World communism, also known as international communism or global communism, is a form of communism that involves international scope. The long-term goal of world communism is a worldwide communist society that is stateless (lacking any state), which may be achieved through an intermediate-term goal of either a voluntary association of sovereign states (a global alliance) or a world government (a single worldwide state). A series of internationals have worked toward world communism; they have included the First International, the Second International, the Third International (the Communist International or Comintern), the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the World Socialist Movement, and variant offshoots. These are a quite heterogeneous group despite their common ultimate goal of a stateless and global communist society.