[lbo-talk] not theory

[Carrol Cox]

Shag: "When I taught social theory, I included a discussion of Alain
Touraine's work. This was an approach to theory building where the
"theorists" were *in* the movement, but also took the role on of "analyzing"
what was going on. They'd mirror back to folks what they saw going on in the
way a good meeting facilitator might do. The idea is that the "theory" is a
little bit like the relationship between analyst and analysand - and there
are a bunch of books/essays out there about that as the role of "theory" in
social movements. (Friere,
etc.)"

This is what I mean by raising practice to the level of theory. As I
understand Lih's account of Lenin's politics, 1898-1910 this was what Lenin
meant by endlessly proclaiming that the Party was failing the workers. The
workers  on their own were blazing a revolutionary trail in their
revolutionary practice. But they needed to have that practice mirrored back
to them: it was the Party's duty to abstract from the vanguard practice of
the workers (sometimes labelled "spontaneous") and give back to the workers
this theoretical expression of their action, thus raising that action itself
to a higher level, calling for new levels of theory.  In mass struggle at
least practice is always a bit ahead of theory, but becomes bogged down
unless theory 'catches' up.

Carrol