Worker Cooperatives—Panacea or Radical Enterprise?

The role of the ‘new wave’ of worker cooperatives that have grown up in the United Kingdom as part of alternative local economic strategies is examined. It is argued that unlike conventional national and local policies to deal with economic demise—which have only been responsive to the requirements of capital—cooperatives are able to deal with the problems of specific groups; for example, black people, women, the young, and the long-term unemployed. However, it is dangerous for cooperatives to be adopted as a panacea without attention being paid to the way in which they could easily become a part of Mrs Thatcher's government's emphasis on enterprise and individual initiative.