexplicable, almost unthinkable” different suicide warriors around.
and would be terrifyingly effective for those Several men dressed in expensive West-
very reasons. ern suits, their faces covered with scarves
“Go for the first meridian. You don’t entered through the side door of an Israeli-
know the middle classes as well as I do. owned café, the Westgate Shopping Mall in
Their sensibilities are jaded. The first me- Nairobi where they set about killing people
ridian. Nothing better and nothing easier, I and destroying one of the most sacrosanct
should think.” fetishes of the new globalised multi-cultur-
His prediction was that the comforting al, multi-racial and now multi-sexual mid-
symbols of middle class prosperity and “the dle class – the supermarket.
absurd ferocity of such a demonstration At the end of September, Kenya’s politi-
will affect them (the middle classes) more cians admitted to a massive intelligence fail-
profoundly than the mangling of a whole ure.
street – or theatre full of their own kind. To They knew an attack would come – al-
the last one they can always say: ‘Oh! it’s Shabaab’s revenge for Kenya’s military in-
mere class hate.’ But what is one to say of tervention along with African Union (AU)
an act of destructive ferocity so absurd as to peacekeepers in Somalia where they once
be incomprehensible, inexplicable, almost reigned supreme – but they didn’t bother to
unthinkable; in fact, mad? Madness alone put guards around Westgate Shopping Mall,
is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot an obvious soft target.
placate it either by threats, persuasion or
bribes.” 9/11 twin towers, new york.
Vladamir’s aim was to so anger the mid- 9/22, westgate Shopping mall, nairobi
dle class that they’d put pressure on their
government to round up, imprison or ex- In Heart of Darkness, Conrad tells us: “All
pel foreign anarchists who at the end of the Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz,”
19th century were using London to recruit the ivory trader of the Inner Station, who
supporters by spreading ideas of liberalism was corrupt, power-obsessed and hardly
and freedom in Russia. sane.
“England lags,” Vladamir tells Verloc. All Europe (plus Israel and South Af-
“This country is absurd with its sentimental rica) contributed to the trading centre at
regard for individual liberty.” the heart of Nairobi when it was attacked
In an essay published in 2009, the phi- on September 22, besieged for four days, fol-
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CovEr Story
lowed by three days of national mourning for terrorist attack.
during which time President Kenyatta (son “Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea are three Since Kenyan
of the country’s first president, Jomo) went countries which are crucial for Israel be- independence in
from zero to hero overnight in the eyes of cause they act as a buffer zone in a region 1963, israel has
the local and international media. which is seeing Islamic fundamentalism had a very close
Far from being weakened by the shop- growing at a rapid pace,” Galia Sabar, head relationship with
ping mall fiasco, he has emerged stronger of African Studies at Tel Aviv University said this country in
than ever, even after accusations that he in an interview with AFP on Sept 24. As part sectors as diverse
and his VP rallied ethnic militias in 2007 of the Horn of Africa, both Ethiopia and as agriculture,
to rape and murder rivals after a hotly con- Eritrea have access to the Red Sea, which is education,
tested election. strategically and economically important to security, military
“Yet,” said a report by Jerome Starkey in the Jewish state. and intelligence
London’s Times newspaper on September Kenya has enjoyed a fruitful relationship
26, “after the worst attack on Kenyan soil for with Israel since the two countries estab-
a generation, he is emerging as a national lished formal ties 50 years ago. Since Ke-
hero” – thanks to his oratory calling on Ke- nyan independence in 1963, Israel has had
nyans to ‘act as one’ in the face of the latest a very close relationship with this country
outrage.“ in sectors as diverse as agriculture, educa-
Said Kenyatta, eyes up, fist pounding the tion, security, military and intelligence. And
podium, “We shall rise as one, defend and the two countries’ co-operation on security
build this nation together, I feel the pain of matters goes back decades.
every life we have lost and share your grief The peak of co-operation between Israel
at the nation’s loss.” and Kenya was during Operation Entebbe in
The International Criminal Court (ICC) 1976 when Israeli commandos flew to En-
temporarily adjourned the trial of William tebbe, in Uganda, to free passengers aboard
Ruto so he could help co-ordinate a re- an Air France jet hijacked by Palestinian
sponse to the Kenyan crisis. It now seems militants. At the time, a Kenyan official per-
unlikely that either men will stand trial at suaded Nairobi to allow agents from Israel’s
The Hague. Mossad spy set-up to collect information
“The attack,” said Starkey, “in one of the ahead of the rescue bid and later paved the
most stable and prosperous countries in way for Israeli air force planes to refuel at
East Africa is a reminder of how much the Nairobi airport in the wake of the raid.
West needs Kenya. Mr Kenyatta’s soldiers
are in the front line against ex-
tremists in Somalia. His security
services share intelligence with
Britain and America. With ter-
rorism their common enemy, Ke-
nya and the West will be friends
again.”
Friends with Israel, too,
though Catherine Philp, Middle
East correspondent for the Times
warns that by actively deploying
Israeli commandos on Kenyan
soil raises the risk of inflaming
further Islamism anger, which
would make Kenya a ripe target
October 2013 | ColdType 5
CovEr Story
Twenty years later, co-operation deep- which are being wiped out at an alarming
book after book ened after Al-Qaeda’s August 1998 US em- rate in other parts of the African continent.
and film after film bassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania set Gardham and Philp paint a picture worth
are written about off a warning light for Israeli intelligence re- looking at to understand why Westgate was
the appalling garding the terror threat in Africa. 212 peo- chosen as a target for terrorists.
“happy valley” ple were killed and 4,000 were injured in They say, “The British community in Ke-
set of british twits Nairobi, while 11 people were killed and 85 nya today remains divided between the set-
who settled in injured in Dar es Salaam. The attacks were tlers’ descendants, who regard themselves
Kenya after the aimed at US facilities but local men, women as true white Africans, British by ethnicity
Second world and children suffered the most. only and expatriate Britons who have made
war and whose Reports say Israeli forces were directly in- their home in Kenya for business opportu-
life style helped volved in Kenyan efforts to end the deadly nities. Many black Kenyans fail to spot the
spark off a mass siege on the Westgate Mall. Israel has not ad- difference. Both groups lead privileged lives
uprising of the mitted it sent troops to Nairobi but it seems with tennis courts, maids and swimming
landless – the mau certain that Mossad and Shin Bet (the in- pools, that only a handful of wealthy blacks
mau rebellion of ternal security service) helped the Kenyan can aspire to. Racial tensions between the
the 1950s government manage this crisis and prepare communities exist. The climate, the aston-
for the next blow which al-Shabaab says will ishing beauty of resorts such as Lamu and
land soon. the fact that Kenya is widely seen as the East-
British security expert Peter Taylor says ern and central African hub for finance and
the aim of al-Shabbab is to turn Kenya and telecoms is a draw for professional British
then the rest of East Africa into one vast expats. Barclays is one of the biggest banks
Islamist “state.” Muslims make up around in Kenya but Google, Coca Cola, Nestle, Mas-
11 percent of Kenya’s 40 million population terCard, Standard Chartered and Microsoft
and are particularly numerous –and militant also have big operations in the country.
–along the Swahili Coast stretching from “The glamour of Kenya is endorsed regu-
southern Somalia to southern Tanzania. larly by a global celebrity set who either vis-
it the country’s beaches and game reserves
the westgate Shopping mall speaks to a or build tourist businesses there. Flavio
bubble of privilege Briatore, the former Formula One tycoon,
owns the Lion and Sea retreat while Prin-
Owned by Israeli businesspeople, Westgate cess Caroline of Monaco and Prince Ernst
was the favourite shopping centre for many of Hanover have homes on Lamu Island.
of the 30,000 British expatriates, ranging There is widespread outrage at the acquittal
from descendants of wealthy white settlers of Thomas Cholmondeley, the scion of one
of the last century to the recent wave of of Kenya’s most famous white settler fami-
highly paid diplomats, business people, aid lies, on charges that he murdered a black
workers and journalists who have made this poacher in 2006. He served eight months
comfortable hub of turbulent Africa their for manslaughter. A year earlier, he had shot
home, or base for a while. dead a black game ranger but no charges
Westgate, say Duncan Gardham and were brought. The case focused attention
Catherine Philp of the Times “speaks to the on what critics say is a judicial system still
bubble of privilege in which most of the stacked in favour of whites.”
city’s British population still dwell happily.” The third in line to the throne, Prince
Along with rich Asians, wealthy Africans William and his wife Kate visit Kenya and
from the Kikuyu (Kenya’s largest and most protect its animals by heading up various
powerful tribe) mix with tourists from all charities. Prince Harry is also a regular visi-
over the world who fly in to see wild animals tor.
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Books and films have been written and ing to a new book, Out of the Mountains:
produced detailing the appalling “Happy The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla, by For mall owners
Valley” set of British twits who settled in Ke- David Kilcullens (Hurst, London). He says and security
nya after the Second World War and whose four great changes are shaping the coming specialists, the
lifestyle helped spark off a mass uprising of decades: carnage in Kenya
the landless – the Mau Mau rebellion of the • Massive population growth that will is just the last
1950s. peak towards the end of the 21st century evidence of
Journalists are based in Nairobi because • Rapid urbanization shopping centres;
it’s well connected, the life-style is superb • A crowding to the world’s coastlines vulnerability to
and (until now) it was safe. Many of them • Revolution in technology-driven con- terror attacks
write about what’s happening in Lagos (Ni- nectivity.
geria) and Cape Town (South Africa) from The author says: “More and more of the
their hotels rooms and luxury homes in Nai- world’s population is in the cities. Eighty
robi and Mombasa. Nairobi has become the percent of the world’s cities are coastal. The
communication centre for the international rural poor of the world are flocking to the
media. cities.”
But in the reports about the Westgate
siege the people who make up the larg- copycat violence or
est sector of the Kenyan population were other terrorist attacks
hardly mentioned – the urban poor who
see but never enter places like the Westgate As Kenyan forces, aided by their friends
Shopping Mall. Africa’s swarming and im- from America, Britain and Israel, struggled
poverished millions don’t visit such places to take control of the Westgate Mall, US
in neighbouring states, either – Tanzania, shopping centre Western companies took
Zambia, Uganda, South Africa, all of them stock of the overall situation in East Africa
bursting with luxury goods in supermarkets and issued a warning.
as good as anything you’ll find in Toronto, Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesperson
New York, London, Paris or Berlin. All you for the International Council of Shopping
need is foreign exchange. Lots of it. Centers, an American-based trade group
Long ago when I lived and worked in Af- of mall and shopping centre owners, said
rica, a Jesuit priest told me on a plane jour- many supermarkets would soon be drastic
ney between Lisbon to Nairobi that one day increasing security measures. Officials may
the poor of East Africa would rise up along increase a police presence at shopping com-
the Swahili Coast from Somalia to southern plexes by enlisting off–duty officers to stand
Tanzania – with horrendous consequences guard and defend against men entering in
for the indifferent rich. western suits with guns in their pockets. He
“Kenya has become a place for the very said that mall proprietors will be careful to
rich where the very poor are never seen. take their cues from consumers, who may
They are people from the underground. We already be weary from boosted security at
rarely see their faces and when we do hear airports. And for mall owners and security
their voices, so few of us grasp what they’re specialists, the carnage in Kenya is just the
saying. One day you will be rich, too, they’re last evidence of shopping centres; vulner-
told by the politicians. One day they will go ability to terror attacks.
home and sharpen their pangas and go look- Kavanagh says, “Since 9/11, the industry
ing for the men who tell them such lies.” has taken a very different view of terror and
By 2050, a predicted 75 percent of the the potential for it. He said that the indus-
world’s population will be urbanites – that’s try has spent millions on security training
an additional three billion people – accord- initiatives at the more than 1,500 enclosed
October 2013 | ColdType 7
CovEr Story
malls in the US since the attack on the twin and the bomb cell’s financier and logistical
the last big terror towers in New York,” adding, ”The big fear supplier. She met Jermaine Lindsay, a Ja-
attack on a british for many mall proprietors is the possibility maican convert to Islam (as she was) whose
shopping centre of a ‘copycat attack’ in the wake of the siege suicide bomb killed 26 people on the Lon-
was in 1996 when of the Westgate Shopping Mall by militants don Underground on July 7, 2005, through
an ira bomb from al-Shabaab. The group has said the as- an Islamic chat room. In all, 54 people were
wrecked the sault was retribution for a 2011 push by Ke- killed and over 700 injured on 7/7. Lewth-
arndale centre nya into Somalia.” waite was questioned by the police. She ap-
in manchester, In an interview with NBC News, New York peared shocked and gave an interview con-
injuring more City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said a demning extremists who had “poisoned her
than 200 people mall is what security experts call a ‘soft’ tar- husband’s mind. Soon, she dropped off the
and causing an get, “because you have no external checks intelligence radar but later travelled around
estimated £700 to security.” And Juan Zarate, a former Kenya and Somalia on a false passport and
million damage White House counter-terrorism adviser told is now on the top of Interpol’s most wanted
Reuters that official worry revolves around persons list.
the possibility that other terror groups will Britain’s anti-terrorist officers are still
replicate this kind of assault. kicking themselves. So are the Kenyans
The British Council for Shopping Cen- whose leaders have admitted to gross in-
tres said that it would be seeking guidance competence during the siege. Reports say
from Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism that when the Army took over at Westgate
Command on the threat and on any safety on the night of Sept 22 they were so dis-
measures retailers might take to protect organized they started shooting their own
themselves –and their customers-in days to police officers. Tristan McConnell wrote the
come. The last big terror attack on a British nexy day in the Times, “Multiple witnesses
shopping centre was in 1996 when an IRA have described some of the attackers as be-
bomb wrecked the Arndale Centre in Man- ing ethnic Somalis but others are said to be
chester, injuring more than 200 people and black Africans. Kenya has its own domestic
causing an estimated £700 million damage. radical groups, which preach jihad and are
aligned with al-Qaeda’s ideology. Foremost
the hunt for the white widow . . . among these is al-Jirja, formerly known as
and search for oil profits in Somalia the Muslim Youth Centre which actively
seeks recruits in Kenya and is believed to
Because it was a British colony, coverage of have recruited hundreds of Kenya Muslims
the siege at Westgate was massive in that to join al-Shabaab since 2008. It, too, has is-
country. It dominated the front pages of sued threats against Kenya and its leaders
most newspapers and led television and ra- have been subjected to UN sanctions. Ana-
dio news programmes for over a week, with lysts are not ruling out the possibility that
most of the media zooming in on Interpol’s the Westgate Mall assault was planned and
decision to make a Red Notice Alert (an In- organized by Kenyan radicals in Kenya.”
ternational Wanted Persons Alert –IWPA) on How closely al-Shabaab is linked to dis-
29- year old Samantha Lewthwaite, dubbed sidents within Kenya itself is not known but
the “White Widow.” it undoubtedly suits the Kenyatta/Ruto led
Interpol sent out her fingerprints, photo- government to give the outside world (and
graphs and details of false identities used by investors) the impression that the attack
her to 190 countries. Lewthwaite, a mother was caused by foreigners. And if a white
of three from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire woman from Aylesbury was really the mas-
in southern England is suspected of being termind, then so much the better for a Presi-
one of the organizers of the Westgate attack dent on trial at the Hague now pulling his
8 ColdType | October 2013
CovEr Story
countrymen together “as one” like a true panies to banks. Against the background
statesman in the face of an onslaught orga- of the possibility of harder, more frightful against the
nized by foreigners and not his own poverty military strikes against al-Shabbah, just background of
stricken people in one of the world’s most how President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s the possibility
corrupt countries. government in Mogadishu will react and of harder, more
Whether the so called International Com- negotiate with major new investors remains frightful military
munity will respond to Kenya’s request for to be seen. strikes against al-
greater financial and military help to wipe A United Nations panel of experts warned Shabbah just how
out al-Shabaab in Somalia (a country with in July that competition for Somalia’s oil president hassan
enormous potential oil wealth) remains to could spark clan fighting and empower cor- Sheikh mohamud’s
be seen. Meantime, the hunt for 70 missing rupt warlords who caused the disintegration government
people continues in the rubble of Westgate of the country 22 years ago. A report in Pri- in mogadishu
and questions are being asked in Britain and vate Eye, the British satirical magazine, said will react and
Washington about whether the Kenyan gov- that Britain had position itself to play a key negotiate with
ernment should be allowed to tackle well role in “stablising” Somalia as a London-led major new
organized terrorists on their own or if Presi- feeding frenzy for oil proceeds. investors remains
dent Kenyatta will need a little help from his When Conrad’s Vladamir instructed Ver- to be seen
friends – including Israel and Mossad. loc to see that the London Observatory was
An unexpected result of the Westgate blown up to scare the daylights out of the
assault could be a further suppression of English middle class, the goal of the exercise
liberty inside Kenya, a police hunt for local was to put such pressure on the government
as well as foreign dissidents and a British/ that the police rounded up every anarchist
America/Israeli military – drone onslaught in town – thus safeguarding the interests of
against al-Shabaab inside Somalia. the tsar’s Russia.
An editorial in the Times on Sept 23, It’s possible that the aftermath of the
headlined Africa’s Terrorist Threat: “West- Westgate Shopping Mall attack could ben-
ern policy towards the region (the Horn of efit not only President Kenyatta and his VP
Africa) has for 20 years been shaped by the but that it could also persuade the “interna-
memory of a disastrous US intervention in tional community” (including Israel) to step
Somalia, when 18 US servicemen were killed up the war against al-Shabaab inside Soma-
in Mogadishu. US administrators have since lia, something that, if successful, would
preferred to rely on proxy forces in Somalia undoubtedly benefit those engaged, in the
and drone strikes. There is nothing wrong words of Private Eye, “on a feeding frenzy for
with those methods but they need to be pur- oil proceeds.”
sued with greater force. Though the military Meantime, go carefully into your shop-
strength of the African Union’s mission in ping mall. Vladamir’s words about terrorist
Somalia operating under a UN mandate was tactics and the fate of ordinary men, women
increased last year to more than 17,000, it and children remain as chilling as ever . . .
needs reinforcement. Any perception that “Go for the first meridian. You don’t know
its forces are overstretched will encourage the middle classes as I do. Their sensibilities
further depredations by Islamist militants. are jaded. The first meridian. Nothing better
The struggle of Africans to overcome the and nothing easier, I should think.” ct
forces of nihilism is not their alone.”
The two decade long civil war devastated Trevor Grundy is a British journalist and
Somalia’s formal economy and state institu- author who lived and worked in central,
tions. In their place, local and diaspora pri- eastern and southern Africa from 1966-1996.
vate companies ran everything from water He lives in southern England and works as
supply, clinics, schools, mobile phone com- an author, researcher and journalist
October 2013 | ColdType 9
LookIng baCk
Blurred vision
Michael Parenti on the confused legacy of Martin Luther King Jr
The 50th anniversary of the March on ile in his own land.” He went on: “The mar-
the crowd Washington – in which Rev. Martin velous new militancy which has engulfed the
exploded with Luther King Jr. made his famed “I Negro community must not lead us to distrust
thunderous Have a Dream” speech – has recently all white people, for many of our white broth-
applause and wild won renewed attention from various print and ers, as evidenced by their presence here today,
cheers. many electronic media in the United States. But the have come to realize that their destiny is tied
of us were left more attention given to King’s extraordinary up with our destiny and their freedom is inex-
overwhelmed and speech, the less we seem to know about King tricably bound to our freedom.”
misty eyed himself, the less aware we are about the serious King continued to stoke the new militancy:
challenges he was presenting, challenges that “We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro
remain urgent and ignored to this very day. in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New
The March on Washington took place on York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
August 28, 1963. Despite repeated fear mon- . . . Now is the time to rise from the dark and
gering by certain commentators and public of- desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path
ficials who predicted there would be violence of racial justice.”
in the streets – over 250,000 people descended Then came his smashing conclusion:
upon Washington D.C. in a massive show of “When we allow freedom to ring from every
unity and peaceful determination. village and every hamlet, from every state and
I was there. About two-thirds of the dem- every city, we will be able to speed up that
onstrators were African-American, and about day when all of God’s children,” all colors and
one-third were white. After all these years I creeds “will be able to join hands and sing in
still recall how gripped I was by the vast sweep the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at
of the crowd moving like democracy’s infan- last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are
try across the nation’s capital, determined free at last!’”
to awaken “our leaders” in Congress and the At this, the crowd exploded with thunder-
White House. The high moment of the day was ous applause and wild cheers. Many of us were
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. left overwhelmed and misty eyed. For all its cli-
It was a call to freedom and enfranchisement chés and overdone metaphors, King’s “I Have a
for a people who had endured centuries of Dream” speech remains a truly great oration.
slavery followed by segregation and lynch- So impressive is the speech, however, that
mob rule. In his speech King reminded us that commentators and pundits to this day have
“the Negro is still languishing in the corners found it easy to focus safely upon it to the ne-
of American society and finds himself an ex- glect of other vital social issues that engaged
10 ColdType | October 2013