Many movements, parties, and people throughout history have called themselves socialist. Socialism has come to be identified in the popular imagination with oppositional movements, welfare states, and even the totalitarian regimes of the former Eastern bloc. Alternatives to bottom-up international socialism have often presented themselves as easier or more realistic solutions to the horrors of capitalism. But for those fighting for a better world, we cannot afford to reduce socialism to apologizing for some regime, or a justification for the imperatives of the economy. Social democracy, brutal dictatorships, and other forms of “socialism” from above may appear to offer shortcuts, but have always ended up replicating the features of capitalism. This talk will make the case for socialism from below, the self-mobilization of masses of ordinary working people – as a world worth fighting for and the best means of winning it.