Transformative Politics and Planetary Care from Below
By Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams
The left has struggled to inspire a practical challenge to the planetary crisis of capitalism. This crisis has upended both nature and society. As a result, existing political responses have fallen short.
This book maps a new transformative politics. It emerges from worker cooperative systems that advance planetary care from below. These systems also have the potential to undermine the capitalist status quo. This intervention is developed most fully in Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy.
A new transformative politics grounded in worker cooperative systems
Capitalism’s crisis is planetary in scope. It is a system that disrupts nature and society alike. Consequently, many people live and work in conditions of despair. To date, the left has remained unable to offer a practical challenge to this reality.
In Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy, Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams respond directly to this impasse. They map a new transformative politics grounded in worker cooperative systems. These systems advance planetary care from below. They also present a credible challenge to the capitalist status quo.
The book draws on extensive research conducted across 15 countries. Based on this work, the authors examine detailed case studies. These cases explore transformative approaches to social reproduction. They also address public power, protection of nature, and territorial expansion.
Importantly, these approaches develop in opposition to global hegemonic power. At the same time, Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy uncovers the power of solidarities. These solidarities help generate emancipatory and utopian imaginaries. They do so across both the global north and the global south.
Satgar and Williams further show how people are experimenting with deep democracy. They do so despite considerable structural constraints. In parallel, people are building systems of care to live differently. These practices offer pathways to exit the planetary crisis. In this way, Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy demonstrates how alternatives already exist in practice, not only in theory.
About the authors
Vishwas Satgar is Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He is also the editor of the Democratic Marxism series. In addition, he serves as the principal investigator for the Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene project.
Michelle Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She has co-edited several volumes in the Democratic Marxism series with Vishwas Satgar. Her publications include Building Alternatives: The Story of India’s Oldest Worker-Owner Cooperative.
- Publisher | Wits University Press |
- ISBN | 9781776149841 |
- Recommended Price | R380.00 |
- Subject | Political Structures: Democracy |
For more information | Corina van der Spoel | +27 (0)11 717 8705/8700 | mail me |
