What Might Socialism Look Like?

Abstract

One current slogan is ‘Another world is possible’, but Marxists have written relatively little about what this new world might look like. Marx himself shied away from this topic as leading to utopias delivered by top-down saviors, whereas his vision of socialism would be built by the victorious working class in line with its needs and desires. This article, on the other hand, takes a different approach. It discusses objections people have to seeing socialism as possible, rooting this discussion not in a utopian vision but rather in thinking through the problems and struggles the working class will face when and if it succeeds in becoming the revolutionary-democratic rulers of the world. I think readers will agree that this is a vision of continued struggle – but also of a much better world to live in.