> a paycheck from the establishment. Or that any worker-controlled investment
> fund like CALPERS is not constrained by social and legal restraints, but is
> an anti-worker steamroller in its essence.
But Doug has a good point about finance-populism: even if CALPERS is supposedly under control of various unions, that doesn't mean that its managerial role, as an entity which wants to see a certain amount of surplus value pumped out of factories somewhere, can't contradict that mandate. It's something which isn't settled for once and for all, you have to look at each concrete situation and try to come up with alternatives. Sweeney, to his credit, joined IG Metall in condemning Vodaphone's buyout offer of Mannesmann, and told pension funds not to vote for the deal, which is a step forwards. But the US doesn't even have the ghost of a keiretsu/social democratic developmental state to combat the rentier class or its appallingly vicious agenda.
-- Dennis