On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, graeme imray wrote:

> Please forgive this intrusion from the UK
>
> You may or may not know that for the past 22 months there has been a
> lockout of approximately 500 dockers in the Port of Liverpool. I belong to
> the Liverpool Dockers support group and we organised a showing of Chomsky's
> 'Manufacturing Consent' to some of the dockers, Women of the Waterfront and
> others.
>
> Afterwards, a wish was expressed that we should get in touch to further our
> understanding. Since I am connected to the Net, I undertook to subscribe to
> this list as a way of doing this. I did this about 3 weeks ago.
>
> My problem is I cannot make sense of the argument / discussion you are
> having in order to take it back to the supporters group. If someone would
> be kind enough to tell me why it matters if 'intellectual property' differs
> from any other kind of property in a capitalist society, or if there is a
> crisis of over production/ underconsumption and how either of these relate
> to any of Chomsky's ideas I would be very grateful.
>
> I have no wish to denigrate anybody's contributions, but I need a simple
> and clear proposition/argument to take back to our meeting so we can a have
> a discussion for ourselves.
>
> Thanks
>
> Gra
>
Dear Gra,

Thanks for one of the better posts to this list in some time. If you're
looking for specific insights or ideas that can be applied to improving
the lot of working people, the pickings on this list are depressingly
slim. Some of what goes on here is interesting, but usually in a purely
intellectual/theoretical sort of way. Some of the posts are pretty
thoughtful, too many aren't. What you see posted here is by no means a
good source for understanding Chomsky--I've read his political stuff
in depth, and it's only occasionally dealt with here. You're not alone in
missing the connection between the intellectual property argument and
the ideas expressed in "Manufacturing Consent", etc.

Check out Z magazine and South End Press as a good start more Chomskian
inspiration:  www.lbbs.org

I do know that when Noam Chomsky is asked for a specific program, he often
expresses frustration. He's very resistant to the notion that
intellectuals should lead workers or social movements, for good reason,
given the track record of intellectuals as either serving established
power (as in the US/UK) or seeking that power for themselves (e.g.
Bolshevism). I think his goal is to goad people into thinking, and
ultimately acting for themselves.

Solidarity

Bob Goodby