What will things be like when we have socialism? Will socialism be more democratic than capitalism? What will we have to do for the working class, the majority in society, to take political and economic power? How will a socialist revolution be spread to other countries? How can we ensure that production for profit is replaced by production for need? Will we be able to put an end to the oppression of women, to homophobia and to racism? These are some of the essential questions that socialists must answer.
Marx opposed laying down blueprints for the future. For at the heart of socialism is Marx's famous statement that "the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class itself". From this it follows that the critical decisions about the shape of a socialist society will be made, not by a few people, or by a political party or revolutionary socialists, but by the mass of the working class after it has taken control of society.
We can, however, describe the essential features of such a society. We can see some of the possibilities for human development which would open up once we had got rid of capitalism.
This pamphlet draws on the basic ideas of Marxism and the experience of workers' revolutions in the past century to reveal a vision of the future socialist society, a vision that is essential for the struggle we wage against capitalism today.