The left has been unable to inspire a practical challenge to the planetary crisis of capitalism that has upended nature and society. This book maps a new transformative politics arising from worker cooperative systems that advance planetary care from below and have the potential to undermine the capitalist status quo.

Capitalism’s crisis is planetary. It is a system upending nature and society, causing many to live and work in despair. So far, the left has been incapable of offering a practical challenge to it. In Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy, Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams map a new transformative politics arising from inspiring worker cooperative systems that advance planetary care from below and that have the potential to undermine the capitalist status quo.

Based on extensive research across 15 countries, the authors examine case studies that explore transformative approaches to social reproduction, public power, protection of nature, and territorial expansion in opposition to global hegemonic power. They also uncover the power of solidarities to engender emancipatory, utopian imaginaries in the global north and south.

Satgar and Williams show how, against all odds, people are experimenting with deep democracy and building systems of care in order to live differently and exit the planetary crisis.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Vishwas Satgar is Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism series and is the principal investigator for the Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene project.

Michelle Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has co-edited with Vishwas Satgar various volumes in the Democratic Marxism series. Her publications include Building Alternatives: The Story of India’s Oldest Worker Owner Cooperative.

'Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy: Transformative Politics and Planetary Care from Below' is published by Wits University Press. 

Buy the book here.