Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy: The Commons and Transformative Politics in the Age of Planetary Crisis

By Michelle Williams and Vishwas Satgar

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 inspiring 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 over a decade of research across 15 countries, the authors examine case studies that explore transformative approaches to social reproduction, public power, nature, and territorial expansion in opposition to global hegemonic power. They also uncover the power of solidarities engendering emancipatory, utopian imaginaries in the global north and south.

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

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745351573
• ISBN13: 9780745351575
• Release Date: December 2025
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 272 Pages