Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy

Vishwas Satgar is Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism series, Principal Investigator for Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene and a veteran activist. He has worked extensively on post-apartheid cooperative development in township communities and has co-founded the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign and Climate Justice Charter Movement. He is the author of A Love Letter to the Many – Arguments for Transformative Left Politics in South Africa.Michelle Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her research focuses on democracy, transformative projects, alternative development and women's participation in political and economic spaces. She is the co-author (with Thomas Isaac) of India, Building Alternatives: the Story of India’s Oldest Worker Cooperative, and the co-editor (with Vishwas Satgar) of Destroying Democracy: Neoliberal Capitalism and the Rise of Authoritarian Politics.

'In a world spiraling through climate breakdown and extreme inequality, this book reveals how communities are already building real alternatives from below. From Kerala to Mondragón, these stories of solidarity, commons, and planetary care show that another post-capitalist future is not just possible, it’s happening'

• IntroductionPart I: Beyond the Planterary Polycrisis1. The Planetary Polycrisis of Socio-ecological Reproduction and the Challenge of Commons Ontology2. The Rise of Transformative Politics and Planetary Care from Below3. Cooperatives and Transformative ChangePart II: Worker Cooperatives and Solidarity Economies as Counterhegemonic Regimes of Socio-ecological Reproduction5. Integrating Socio-Ecological Reproduction: ULCCS in Kerala, Chilavert in Argentina and Uniforja in Brazil6. Recalibrating Relations with Nature: Cecosesola in Venezuela, Heiveld in South Africa and Trentino in Italy6. Engaging Political Power and Creating Solidarities: Mondragón in Spain, State-Civil Society Synergies in Kerala and the Solidarity Economy Forum in BrazilConclusion: Transformative Alternatives in the Age of Planetary Crisis