Incessant propaganda endlessly blares “there is no alternative” to capitalism. But there is always an alternative. Humanity need not be condemned to sit by helplessly as an uncontrollable economic and political system spanning the world brings us devastating inequality, precarious jobs, life-threatening environmental destruction and global war. What Do We Need Bosses For? Toward Economic De-mocracy analyzes past and present efforts to establish systems of economic democracy on a national or society-wide basis, dissecting the mounting inequalities of capitalism and theorizing how we might organize a better world. Workers everywhere have repeatedly sought to create that better world, organizing to reverse their subordinate positions under capitalism and to take charge of their working lives and their workplaces through egalitarian movements that sought to build economies for everybody rather than for a minuscule capitalist elite. Political democracy is impossible without economic democracy. Economic democracy, in turn, is impossible under capitalism. As ever more people realize the present world system offers them nothing but more hardship, movements to create a better world inevitably will rise again. “Pete Dolack’s book is a powerful, in-depth and compassionate rendition of the search for and evaluation of economic democracy and workers’ control as prerequisites for political democracy. It is a thoroughly documented, yet readable, account of these movements in six country contexts that will deepen the reader’s understanding of the global struggle for authentic socialism.” ― Peter Ranis, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center, author of Cooperatives Confront Capitalism: Challenging the Neo-liberal Economy --Back cover blurb “What Do We Need Bosses For? is a comprehensive and prescient account and analysis of the enduring significance of economic democracy in the 21st century. Drawing from major labor struggles across the world, Pete Dolack tangibly exposes the important popular movements emerging in opposition to neoliberal capitalism. This book is a crucial contribution to the growing literature on democratic workers’ movements.” ― Immanuel Ness, City University of New York, series editor for the Pluto Press “Wildcat” series on international workers struggles9781570274152ISBN --Back cover blurb PETE DOLACK is an activist and writer who has organized with several groups working on human rights, environmental, trade and social issues, among them the No Spray Coalition, the Brooklyn Greens and Amnesty International, and, most recently, Trade Justice New York Metro. He is the author of the book It’s Not Over: Learning From the Socialist Experiment, a study of the 20th century’s experiments in socialism with an eye toward doing it better in the 21st century, and the pamphlet The Winners and Losers of Fascism, which examines the class nature of fascist régimes. He writes about the ongoing economic crisis and the political and environmental issues associated with it, on his Systemic Disorder blog, and for news sites such as CounterPunch (for which he is labor and economics columnist) and ZNet. His articles have been published in more than 40 publications around the world. He is also a former non-fiction editor for Mad Hatter’s Review.