Marxist-Humanist Initiative invites you to a discussion Thursday July 19 – 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.Is it true that “people are not ready for socialism”?Marxist-Humanist Initiative insists on discussing capitalism versus socialism, immediately and with everyone, at the same time as we support mass social movements. For this, the left calls us unrealistic. The general left view is that the masses of people are backward and must have their consciousness raised before they will be ready to talk about socialism. We see that view as a noose around the masses’ necks.At this discussion, we will break down and examine the theoretic underpinnings of the long-time assumption that the masses are backward, and we’ll look at the very real organizational consequences that follow, from vanguardism to certain strategies pursued within the Occupy movement. In contrast to the “backwardness” view, we’ll consider the meaning of recent events—from Arab Spring to strikes and struggles in China and the U.S., as that meaning illuminates the role of ideas in shaping people’s perspective of the future. If recent mass movements have not taken a social-revolutionary form, we suggest, it is because people are not certain that it is possible to get beyond bourgeois democracy or reformed capitalism. This uncertainty is the fault of the left, which has failed to account for the fates of the 20th century revolutions and failed to theorize how to uproot and replace capital.We will argue that working people, far from being “backward,” are searching for a liberating alternative to existing society, whether or not they call it socialism—and are demanding ideas about whether and how it is possible to get there. And we will argue that the left’s job is not to talk down to them, but to engage them in developing answers to the most important question of the day: what must be changed in order to uproot capitalism and begin a sustainable new way to work and live? At TRS Inc. Professional Suite, 44 East 32nd Street, 11th floor (bet. Madison and Park Aves.), Manhattan Contribution requested but not required. For more information, visit MHI’s website, www. marxist-humanist-initiative.org or call 1(888) 579-2245.