“It is foolish to think that

“It is foolish to think that the socialist party is the source of revolutionary consciousness. It is equally foolish to think that these ‘Occupy’ camps will automatically lead to an upsurge in socialist understanding.”I’m glad you stand against the first foolishness. As for the second, I don’t know anyone who belives that anything in social life happens “automatically”, so I’m not sure who it’s aimed at.”As I said before consciousness is an expression of material circumstances. Therefore, there is as much to gain (in fact more) by communicating with people who are not involved in these camps as there is with those that are. Our gaze should be on the population as a whole not just a tiny minority who are making the most noise at the minute.”Obviously true, I hear it all the time at the camps. What do you think they’re doing there if not trying, with a great deal more success than we have ever had, to reach out to the rest of the population?”As a group of proles (and some capitalists) who have come to the conclusion that the market system is the root cause and / or an obstacle to the solution of social problems today; we can help ourselves and others who have came to a similar position to clarify their ideas, and so push the direction further. In fact this is the only thing we can do.”I hope you’re right and that Socialist Party members are truly interested in clarifying their confused ideas and in pushing things on. There is some evidence for this, and it is indeed a good thing. As for “this is the only thing we can do”, that is so obviously wrong I don’t know how to answer it. We can do all sorts of things.<<What in practical terms does ‘solidarity with working class struggles’ actually mean in concrete terms, in terms of action? In reality not much I feel.>>Chomsky gets asked this all the time, and it’s an extraordinary question to ask, a sign of decades of defeat and powerlessness I suppose. What we can do to promote solidarity with working class struggles is something we have to ask ourselves all the time (that is, if we are genuine socialists, if socialism really means anything), and answer honestly, and do what we can. As Chomsky says, while people in the West are asking him that, people in Latin America and other places with mass social and democratic movements instead *tell him what they are doing*. It’s time we followed the good example.<<By keeping alive the idea of a non-market post capitalist society we are acting in the interests of the whole of the proletariat, this is the most meaningful act of solidarity we can undertake.>>If it falls to a small group of elderly blokes to keep an idea alive, it’s already dead. You should blow out the candle and go home. Thankfully, as Occupy and other movements are showing, they’re not dead, they’re very much alive.<<In terms of action then, we should be doing anything and everything that makes our theories easier to be found by those who will know how to use them.>>You have a touching faith in the idea that “our theories” will be of any use to any bugger. I’m afraid it’s not a faith I share. It’s a peculiarly arrogant view when you compare what we have achieved in the past century with what Occupy Wall Street achieved in one month. It would be more fruitful by far if we studied their theories and actions, and figured out what we can learn from them.CheersStuart