Worker co-operatives

"Workers’ co-ops are often seen as hotbeds of radical, anti-capitalist thought. Images of hippies, earnest vegetarians or executives in blue overalls could not, however, be further from reality. “We are private companies that work in the same market as everybody else,” says Mikel Zabala, Mondragón’s human-resources chief. “We are exposed to the same conditions as our competitors.”.."

There are a number of ageing hippies and vegetarians who are members of the Socialist Party, but we have to agree here with The Economist and Mikel Zabala! Socialists know that some supporters of capitalism are also supporters of co-operatives. They see them as a way of mitigating the class struggle and persuading workers that they have an interest in accepting ‘realistic’ (i.e. lower) wages. However, co-operatives do not give workers security of employment or free them from exploitation.
Socialists also know that co-operatives cannot be used as a means for establishing socialism. As long as the capitalist class control political power, which they will be able to continue to do for as long as there is a majority of non-socialists, capitalist economic relations (commodity production, wage labour, production for profit, etc.) will be bound to prevail and these will control the destiny of co-operatives. Co-operatives usually only flourish to the extent that they can be successfully accommodated within capitalism. They are not "little islands of socialism" as socialism means common ownership and free access to everything that is produced. Such a social system does not exist in the Mondragon co-operatives or anywhere else in the world.