Worker Cooperatives

Firms owned and directed by their workers — Wolff’s “worker self-directed enterprises,” the centerpiece of his 21st-century socialism.

Definition

Enterprises where workers collectively make the decisions owners/boards make in conventional firms. Richard Wolff argues this — not state ownership — is the corrected socialist project: democratize production itself. Proof of concept: Mondragón (founded 1956, 100,000+ workers, seventh-largest Spanish corporation). The striking feature of the Soho Forum debate: the libertarian agrees co-ops are welcome under capitalism — the fight is only over whether state power (socialized banking, labor allocation) should finance them.

Key Properties

• Epstein’s challenge: nothing stops workers building them now (union pension funds hold ~$1T domestically); the fact they rarely form voluntarily is itself evidence.
• Historical caution from the genealogy: Yugoslav self-management under-invested and under-hired; kibbutzim dissolved.
• The narrow live question: voluntary sector within capitalism vs. state-financed replacement of it.

Examples from Sources

Related

Concepts: Socialism, Democratic Socialism Entities: Richard Wolff Debates: Does socialism work economically?