Pacifica Forum lecture to focus on MLK, communism
The Pacifica Forum plans to hold a lecture titled “Martin Luther King: Communist?” today (Friday) at 4 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the EMU. The poster for the lecture describes it as “a discussion of whether or not Martin Luther King was a communist and of implications of the answers.”
That’s it. I am beyond disgusted with the Pacifica Forum. For those not familiar with it, the forum is ostensibly dedicated to discussing pacifism and militarism, but in reality the majority of their lectures are nothing but thinly-veiled, anti-Semitic drivel. Some former members claim the PF is now home to a number of white separatists, so I guess it’s material has expanded appropriately. While I believe the forum should have the freedom to present whatever psychotic lectures they please, I also believe organizations and institutions should have the freedom to associate or not associate with whomever they please. Is this really the kind of thing the University of Oregon wants to support? I will be going to cover the lecture, so expect a detailed report tomorrow.
A final aside: I’m aware that MLK was critical of capitalism in many of his speeches; in fact, he seemed to favor democratic socialism. However, I don’t see what the possible “implications” of this are, besides the PF using it to try and discredit the man and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. If you still think I’m being reactionary, read about past Pacifica Forum insanity here, here, here and in the Holiday Issue of the OC.
