>Yes, but with the major qualification that it would
>have to be a central planning without wage labor or
>the state, i.e. a sort of central planning that the
>really existing socialist countries never achieved
^^^^^^^
CB: In Marx's conception, communism comes in in two phases. In the first phase, there is still as state (democracy is a state; democracy is the working class as the ruling class), and it is still "to each according to work". In the second phase, the state has whithered away, and it is "to each according to need."
The second phase can't be achieved until there are no longer any capitalist states or imperialism left, because it is necessary to retain a state for protection from capitalist war and threat of war as long as there are capitalist state. Thus, all formerly, actually existing socialism retained a state (and pay according to work.)