Since this is 2012, International Year of the Co-operatives, another view on the co-operative movement. This time from Workers Solidarity Movement:
Workers’
co-operatives have always been championed by sections of the left and
wider labour movement - from their advocacy by 19th century Welsh
social reformer and utopian socialist Robert Owens to Proudhon
through to their existence in various state capitalist countries
today such as Cuba. While workers’ co-operatives can provide a
small example of anarchist ideas based on self-management, direct
democracy and mutual aid in action, we should not be blinded by their
contradictions and should query their effectiveness as a strategy for
real revolutionary transformation.
