CB wrote: "...to paraphrase Marx or probably Carrol Cox, one actual action is worth a thousand perfect theoretical programs. They will learn from their mistakes. Practice will correct their theory."
FM: I'd like to echo what someone wrote on this list, perhaps Mr. Henwood, that activists tend to get burned out on constant action and not only need but want theory to reset and redirect their work. I appreciate the placement of practice over theory on this list. Yet practice over theory or even a dialectic between the two is also theory. No activist group or radical organization, in the name of action, does itself any favors by erecting barriers against new theoretical debates or worse objective facts that challenge their ideological foundations. You would think that a happy medium would be a communication between theory and practice but in my experience, and this is very subjective, the theorists I've encountered who have worked in tandem with activists in developing their work were good as sociologists and historians but not much else. Far more helpful and challenging were the theorists who worked on their ideas in a sphere of their own where theory took precedence over action. In any event, good luck to Wall Street occupiers on Saturday.