WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
New Orleans The headlines say that major crime is decreasing throughout the United States and its cities. Crime still has some salience as a political issue, especially promoted by anti-urban, blue-city pundits and politicians on the right. Maybe it’s even true, but it’s hard to say. The FBI reports significant declines. The esteemed, …
New Orleans Frequently, we bat around the terms “chilling” and “prior restraint,” when observing actions by governments, corporations, the super rich and others attempting to bully their way forward, suppress speech, or intimidate resistance. We trumpet from the roof beams the need to resist, stand up, protect our values, save democracy, and whatever, …
New Orleans Reading a recent issue of In These Times, I was encouraged and fascinated by a report of organizing progress by the United Farm Workers (UFW) in building unions in upstate New York. The UFW has long been well-known for the leadership of Cesar Chavez and its up and down history of …