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 After four days on the road, the first thing I heard, when returning to New Orleans, was that the garbage had still not been picked up in any of our neighborhoods. It was all the talk at our coffeehouse, and all over the street front there as well. It was stacked up and out of cans, …
Pearl River In 2005, I left the SEIU International board to run an organizing project directed at establishing whether we could successfully organize Wal-Mart workers on a number of fronts. This was a joint project involving ACORN, SEIU, AFL-CIO, and UFCW. SEIU was developing the Wal-Mart Watch effort based in Washington, DC, and our effort …
Pearl River Thanks to Working Class Perspectives for allowing me to write this Labor Day post on reflections on the future of labor unions and our movement: The Unanswered Question about the Future of US Labor Unions Within six months the two men who have led the AFL-CIO for more than twenty-five years, John J. …
New Orleans Some years ago, when I could still get a visa to India, I was standing on a corner in Bengaluru with Suresh Kasidan, our head organizer in that area, talking to more than a dozen of our members. Their wares were laid out on the sidewalks around us and they gathered to …
Pearl River I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to visit with Gina Peltier, a self-described water protector on Wade’s World. Small problem, she was in jail, although she hoped to be released sometime on the day before the interview. When I asked her why she had been held, she told me …