No Bosses
by Michael Albert

Providing hope and direction to sustain commitment on the path to change, No Bosses is about winning a new world.

Life under capitalism. Rampant debilitating denial for the many next to vile enrichment of the few. Material deprivation, denial, and denigration. Dignity defiled.

Michael Albert's book No Bosses advocates for the conception and then organization of a new economy. The vision offered is called participatory economics. It elevates self-management, equity, solidarity, diversity, and sustainability. It eliminates elitist, arrogant, dismissive, authoritarian, exploitation, competition, and homogenization.

No Bosses proposes a built and natural productive commons, self-management by all who work, income for how long, how hard, and the onerousness of conditions of socially valued work, jobs that give all economic actors comparable means and inclination to participate in decisions that affect them, and a process called participatory planning in which caring behavior and solidarity are the currency of collective and individual success.

Reviews:
Read No Bosses and you will be changed. Read it and you will have hope. Read it and you will want to live in a Parsoc world. Read it and you will ask yourself, why aren’t we doing this already? ~ Bridget Meehan, The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability

Unlike many of the more pretentious offerings of leading left thinkers, Albert’s general approach to discussing economic justice has great commonsense appeal. This comes as a much-needed breath of fresh air for those who are sick of the more pompous intellectual tendencies on the left. This is not to say that the book is in any way anti-intellectual. On the contrary, it is full of great ideas and practicable solutions to real-world problems. ~ Mark Evans, Common Dreams

A prime goal of Albert’s work is to help to reinvigorate that common understanding and to revive the commitment to mutual aid and solidarity, and most important, to spell out in some detail how the goals can be realized. ~ Noam Chomsky

'No bosses’ means that no one tells anyone what to do from above, not owners or commissars. “But, how do things get done?”, comes the inevitable question. To answer it, Michael begins analytically, methodically, by first answering the question “How should things not get done?” ~ Yanis Varoufakis

Michael Albert’s No Bossesis easy reading, thanks to his unique folksy style, but heavy thinking. Be ready to challenge your own narrow view of “the possible.” I recommend that after every sentence, paragraph or chapter that has you saying, “Nice idea but it just won’t work,” remind yourself that the present system doesn’t work (unless, of course, you think Jeff Bezos’s deserves to make $10 million an hour and the climate crisis is not an existential threat.) So read it with delight at the creative ways we can organize—asap—to sweep Mr. Moneybags into the dustbin of history and create the new equitable, participatory, empowering and sustainable world that we want to live in. ~ Medea Benjamin, author and cofounder of CODEPINK.

What I love about Michael Albert's works is that they are about vision and about the possible. He does not argue whether the future that he proposes is probable, but rather insists that it is necessary. His latest book A New Economy for a New Worker accomplishes just that and is a delight to read."--Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided; author of "They're Bankrupting Us" - And Twenty other myths about unions; former president of TransAfrica Forum. ~ Bill Fletcher

Tired of working for a boss but don't want just to trade your boss for a new boss? Tired of living in a system run by bosses but don't want to swap it for a system run by other bosses? Take a look at Michael Albert's NO BOSSES: A NEW ECONOMY FOR A BETTER WORLD. You'll have a hard time finding a better guide to moving from capitalism to a genuinely free, equal, and participatory economy. ~ Jeremy Brecher

Michael Albert has the courage and the background to propose solutions to the multitude of our social problems in his new book “A New Economy for a Better World”. Also, he has the life-experience to suggest: “Don’t just cling and curse. Swim.” For this he uses one of the most important words in our social vocabulary: “Resist”! Resistance in essence is a moral act. Also, we do not resist alone. We resist together with our neighbour, or as he puts it “all people share responsibilities”. - Nikos Raptis, Civil Engineer (retired), and writer. He lives in Athens, Greece. ~ Nikos Raptis Y

The collapse of socialist and Soviet-type experiments became a heavy burden for post-capitalist perspectives precisely at a time when they are most needed. Michael Albert has devoted his life to re-creating visions and a strategy towards a better future. No Bosses, A New Economy for a Better World offers a refined, compelling argument in favor of a non-capitalist, participatory economics. His vision is of utmost importance for people and social movements struggling for a better world. ~ Ezequiel Adamovsky

Michael Albert firmly rejects capitalism, often through bluntly questioning its basic tenets. Why should people who already have so much be entitled to get more? Why not admire and pursue excellence and expertise without rewarding it with undue material wealth or social power? The arguments in No Bossesgo well beyond iconoclasm. Seriously and carefully, Albert aims to create a framework, a “scaffold,” for a worthy economic plan. Building on three decades of research, he describes participatory economics with enjoyable candor, raising as many questions as he answers and inviting readers to set cynicism aside. My advice: equip yourself with a big “Why not?” and give this vision plenty of attention. –Kathy Kelly, activist and author of “Other Lands Have Dreams, from Baghdad to Pekin Prison” ~ Kathy Kelly

After Sanders and Black Lives Matter, amidst COVID and Global Warming, many ask what’s next? Michael Albert’s new book, “No Bosses,” proposes an answer for economics from self managed decision making to balanced work and from equitable incomes to ending class division. “No Bosses”should be widely read as we assess the way forward in this unprecedented moment in the history of this nation. — Dr. Ron Daniels, Social and Political Activist, President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century ~ Ron Daniels