Economic-union Books

This final book by Lou Kelso and Patricia Hetter Kelso explains the first ESOP Lou created, in 1956, and how that experience can carry over to:

MUSOP (Mutual Stock Ownership Plan, a trust owning several small
businesses for the benefit of all their employees.) The costs of creating and administering an ESOP are usually far too great for smaller corporate business. The MUSOP would allow multiple businesses to share the costs.

CSOP (Consumer Stock Ownership Plan, a trust owning a business for the benefit of its customers.) Lou says that, after he created the first and only CSOP, for Valley Nitrogen Producers in 1963, its competitors lobbied Congress to prevent the creation of any more.

GSOP (General Stock Ownership Plan, for ownership of a business by all the citizens within a related geographic area.) Lou worked to have Congress pass the General Stock Ownership Corporation law of 1978. The Alaska state constitution had been amended in 1977 to have 25% of all the state's mineral rents and royalties placed in a permanent fund. Unlike the trust form of his other plans; the Alaska GSOP was to be a corporation which issued one share for each of its citizens. After a five-year escrow period, the shares would be owned directly by the individuals. However, Alaska chose to use a trust, managed by trustees appointed by its governor (www.apfc.org/fundlaw/ConstAndLaw.cfm.) That trust is one of the examples used for Peter Barnes proposal in his 2006 book, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. A 1972 effort for a similar fund in Puerto Rico had lost out in political battles.

ICOP (Individual Capital Ownership Plan, a trust through which individuals could borrow money to buy securities issued by small businesses.) The securities would be rated and the loans to purchase them would be insured to cover failure by the businesses.

COMCOP (Commercial Capital Ownership Plan, a trust to hold commercial real estate for the benefit of individual investors.)

PUBCOP (Public Capital Ownership Plan would provide insured loans to buy securities in corporations which owned privatized public facilities, like streets, schools, prisons, airports and transit systems.)

RECOP (Residential Capital Ownership Plan, which would combine insurance on home mortgage loans, to lower the interest rate, with tax deductions. The combination would reduce the amount necessary for loan payments.)

All of these purchases would be funded entirely by loans. Repayment of the
loans, except for home mortgage loans, would come from interest and dividends on the securities purchased. There would be insurance against the risk that this would not be enough to make the loan payments. This commercial insurance would be reinsured by the Capital Diffusion Reinsurance Corporation, to be established by the federal government. When the loans had been paid, by interest and dividend income from the purchased business, the individuals would get the right to vote their shares and receive the income directly.

The balance of this final book explains some of the theories behind Lou's programs and describes a changed role for labor unions in converting their members to capital owners.

This is a marvelous book. The nation's leading scholar on the Europpean Union, Professor Roy Ginsberg of Skidmore College, has filled in an enormous gap about what Americans do not know about the 27 member nation, European Union. The EU, as Professor Ginsberg sets out with great clarity, is one of the world's leading democratic organizations and a significant agency for peace. Professor Ginsberg carefully traces the history of the EU, describes in detail its various agencies, and balances it against our own United States government as well. Informed Americans should be aware of the EU, and its importance in the world. Professor Ginsberg shows us the way, brillantly, comphrensively and eloquently in this work. Jerome Wilson, Essex, CT

Kjell Torbiorn's book tells the big picture story of the development of post Second World War Europe and the European Union in a highly readable and clearly understandable way. The author's approach of setting-out the geo-political background and drivers to events in Europe is a big plus. This book is an excellent introduction to understanding how "Europe" got to where it is now and the key themes which are likely to shape it in the future.

This is a reprint of a 1956 English translation of the sparkling 1899 book by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the great revolutionary and founder of the Soviet State. The book is very easy to read for the Western reader who may be unfamiliar with all the names and events mentioned in the text. Progress Publishers, original publishers of the English translation copiously footnote and explain every name, event and foreign phrase which is used in the text. This makes for an easy and delightful read. This book is a must for the library of every student of Russian history.

The volume's 800 pages and CD-ROM database offer an unparalleled source of historical, multi-national, sectoral, and organization-level data, of critical importance for comparing European unions. While the title is "Trade Unions in Western Europe since 1945" the book's historical reach is much farther, with most country profiles beginning analysis of trade union movements in the late 1800s or before. The authors are to be commended for melding together analyses of social, political, and economic factors with great historical detail. After the historical profile, each country's data is presented in some twenty tables, including: political events, organizational changes, lists of unions/confederations, major dates (particularly foundings/cessations), size distributions, membership and density figures (also by gender), and membership by status group and domain and by economic sector and branch. The book and CD-ROM provide a remarkably comprehensive source for union data.

This book provides excellent coverage of recent developments in EU politics. The introduction is particularly worth reading as it gives a concise overview of the various schools of European studies - essential information for all those who do European studies and want to avoid falling into the trap of taking one author as knowing "the truth" about how the EU works.

In part 2 the political system of the EU is discussed in depth with references to recent changes and developments. Part 3 covers the main policy objectives of the Union (such as creating a European market or cohesion funds) while part 4 singles out important key issues (such as enlargement or European Monetary Union).

All in all this volume provides excellent and in-depth coverage of recent issues in the EU.

This book is by far the most in-depth and fresh look at regional trade in Southeast Asia. I was pleasantly surprised by the innovative perspective this author has on regional trade and have ordered several copies for my law firm. Highly recommended!!!

Cobble has written an invaluable history book about a large segment of the twentieth century workforce that would have otherwise been overlooked and forgotten. Waitresses have been ubiquitious and invisible at the same time. This book speaks to gender, class, ethnic, and work issues. It is written in a style that is informative AND interesting throughout. The historical research and organization of the book is superb. If you didn't know you were interested in this topic, the minute you start reading Cobble's book you will find out otherwise.

In this book Boris Kagarlitsky offers a trenchant analysis of the break-up of the Soviet Union and the transformation of a section of the old nomenklatura into a new possessing and ruling elite.

Kagarlitsky show that Western commentators have been misled by the street theatre of events like the bungled coup of August 1991 into supposing that a fundamental break has been made with the confused politics and economics of the late Soviet period. He analyses the ill-considered and self-interested attempts made by the nomenklatura to privatize assets and inaugurate a free-market economy, finding an essential continuity between the plans of Gorbachev's and Yeltsin's advisers. He reveals too, how the new Russian President has displayed a greater capacity to assert dictatorial powers than did the last General Secretary, a tendency which has brought him into repeated conflict with elected bodies.

Boris Kagarlitsky is himself a Socialist member of the Moscow Soviet and one of the founders of Russia's new Party of Labour. The Disintegration of the Monolith furnished both a memorable indictment of the greed and irresponsibility of Russia's new/old rulers and a fascinating account of the slow but unmistakeable awakening of forces of resistance as the peoples of Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union confront the hyper-inflation, shortages, unemployment and general havoc wreaked by the free-market experiment. Kagarlitsky describes the gradual emergence of a new Russian trade unionism, but warns that popular discontent is also being exploited by nationalist demagogues, such as the leader of Russia's new Liberal Party. For those seeking to understand what has changed in Russia - and what has remained the same - The Disintegration of the Monolith is required reading. -- from book's back cover

Written by a political organizer, strike strategies, and health and safety educator, Divided We Fall: The Story Of The Paperworkers' Union And The Future Of Labor is fascinating and lesson-filled true story of the struggle of the Paperworkers' Union to improve the living and working conditions of its members. Especially focusing upon the 1987 strike in which over 1,150 union members participated, and which was ultimately lost, Divided We Fall tells of the need for a social movement to bring together working classes, the uphill battle for justice in the workplace, human foibles and follies, the notion of collective rights, and much more. A passionate yet expertly researched account of unionized human efforts and the lessons that can be learned from them.