you write about WSDE,s are they different from a collective worker cooperative, and if so how?

you write about WSDE,s are they different from a collective worker cooperative, and if so how? Also your book does not advocate for traditional worker cooperatives, (Example; board of directors that may or may not be members of the worker coop it serves) yet the democracy at work website does advocate for all types of worker cooperatives, democratic work places and/or collective cooperatives. Is that a correct assumption?

Official response from Richard Wolff submitted

I am not familiar with the term "collective worker cooperative." If it is meant to cover a worker coop that runs democratically - where the key decisions about the enterprise like what, how and where to produce and what to do with the profits are made on the principle of one employee, one vote and majority rules - then it is pretty much the same as a WSDE. However, the WSDE we advocate would not have people on the board of directors who were not also employees just as it would not have employees who were not part of the democratic governance of the enterprise. Yes our website is friendly and solidaristic with all cooperatives (consumer, owner, sales coops and so on) but that is because we see them as steps in the right direction, but not as substitutes for what is most important to us, namely the transition from tom-down, hierarchical capitalist enterprises to worker coops as the basis for a democratized economy.

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Judith Turner commented 2017-03-08 14:32:33 -0500
In reading up on worker coops, I read that when all members of a worker coop all sit on the board, it is commonly referred to as a collective. (That is what I meant by my not so clear “worker coop collective” ) If it is a somewhat larger company the worker coop elects a board that may or may not be composed of member’s. Although not common, a case in point, to bring in a certain experience to the board without needing them to be a member of the coop, however , members always maintain control over who may sit on the board . That is the distinction I was getting at
Richard Wolff responded with submitted 2017-03-07 12:36:10 -0500
Judith Turner published this page in Ask Prof. Wolff 2017-03-06 21:11:15 -0500