The blog of Wade Rathke, the founder and Chief Organizer of ACORN and SEIU Local 100, AFL-CIO, has been a professional organizer for thirty-five years. He has worked for and founded a series of organizations dedicated to winning social justice, workers rights, and a democracy where “the people shall rule."

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.  Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 175,000 member families, organized in 850 neighborhood chapters in 75 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Canada, the Dominican Republic and Peru.

The United Federation of Teachers in New York, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, is working with A-CLOC to organize 50,000 home daycare providers.  See the website for updates on the campaign.

For over 30 years, Social Policy has served as key site for intellectual exchange among progressive academics and activists from across the United States and beyond.  Social Policy seeks to inform and report on the work of labor and community organizers who build union and constituency-based groups, run campaigns, and build movements for social justice, economic equality, and democratic participation in the U.S. and around the world.

Thw Wal-Mart Workers Association (WWA) is an association of past and present Wal-Mart workers coming together to fight and win on issues that affect their livelihood.  The WWA has fought and won campaigns around making sure that Wal-Mart workers could receive unemployment when hours were cut, get the breaks and meals alloted to them by law, and receive fair treatment in the workplace. 

The Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN) is a group that works to build coalitions on the local level to force Wal-Mart to deal fairly with communities.  This organization has not lost a fight where Wal-Mart seeks to come unwanted into a community. 

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the fastest-growing union in North America, with 1.8 million members in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Focused on uniting workers in four sectors–-hospital systems, long term care, property services, and public services–-SEIU is the largest health care union, the largest property services union, and the second-largest public employees union in the United States.

Local 100’s mission has always been to organize and represent unorganized service sector workers in the middle south states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and therefore allow those members to create a vehicle to allow them a clear voice and real power in their workplace and their communities.

Service Employees International Union Local 880 is the union for homecare workers and home childcare providers in Illinois. Local 880 Workers have been organizing for a voice on the job since 1983, first mobilizing through ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), where they overcame the challenge of organizing without the benefit of a common worksite. Today Local 880 represents more than 80,000 workers, and continue to fight for living wages, healthcare benefits, dignity and respect through legislative and grassroots campaigns.