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".
Amersfoort, Netherlands In these days, perhaps in all days, when autocracy, as a strategy and set of tactics, seems so attractive to so many politicians and wannabe royals in their lust for power under any terms, there’s some small comfort in seeing such techniques come to wreck and ruin, even if the damage in the …
Newark I recently read a fascinating argument by Yascha Mounk, a Harvard instructor in The New Yorker that was wrapped in the cover of a review of some new books trying to puzzle through the political life of the nation currently. The heart of the argument Mounk and some of the cited authors made, to …
New Orleans In recent weeks Todd Gitlin, a Columbia University professor with deep roots on the left dating back to the 1960’s, the student movement, and the Students’ for a Democratic Society (SDS), wrote an interesting survey piece called the “Bernie Sanders Moment” in the New York Times. He looked at the rise of Bernie …
New Orleans I watched a brief interview for USA Today with Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, on the eve of their coming convention, as he argued that with the diminishing numbers, there were changes coming at the federation. The changes he talked about mainly were some kind of broader affiliation program that was enrolling …
December 9, 2011 New Orleans A fellow organizer passed on an email to me yesterday that is worth sharing. Occupy Wall Street put out a combination position paper / magazine / whatnot entitled: “TIDAL: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy.” I was able to access the PDF by googling the title directly, and you might want to …