“…However, while collectives and cooperatives illustrate that resisting capitalist exploitation is not impossible – that corporate fundamentalism is not absolute – we must avoid treating these alternatives as anticapitalist strategies par excellence . 12 The existence of worker collectives does not negate the fact that, like capitalist enterprises, they must use a portion of their surplus values to make payments that secure the conditions of their existence (Roberts, 2011; Ruccio, 2011a), including payments to enterprises which still function as a ‘capitalist appropriator’ (Roberts, 2011: 246). What is more, Kasmir’s research on the Mondragon collective in the Basque region of Spain, which originated from a cooperative factory in 1956 and today includes thousands working in an ‘industrial complex’ (Kasmir, 1999: 384), suggests that workers were no more satisfied with their working conditions than when they were employed by private enterprises; that workers lacked the skills and knowledge to realize their democratic rights (1999: 389); and that workers were disillusioned with the collective’s investment in foreign capitalist firms (Kasmir, 1996, cited in Healy, 2011).…”