see below, don't know more about it, but interesting alternative corporate structure .. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Thomas Greco <[email protected]> Date: Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 10:19 AM Subject: Fwd: Fw: Godric's .. words April 28th 2011 To: Georgia Kelly <[email protected]>, Sergio Lub < [email protected]>, Silke Helfrich <[email protected]>, Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>, David Bollier <[email protected]> ** Dear colleagues, You may or may not have heard about the Scott Bader Commonwealth, but it may be just as important as the Mondragon Cooperatives in leading the way toward the kinds of organizational structures that are needed for a peaceful society in which all have the opportunity for a dignified life. I thin you will find the 60th Anniversary letter below to be of great interest. Regards, Tom Thomas H. Greco, [email protected] Mobile phone (Thailand): +66 84 373 5645 Mobile phone (USA): 520-820-0575 Beyond Money: http://beyondmoney.net Tom's News and Views: http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com Archive Website: http://www.Reinventingmoney.com Photo gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/tomazhg Skype/Twitter name: tomazgreco My latest book, "The End of Money and the Future of Civilization" can be ordered from Chelsea Green Publishing, Amazon.com, or your local bookshop. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fw: Godric's .. words April 28th 2011 Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 20:28:55 +0100 (BST) From: Godric Bader <[email protected]> <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Thomas.. .perhaps youdid not get this either that i thought you would like to see ! ? ! ? Godric --- On *Thu, 7/7/11, Godric Bader <[email protected]><[email protected]> * wrote: From: Godric Bader <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Subject: Fw: Godric's .. words April 28th 2011 To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, 7 July, 2011, 13:38 --- On *Fri, 17/6/11, Godric Bader <[email protected]><[email protected]> * wrote: From: Godric Bader <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Subject: Fw: Godric's .. words April 28th 2011 To: "Nicholas Parkyn" <[email protected]> <[email protected]>, "Dorothee Bader" <[email protected]> <[email protected]>, "Sylvia Brown" <[email protected]> <[email protected]>, "John Bunzl" <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Date: Friday, 17 June, 2011, 18:13 --- On *Tue, 14/6/11, Godric Bader <[email protected]><[email protected]> * wrote: From: Godric Bader <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Subject: Godric's .. words April 28th 2011 To: "Verena Schumacher" <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, 14 June, 2011, 11:47 60th Anniversary 23/04/11 It is a great pleasure for me to say a few words to everyone on this really remarkable day, signalling that we have achieved 60 years of our Commonwealth, from April 28th 1951 to where we are now - April 28th 2011 - YES ! 60 years! What a history, a deeply chequered history.... but an achievement we can now look back on! Today marks a truly big milestone for us all… ! Those sixty years required a lot of hard, reliable work … many different lives came and went during all those years for there was good work, good innovation... work to keep up Scott Bader‘s standards and reputation, especially to please and supply our customers *and* always in competition with some of the largest chemical companies in the world (some of *them* no longer exist ) but we do ! ! ! ! SO deep thanks to those who were involved… are still involved or newly involved AND we can all say… we were.. we are… proud to be involved … *This *is now the excitement and the joy in today’s celebration on reaching April 2011. ALIVE and KICKING ! ! .. FOR… It would never have been achieved without the creation and founding of the Commonwealth, and everyone‘s dedication and hard work for the creation of the Commonwealth to provide and to hold us where we are today! a strong foundation for all our companies world wide… AND ….as so well illustrated on the covers of our new Constitutional Booklet ! Now a little history. After the second world war,... and our move from London (Kingsway offices & Stratford plant.. to Wollaston 1940) we were joined by new people, many from the forces, all agreeing "never again!" We felt strongly that the roots of violence must be removed from the world. We felt that just saying ’no’ to war was too late and not enough. The unhealthy growth of greed and selfishness in the business world was developing. We wished to work for peace not only between countries, but in relationships between all people, personally, face to face, especially within the workplace. People *earning *their living decently and building wealth and security in common on a firm basis together. We had learned to work together during the war. We wanted to work together for peace….we wanted a new society…one living out what the early Quakers had said….. we must "learn to live in that power and life that takes away the very occasion of war" (George Fox..1651 ! An early Quaker Founder ) and further than that vital need… to contribute to building an economic system that does not require any man or woman to be thrown out of employment to suit the system ! That was our post-war dream!..( an altogether better world.. and we would show the way ! ) In particular my father Ernest wanted to teach his workers how to develop the responsibility and freedom he had achieved for himself, so they could help to decide their own future, within a stable working company. But it was not easy to conceive and build our Commonwealth. The total conversion of the 30 year old private family company took time and many head aches too. It took a strike and three attempts at restructuring, during which three top executives left us to go to South Africa with our formulations, before we worked out the right way to forge an organization on a basic democratic structure: to respond and to serve each other’s need - as wisely and responsibly as is possible in the world of work. The company would no longer belong to the Bader family for their own wealth and control. It was to be Common Wealth. ( When the final papers were signed in a London lawyers office he saw the smiles on our faces and said "Gentlemen... I must remind you that the invitaton cards to the funeral of capitalism have not yet been issued ! ) So the Commonwealth was finally founded in April 1951, and uniquely registered as a charity to take over the original Scott Bader company. This neutralised all the shares and safeguarded us from being taken over by anyone else. It was given into the hands of those in the workforce that, having a normal contract with the operating company - signed up and committed themselves to a deeper undertaking - a covenant with the Commonwealth, undertaking not only responsibility for the company assets, but also for the fundamental purposes of the Commonwealth, to develop their own livelihood but also to serve the wider community - the world, and bring about an altogether better way of living for themselves and for coming generations - like us! HOW ARE WE DOING….? SIXTY YEARS LATER ! ? ? Don't forget we have to report our progress to the Charity Commission. One little story …… I once had the pleasure of telling an American in London that he could not buy us - he even followed me back to my car saying *‘but don’t you know it’s dollars - it’s dollars!’ *. Just think, you might have been working for an American company !.. Or probably not working at all ! So far the development and establishment of our truly international Common Trusteeship company, with its organisation of offices and manufacturing companies around the world, is certainly a unique achievement - most assuredly as it is now, with our democratic Members’ Assembly at the centre - learning to be the strong beating heart of our organisation. And it is real and in action. It has full recognition in the publication of our new constitutional documents (after 2 years of thoughtful and extensive consultation) so we now have the legal guidance in our hands to take us confidently forward. Our Commonwealth has very recently been publicly recognised again, in a letter in a leading London newspaper (F.T.) describing us as ‘a hybrid organisation’ and, in a leading academic business journal (Elsevier), as having less ‘Moral Debt’ (alongside the JLP ! ! ! too ) compared to other "normal" companies, notably those that are fought and gambled with on the stock exchange…(gambling with their workers’ lives too !) as Kraft has done with Cadbury's recently. We have to learn to hold our world and its resources in common and in trust. We do not own the sun, the rain, the air we breathe, or the earth we live on and from. ( Gandhi ) We *are *beginning to respect them: we need to be united in our responsibility for all our world’s resources ..our minerals and oil and what we have created from them - wherever we live or work. We should use them "in common" like a good family would, and I hope we will with ours - our Commonwealth ! ……..Let us not forget minerals & oil are capital & should NOT be spent as income ( Schumacher) ! Recently an article in the widely read ‘Time’ magazine, hinting at similar thinking… finished with these words …..‘Don’t blow it! Good planets are hard to find!’ So.. moving forward.. with these 60 years behind us our company surely has the experience now, the strength, the desire, and much deeper drive and confidence behind it to brave this our 21st century. Thank goodness we are now more broadly based in the world than most of us in the last century ever expected… and our worldwide companies have given us wider horizons to excite us, and stimulate our outlook, and to make more imaginative progress across the world…. your current goal ! In order to mark this special occasion, and for future generations to know you were here, I would now like to invite all of you to join me and sign the declaration to reconfirm your commitment to the purpose for which the Commonwealth was founded… … as was done in 1951.. (and once or twice at other milestones in our constitutional developments !) -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens