>Nomi
On pages 306-307 of Doug's _Wall Street_ he mentions Sweden's Social Democrats' attempt in the early 1980s to use wage-earner funds for progressive purposes. "Why did they fail? For at least two reasons. First, business correctly saw the initial version as a challenge to capitalist ownership, a reminder that finance is central to the constitution of a corporate ruling class. And second, they never attracted popular support - essential to any serious challenge to a corporate ruling class - because they were so abstract. As Pontusson (1992, p. 237) put it, "when collective shareholding funds are reduced to deciding whether to buy shares in Volvo or Saab," it's hard to muster popular enthusiasm. More direct intervention is required - active public industrial policy and greater worker control at the firm level - if oridinary people are to get interested. The stock market, on the other hand, is the home turf of financiers, and games played on their turf usually end up being played by their rules."