Numerous attempts have been made on a smaller scale to escape from this system by setting up a counter-system of living and working which uses no money, but they are no match for a system which is entrenched worldwide. When socialism is established, it will have to be on a worldwide basis, as an alternative to the outdated market system of world capitalism. In a socialist society there will be common ownership and democratic control of the earth by its inhabitants. No minority class will be in a position to dictate to the majority that production must be geared to profit. An economy in which people give according to their abilities and take according to their self-defined needs is the oldest form of human community.
Work is done on the basis of voluntary cooperation.
What is new about world socialism is that the whole earth forms a single large community made up of many networked local communities. In this society of common ownership and free access, the coercion of wage and salary work will be abolished. There will be no buying or selling and money will not be necessary. For the first time ever the people of the world will have common possession of the planet earth. Production will be solely for use, not for sale.