Re: Actually...

No state, no government, no bureaucrats? What you are describing, Dissy, sounds more like Anarchism to me rather than a form of socialism. In fact, real anarchists tend to harbour animosity towards those who calls themselves "socialists".

Anarchism is similar in some ways to socialism, but it differs in that it insists that NO form of government exists. Socialists, on the other hand, DO believe in having a form of government, specifically an industrial democracy. It's not comprised of politicians but of labor unions run exclusively by workers; all managers and supervisors would be elected by the workers under socialism, and they would be allowed to call a new election anytime some of these managers ceased doing their jobs officially or didn't see to the workers concerned. These labor unions wouldn't compete against each other but each would represent a different area of work (public service, food production, construction, mining, etc.). This form of socialist industrial unionism was formulated by Daniel De Leon and is often referred to as De Leonism. This is how socialism differs from anarchism. I never said there would be no form of government at all...I simply said it wouldn't be a POLITICAL government run by politicians but an INDUSTRIAL government run by workers.

Also, if there is absolutely no political infrastructure, how would we defend ourselves from invaders?

Socialism would not, and could not, exist in a world that was still seperated by different, competing countries with different, competing political states. The entire world would be a cooperative institution of labor unions that would work to produce according to people's needs and wants rather than for the profit of the few. As a result, there would be no competing nations with different ruling classes who would vie with each other for control of the world's resources, which is the major cause of war in today's world. There would be no need for war under socialism, and thus no need for any nation to have a professional military (it's possible that once humanity begins traveling in space, there will be some need for a military that exists soley to protect humanity from whatever threat it may face in space, but this is looking very far ahead).