WORKER COOPERATIVES AND DEEP DEMOCRACY, transformative politics and planetary care from below

278pp., paperback, First SA Edition, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2025

ISBN: 9781776149841

First published in the UK in 2025.

This book maps a new transformative politics arising from collectively owned and managed solidarity economy cooperative systems that advance planetary care and have the potential to undermine capitalism.

Examining case studies across 15 countries, the authors demonstrate how people in the global north and south are building alternative systems of care that seed a future beyond our current polycrisis.

"This book is the brilliant light and the compass we need, not just to save the planet but to make the world anew." Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams

"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." Kohei Sito, author of Marx in the Anthropocene

Vishwas Satgar is Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand. 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. 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.