50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King’s death – Peace Lab

For many, Martin Luther King’s name is associated with a minority of which he formed a part and this minority’s fight for its rights in America, Fr Dionysius Mintoff from Peace Lab said yesterday.

He said: “In today’s language, we would say that he wanted the integration of this minority into American society. This is factually quite correct. King wanted the integration of people coming from different cultures and different countries in America. Today, both our country and Europe itself is facing similar challenges whereby peoples of different cultures coming from different countries are wanting their rights and to integrate for the common good.”

He continued: “King did not just want the integration of his people into American society. More than the issues relating to skin colour, King was also in favour of social justice where the common good was shared. Moreover, King knew that you cannot have integration without real social justice.

“In fact, the day that he was assassinated, King had been participating in an initiative for road-sweepers who were on strike.”

“He said that, unfortunately, there are people in Malta and elsewhere in Europe who think that you can have integration without any social justice or that you can work to promote one sector but not the other and this is resulting in a total failure of either goal. We are witnessing the rise of the extreme right throughout Europe because of this failure.

Furthermore, King also recognised that you cannot have either integration or social justice in one’s country without having peace in the world. And he knew that you cannot have peace through war or through massive spending on arms.

“No wonder then that he opposed the Vietnam War so vehemently and the massive military budgets, whilst the poor suffered tremendous shortages. The Maltese Constitution also supports this clearly by stating that ‘Malta is a neutral country actively seeking peace, security and social progress amongst nations. (CH 1, 1 article 3). It recognises this by not supporting any military initiatives.

“We must therefore understand, support and augment this noble ideology and refuse to accept the blatant lie that peace is achieved through weapons, through violent means or by supporting military intervention.”