Absentee and Local Ownership of Maine Manufacturing, by Jeff Faux and Russell Libby, 1980, 29 pp. (free?) from: National Center for Economic Alternatives/Augusta Office 122 State Street Augusta, ME 04330 207 / 622-5683 Another good report from NCEA, this study shows that an economic development strategy based on local ownership may be the key to long-term employment growth in Maine. Its major conclusions are:' 1. At least 55 percent of Maine's 212 manufacturing firms with 100 or more employees are absentee-owned. 2. Absentee ownership is concentrated among the larger firms. 3. Despite their smaller size, firms that were locally owned throughout the past ten years created 1391 new jobs, while absentee-owned firms reduced their work force by 1387. If we exclude the partkularly hard-hit shoe industry, Maine-owned COMMUNITY ACCISS firms created a net 3341 jobs compared with a reduction of 677 jobs by absenteeowned firms. 4. The state government could take at least 13 specific steps to assist locally owned business investment and expansion. These last include ways to generate equity capital and stimulate bank credit for local entrepreneurs, assist producer cooperatives, tighten up on plan_t closings, and encourage employee ownership in cases where a local Maine business would otherwise be sold to an out-of-state corporation. Detailed and well-documented like other NCEA reports, the study may prove useful to people in other parts of the country working to create locally resilient economies. -MR 1980 Shareholder Campaign Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (A Sponsored Related Movement of the National Council of Churches) 475 Riverside Drive, Rm. 566 New York, NY 10027 212/870-2293 • School Sisters of Notre Dame, WI, has 13,500 shares worth $178,875.00 invested in Madison Gas and Eiectric. In April the church filed a resolution with the utility calling for: 1) a halt to further planning RAIN and construction of nuclear power plants, and 2) immediate steps to develop energy conservation and alternative energy programs, with annual reports on program development. • Priests of thµa/red Heart, Sisters of Mercy (Chz'cago), and a handful of other religious organizations have a combined total of 8,862 shares valued at $485,194.00 in General Electric. At GE's annual meeting in April the churches filed a resolution to: 1) prohibit sale of the Morris, Illinois, nuclear waste storage facility to the federal government, 2) develop plans to phase out the facility, and 3) develop evacuation plans in the event of an accident at the facility or at one of six nearby nuclear reac-:- tors. These are only two of over a dozen such resolutions filed for the first time this spring by church shareholders to utilities, investment firms, and corporations. Several church bodies have adopted policies concerning nuclear energy in relation to health, safety, and environmental issues. In addition, many churches have also produced statements on the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation resulting from commercial nuclear power use, and on the consequent need to develop benign alternatives. If your church isn't involved yet, maybe it's time to pound the pulpit, don't yc,m think?-MR Journal of Appropriate Technology RAIN is a national information access journal making connections for people seeking more simple and satisfying lifestyles, working to make their communities and regions economically self-reliant, building a society that is durable, just and ecologically sound. RAIN STAFF: Carlotta Collette, Mark Roseland, John Ferrell , Jill S~apleton Laura Stuchinsky Kiko Denzer RAIN, Journal of Appropriate Technology, is published 10 times yearly by the Rain Umbrella, Inc.., a non-profit corporation located at 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, Oregon 97210, telephone 503/227-5110. Copyright © 1980 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. Typesetting: Irish Setter Printing: Times Litho Cover Photograph: Carlotta Collette
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