AS PART of an ongoing series on the year 1968, Brian Jones writes about the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Like most historical figures who have been turned into harmless icons, King’s real contributions, as well as the evolution of his politics, are buried under a mountain of false praise. He began as a southern Civil Rights leader with strong liberal ties. In his last years he turned against the Vietnam War and devoted himself to the cause of economic justice. Jones explores King’s last year, during which he organized the Poor People’s Campaign and supported the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. Jones also looks at the firestorm of upheaval that followed King’s assassination.

Joel Geier writes that the unfolding recession goes beyond the normal boom-bust cycle—it is part of a deeper financial crisis brought on by contradictions that have their roots in neoliberalism. Along with this, he argues, comes a deepening crisis of the neoliberal model—though there is yet no alternative ideology or economic strategy to replace it.

Lance Selfa argues that the 2008 elections could mark a turning point in official politics, a changing of the guard between conservatives and liberals. Kevin Phillips once wrote, “Part of the reason that U.S. ‘survival of the fittest’ periods of economic restructuring are so relentless rests on the performance of the Democrats as history’s second-most enthusiastic capitalist party. They do not interfere much with capitalist momentum, but wait for excesses and the inevitable populist reaction.”

We are now witnessing a populist reaction. If in 2004 voters were willing to vote for “Anybody But Bush,” in 2008 there is positive enthusiasm for the Democratic candidates. Barack Obama in particular has tapped into popular revulsion over the war in Iraq, corporate greed, corruption, and incompetence. As we approach the end of the primary phase, the candidates, Obama and Hillary Clinton, are engaged in egging each other to the left—a process that is raising expectations among ordinary people that they can and should expect something for the first time in many years. These yearnings for change, though they may at first raise some illusions in the Democratic Party’s ability and commitment to deliver, and though they start from expectations that have been driven quite low by years of right-wing ascendancy, are a very positive development for the Left. The fact that a woman or an African American may be president of the United States, moreover, is a new and unprecedented development reflecting important shifts in popular consciousness.

Yet we must draw a distinction between what the Democrats are saying now and what they will do in office. The Democrat who takes the White House will be expected by its ruling-class backers to restore confidence in U.S. imperialism abroad and find ways to sell austerity measures to restore profitability, which may leave little room for far-reaching popular reforms.

In his analysis of the state of the immigrant rights movement, Sean Harkin notes that the immediate effects of the election will be to put a damper on struggle—the predictable impact of an election year. Though the Democrats in Congress have followed their more traditional pattern of pandering to the Right on the question of “enforcement,” there is still strong pressure to put a Democrat in the White House among immigrant rights supporters. Harkin notes, however, that the grass-roots movement has neither played itself out nor has it disappeared.

Arundhati Roy’s Istanbul speech discusses the questions of genocide and extermination, their connection to the profit system, and the right of ordinary people to resist.

Amy Muldoon brings to life the great classic of Marxist literature, Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, on the occasion of the publication of a new edition by Haymarket Books.

Phil Gasper explains that while there is a determinist element in Marxism, it leaves wide scope for human agency.

Finally, we are pleased to also publish a speech at the University of Vermont by William Blum, author of Rogue State. Among the gems in his speech are, “The United States is in fact an equal-opportunity bomber. There are only two qualifications for a country to become an American bombing target: (1) it poses some sort of obstacle to the desires of the empire; and (2) it is virtually defenseless against aerial attack.”