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 From a distance, Spain seems like just another big European country with a history and language of its own, but still one that fits as a piece in the rest of the puzzle. On the ground in Barcelona and Bilbao, the whole notion of autonomous regions seems almost a marvel that …
Mondragon The Organizers’ Forum delegation took the 915 bus from the center of Bilbao to Mondragon riding through an intermittent rain and mist draping the mountains. Upon arriving, we were shuttled in cabs to the top of the mountain where the Mondragon cooperatives maintained their training center in a remodeled house in a beautiful …
Bilbao With 100,000 members, ELA, the Basque Labor Union, is the largest union in Spain’s Basque Country, which locals call South Basque compared to North Basque in the three provinces in France. Their size alone would make them a force to be reckoned with in this area of Spain, but as two of their …