Occupy the Dream: Russell Simmons on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy in Action

Rush Communications CEO Russell Simmons tells Keith Olbermann how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy inspired him to help organize Occupy the Dream, a new offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Dr. King started the Poor People’s Campaign in November 1967 with the goal of confronting Congress about what he saw as its “hostility to the poor” while lobbying for an Economic Bill of Rights. Simmons decries a prison-industrial complex and states, “All of what promotes inequality — economic inequality — is the money in Washington.” Simmons argues for a constitutional amendment to stop the flow of money in politics, saying, “We want the politicians to work for us, not [the lobbyists].”

Here is a transcript from their recent discussion:

KEITH OLBERMANN: "This is America's opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will."

In our third story — those are — those words are not from an Occupy rally, although they very well could be. Those are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., four days before his assassination.

In what he called the "second phase" of the civil rights movement, Dr. King started the "Poor People's Campaign" in November of 1967. His goal was to confront Congress about what he saw as its "hostility to the poor," while at the same time lobbying for an "Economic Bill of Rights," a way for the federal government to help fix the growing problems of poverty and income inequality in this country. Seemingly an identical goal to that of the Occupy Movement.

Today, as Dr. King's birthday was commemorated, the Occupy movement took the time to honor him. Camps all over the country taking part in today's observations, marching as part of annual parades, or staging their own. Last night, Occupy Wall Street held a candlelight march to Riverside Church, where Dr. King himself spoke at in 1967. Inside, several hundred Occupiers held a vigil, which included speeches and performances by supporters of Occupy, culminating with powerful words from the great Patti Smith.

(Excerpt from video clip) PATTI SMITH: That the people have the power, to redeem the work of fools. Upon the meek the grace is showered, it's decreed, "The people rule."

OLBERMANN: Joining us now is the founder of Globalgrind.com, speaker at the aforementioned vigil at Riverside Church, Russell Simmons. Good to see you, sir. Thanks for coming in.

RUSSELL SIMMONS: Nice to see you.

OLBERMANN: Do you — is it an overstating it to say that, to some degree, Occupy is an extension of what Dr. King was standing for?

SIMMONS: Well, we founded Occupy the Dream just on that premise — that it was Dr. King's dream that the unions and civil rights leaders, which is the black clergy, and is still the black clergy — so we have, unifying the black clergy and the unions and the young creative spirit of Occupy, and we're going to occupy the dream, right? Most likely, we'll end up in Washington on his death day. We announced it on his birthday, today.

Today, the Occupy the Dream movement — which is a splinter group, right — occupied all of the Federal Reserve banks, and the purpose, again, is simple — to go get the money out of Washington. As you know, I've always said that was the main goal. I believe they occupied Wall Street because Wall Street controlled their future, and so that's the one thing, I think, would be first, if I had to figure out how can I attack economic inequality.

Today, I wrote a blog about the prison-industrial complex, and, you know, the fact that nine out of ten people in prison for drugs are African Americans and three out of four of those are non-violent users and not pushers or anything like that. And that's part of the funding of politicians — to keep those books on law.

We know for sure that war on drugs is a failure. But, if there's too much money funding it, and the politicians can't afford to get the money they are addicted to then, of course, that law will continue and will continue to poison communities by feeding them back to them as criminals.

But there are many things — the jobs overseas, the health-care issue — these are things that will never happen so long as politicians are being paid for. So Occupy the Dream is founded on King's memory and legacy. But the number-one goal is to get the money out of politics and promote a Constitutional amendment.

OLBERMANN: One thing that you wrote on the piece for the Huffington Post today, let me read it exactly, "Today, the march for civil rights isn't about convincing Americans that racism is wrong. It is about getting the money out of politics, so that the profit from institutional racism is eliminated." Is that, indeed, what Dr. King was moving towards, if not had already reached, in the last months of his life?

SIMMONS: Well, the Poor People's Movement that he founded was meant to be integrated, in a way that people who had the same economic issues could come together and fight for what is right.

In fact, this Occupy the Dream movement, although it is founded by myself and black clergy, and some of the Occupy members and the unions — and really, the black clergy and myself, that was input — but we don't want it to be about black clergy.

Someone said, "Oh, it's the Obama people." I want the tea party members who, I know, believe it would be nice if they elected a politician who worked for them. And I want the Republicans who believe the same, and I want — this is a 90-10 issue. Nine out of ten Americans believe that corporations and special interest have too much control over our government.

This public-funding idea, which is what the Constitutional amendment proposes, this public-funding idea would give us a true democracy. It's an American revolution, it's not an easy thing. If you tell any politician, they will say ," Oh, it's a good idea, but it will never happen." Because they are seated politicians and 96 percent of the people who have the money get re-elected. So that's, obviously, their spot, the most money, right?

So, it needs — we have to watch our politicians make this change, watch our Supreme Court make the change. All of America wants it. And now the time has come. It's because of Occupy Wall Street that we have this opportunity.

OLBERMANN: It is good, is it important to invoke — not just Martin Luther King — but the man whose name he carried, Martin Luther, who, after all, when he nailed those 95 thesis to the wall of the church in Germany — that was all about income inequality and the corruption of an organization, in that case, the church — by money. What he wrote about could also — I mean if you looked at it and took a few details out, that looks like something that was written at Occupy Wall Street.

SIMMONS: I never thought about that, but absolutely. You could invoke his name as well.

OLBERMANN: I mean, bring everybody into it, because you don't want to make it seem stratified.

SIMMONS: Everybody — it is not limited to race inequity. The article was about the institutional racism that occurs when — imagine, you took all of these diseased people out of the war on drugs. You took them out of the community and put them in jail for ten years for little bits of drugs, or eight years, whatever.

They went back home hardened criminals and they created what was kind of a jail culture in some of the streets in our communities. That was a terrible thing, and we have to stop that. We are spending a fortune, we're educating people in criminal behavior and we're destroying not only the black community, but everywhere.

Although it is — nine out of ten people, and the whites and blacks use and sell drugs at the same rate, but nine out of ten people incarcerated today for drugs are African-Americans, and that is — so the issue is the mathematics of modern-day racism.

But the — it's a much bigger issue, that all of what promotes equality — economic inequality — is the money in Washington. And it's criminal. It's legal bribery. Congressman goes to work, he has two years to start ho'ing, I mean borrowing — to start selling influence — did I say 'ho'ing?'

OLBERMANN: No, you were right the first time.

SIMMONS: He immediately goes to work to do that, to figure out how he can shore up his money and who he can do favors for. I fought with the drug lords, I had the big issue with the Rockefeller drug lords, we won something. We didn't win what we deserved, but we won something, there were a hundred thousand people downtown protesting. And the governor made a change and the following governor made another change.

But the number-one impediment to making the change were not the people talking about "soft on crime," not all of these conservatives who may not understand the drug law — the drug war and its effect on communities, it was the lobbyists. The people that kept us from getting the deal done were the lobbyists, that paid the politicians and were obvious everywhere. And their influence was everywhere and people worked for them. And we want the politicians to work for us, not them.

OLBERMANN: Russell Simmons, it's always a pleasure to see you. I always learn something else.

SIMMONS: I didn't let you talk too much. But I liked what you said about Martin Luther.

OLBERMANN: Bring him into it, too. Bring everybody in that stood for some sort of justice in the world. Thank you, sir.