I did see a user on a Reddit communism community arguing in a thread about co-ops vs. communism that while worker co-ops aren’t an alternative to communism, they can very well cause or strengthen support for communism as they provide the proletariat that are still under capitalism a taste of collective ownership of the means of production, and shows them living examples that it can totally work, and so communists shouldn’t denounce it.
What are your thoughts? Anyone know more about the theory behind this or can link to resources? If this is the case, should communists support worker co-ops in capitalist countries?
Worker co-ops on their own aren’t really good for changing the system. However, worker co-ops with class consciousness could be useful to support and supply revolution in the same way the Soviets were bases of revolution in the Russian Empire. It’s sort of like unionism. A union on its own isn’t necessarily a revolutionary body, but it can be with proper class consciousness and a revolutionary leadership and membership.
What do you mean by class consciousness?
As in co-ops run by a working class that is aware of its position in society and the material reasons as to why it occupies that position and how to change it
Thanks for explaining that!