RE: Access to Worker-Friendly Capital

[jdoggett <jdoggett@kent.edu>]

Located at the oeoc website is an article about the Manitoba fund.  (I am a 
little fuzzy on the specifics given that it has been some time since I read 
the article.)  The fund is based in Canada.  The concept behind the fund is to 
invest in those ventures that aid employees as owners.  The fund increased its 
own wealth, and the resulting wealth of employees/owners, substantially.

This might be a starting point.



At 06:03 PM 2/14/01 +0100, you wrote:
Both Joseph Doggett and David Erda refer to the overriding interest of
privatizing governments in the transitional economies to attract external
capital. That clearly is correct.  If you are selling off the 'family
silver' you certainly want to get the best price.

It is one of the main problems faced by unions in these circumstances.
Worker cooperatives smell of the 'communist' past, while dollars smell
nicely of the future.  The workers in these undertakings, by definition,
have few dollars.  Whenever I meet them they ask where they might find a
worker-friendly source of capital to help them bid for at least a decent
portion of their company.  Their wage rates and benefits are often so low
that the usual route of trading today's income for tomorrow's shares does
not work too well.

David hits the nail on the head with his call for an 'International
Mondragon Bank'.  Does anyone know of such a source?  If not, how might we
go about setting one up?  What elements would we need it to emphasise?

Vic Thorpe