Dear
Bill!
I can’t help to
express my pleasure and respect when I read your letter addressed to
Marc.
Transition country
like Slovenia, is restoring its economy and putting it on the track and in line with EU .
But more we adopt the common
rules more discrepancies that are immanent to the new system we built
in.
Our
association DEZAP ( Employee
shareholders ) is promoting, supporting and spreading the employee share
ownership in Slovenia and therefore are your experience and your
endeavour to make more people
”capitalists” encouraging and valuable for us too. I hope you will stay in
touch with EFES and that we shall hear from you more.
Kind
regards!
Bozo Lednik,DEZAP,
Slovenia
Dear Mr. Mathieu;
My name is Bill Bishop, and I have been a friend and supporter of ESOPS
since my friendship with Louis Kelso in the middle 60's.
I notice that you are the Secretary-General of the European Federation of
Employee Shareownership in Brussels, and that you have launched an appeal for
a "wide consultation" on Employee Ownership in the European Union. This will
result, as we all hope, in an "action plan" for the European Social Agenda
launched at the Lisbon Summit last year by the Council of Ministers.
With a few Rochester Minnesota City leaders, I have been able to suggest
an action plan relevant to Minnesota - and the rest of the United States. A
few months ago, we created R.I.S.E.S. - The Rochester International Share
Equity Society with the hope that we can do a small part to close the widening
gap between those who own no assets - and those who own many. We plan to do
this by teaching a unique curriculum to the working poor who have, at the
moment, nothing but their labor to sustain themselves and their families.
After 2 months of learning about the power of capital in wealth creation, we
plan to help our participants organize themselves into investment clubs. In
addition, we hope to offer them IDA's which, in the United States are
Individual Development Accounts, a tripartite Government effort to help
assetless citizens own significant assets.
We are not in the consultation business; I have been consulting as an
activist, for 35 years, and am the former founder and Director of the
Pennsylvania Capital Ownership Council in 1987, the nation's first. Governor
Bob Casey signed our legislation permitting $4 million dollars of state money
to be used for feasability studies for workers to consider buying - via ESOP -
their companies. I have known, and worked with, David Binns, Corey Rosen and
Norman Kurland, all of whom whose work I support.
RISES is a way for the working poor to have access to the information
they need to become asset owners and, hopefully, prospering Capitalists We are
not exclusive - in the sense that ESOPS are the only way to go. There are
Co-ops and other variations on the theme. The issue is - as Louis Kelso put it
- "The only problem with Capitalism is that it doesn't create enough
Capitalists". We intend to work with the best and the brightest. We are
negotiating with CITIGROUP and MERRIL-LYNCH for partnership and support, and
we would be happy to widen our arms, as well as open our hearts, to
like-minded people in the European Union.
Should you be interested in our approach, our work and our action plan,
please let me know.
I am teaching at King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi
Arabia, but I am connected to the RISES Board members in Rochester. This
message is being sent to the Board Chairman, Mr. M. Hamud of the Mayo
Clinic.
Please let me know where to go from here.
Sincerely,
Bill
Bishop