Substantive Proposals for Seattle

[Deborah Groban Olson <dgo@esoplaw.com>]

Dear Mike:

        This is in response to an email forwarded to me by the National Lawyer's
Guild Labor Committee, of which I am a member, dated 8/19/99 regarding
shutting down Seattle.  I am an attorney who specializes in employee
ownership and capital strategies for labor. I am the chair and project
coordinator for the Capital Ownership Group (COG), a global network of
employee owners, attorneys, financial and other professionals who create
employee ownership, labor leaders, community organizers, religious leaders
and other activists interested in using broadened ownership to help deal
with the negative effects of globalization. 

        We have created a virtual think tank, open the public, to develop 
capital
broadening policy proposals and implementation stragegies. We collect data
on best practices in employee ownership which we share with our colleagues
worldwide. Our web site (virtual think tank) has five formal policy
discussion groups and several informal discussions, including groups from
India, Europe and Mexico working on related issues. 

        One of the discussions I chair is the "Industrial Homestead Policy" 
group.
 That group is discussing several proposals related to the WTO. In various
ways they all deal with requiring corporations to distribute ownership to
employees, local communities and/or the general public in exchange for
benefits they get from either trade agreements or governments.  We invite
participation from others who are interested in serious discussion about
creating proposals, implementation strategies and vehicles. We would be
happy to participate in a teach-in or other events in Seattle. However, our
primary concern is to develop an ongoing coalition to create a viable
alternative to the WTO model that meets the needs of people in the
developing and the developed world. We want to create policy proposals
around which people's organizations can coalese and organize.

        Please visit our website http://cog.kent.edu to get a better idea of who
we are.  I specifically request that you join our Industrial Homestead
discussion. Most of the WTO related stuff has not yet been distributed, as
I am working on it this week.  I have the UAW petition to the WTO, the
CFED/Georgetown Law Center analysis "International Investor Rights and
Local Economic Development" and an Australian proposal on a Community
Investment Code  which I am trying to co-ordinate with proposals for a US
Constitiutional amendment requiring a quid pro quo to the commonweal for
any government largesse to businesses. 

        I am very excited about the coalition you are organizing, and would like
to work with that coalition on a long range basis to develop a strategic
approach for people's organizations to deal with globalization.  Not only
do we need concrete demands of or to the WTO and related governments. We
need sound alternative proposals for creating global rules. 

        The MAI, NAFTA and the new agreements to be negotiated by WTO or OECD 
are
very similar in global scope to what the Interstate Commerce Clause was for
the creation of the United States.  However, there is no corresponding
international constitution with a bill of rights being negotiated .  

        If the 8/19 article is correct, you are trying to unify the protest in
Seattle around a demand that the trade ministers take stock of the effects
of existing trade agreements. That is a worthy goal, but I hope the
unifying demand can be more pro-active. I would like the coalition to have
a concrete set of demands dealing with dispersion of capital ownership and
capital credit in addition to labor rights and, evironmental protections.
Furthermore, if there is to be a group creating the global equivalent of
the Interstate Commerce Clause, then there ought to be the equivalent of a
constitutional convention occuring along with it. What is the role of the
UN in this process? What should its role be? What is the UN Commission on
Trade and Economic Development's role?

        I look forward to working with you and the coalition.

        Please forward this message to other appropriate people.

Sincerely, 
Deb Olson


Deborah Groban Olson
Project Co-ordinator
Capital Ownership Group Project
Ohio Employee Ownership Center
Kent State University
3163 Penobscot Building 
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 331-7821 or (313) 964-2460
(f) (313) 331-2567
email: dgo@esoplaw.com
web site: http://cog.kent.edu