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. ---- Support for workers’ co-operatives
has always been a long standing feature of anarchism both as theory and in revolutionary
practice since its emergence within the workers’ movement.

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