VAV lenge me face in quasi-etymological re-establishing a which does not exist anywhere socialist project and a uto- at present. pian perspective, with the If we want our answer to be credibility and social weight credible, we must explain what the transformation of soci- how it differs from a more huety? man face of capitalism or the Marx and Engels lived pseudo 'actually existing sociallat a time when the ism', why it is worth risking our I problem of a utopia lives in this struggle. appeared an anachronism: for We have to give an explanathem the most important ques- tion to our militants, to workers, tion was to develop the contra- women, youth. Without revoludictions within capitalism, the tionary utopianism there will class struggle. not be a revolution in practice.
That remains true. But today We need to go much further we are no longer in a situation along this road. where we can say 'we don't Obviously we don't start from know what socialism will look like'. We can't maintain this atti- knowledge accumulated by tude in the face of the terrible Marxism itself which we need to burden of 70 years of 'actually existing socialism'. cal experiences with all their limits and mistakes, with all our 1' The credibility of the socialist project demands of us the pro- discussions about the nature of duction of an attractive vision of socialism, explaining that it has sition to socialism, etc. nothing to do with the so-called But we must be open and pre'actually existing socialism'. pared to learn from others such To return to Ernest Bloch, today scientific socialism has also socialists, and anarchists. They have ideas and experiences which are important for the discussion about the kind of socialism we want.
We have to relate to these ideas, as well as new problems that arise, such as ecological questions and feminism.
We need to start to elaborate -whether in a programmatic or a literary form - thoughts, reflecscratch. There is a wealth of |tions, projections, dreams made reality, as Bloch says; what a problem is how to abandon an socialist future would be. established viewpoint. and try It is important in this rediscov- to see things from a different ery of the utopian dimension of point of view. And, finally, we some Marxist ideas; for exam- must recognise that we don't ple, in what way will produc have answers for everything, tion under socialism be for use on some questions we are just values and not exchange val- fumbling around in the darkues; this is an idea with tremenCoN. dous utopian potential • Michael Löwy was interWhat does this mean for pro- viewed by the editorial tearn duction, for consumption? The I of Em Tempo (Brazil).