ABSTRACT
Money-free economies are a necessary – even if not sufficient – basis for establishing ecosocialism so that freely associated producers can produce to satisfy everyone’s basic needs while taking account of ecological limits. This chapter briefly outlines contemporary economic and environmental challenges, such as vast socio-political and economic inequalities and a global lack of sustainability increasingly couched in terms of emergencies and extinctions, including of humans. Fatal weaknesses of monetary economies that flourish within capitalism are identified. A vision of how such a nonmonetary ecosocialism might operate is outlined. Practical movements already oriented towards money-free societies are discussed. This underdeveloped area of thought and study might well be constituted in future as “real value studies” – building on certain nonmarket socialist thought. Money-free economies allow for the centrality of ecological, social, and humane values, enabling local people to establish direct and participatory decision-making over production on the basis of their real needs.
