There was a time when things looked and seemed different than the bleak and blurred picture of the present and future before us now. This is almost a running theme for this number of Social Policy.

Frequent contributor and longtime labor activist and journalist, Steve Early, shares some of the optimism of fifty years ago from his reunion with fellow students who were veterans of the idealist Antioch Law School with reflections on what happened and where we have landed now. Rob McKenzie inadvertently picks up that theme as a former UAW local leader as he tries to make sense of why the early advocacy of Walter Reuther for a community-union labor organizing model had such promising results, but didn't lead to widespread rethinking of labor strategy and union practice. David Thompson excavates the experience he and colleagues had trying to build exactly that kind of model and the results their work produced in Philadelphia. Thinking about where we are now in light of these three pieces should give us pause, as we look equally critically at where our work stands now.

None of these authors goes back as far as Dan Cantor does in an excerpt of his recent essay on fusion voting and the "two-party doom loop." How political life might be enlivened and more democratic, if we could revive the options that multi-party endorsements on shared ballot lines offered more than one-hundred years ago and continue in New York State and precious few others. Those were lessons from the real Populist Movement for today. Mike Miller in his review of the civil rights struggle in Holmes County, Mississippi, revives lessons from a more recent time seventy years ago, that we are also still grappling with in our own time.

The columns are of this time. Phil Mattera in a brilliant piece of work goes past the headlines in looking at a $68-million consumer settlement initiated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with Colony Ridge over deceiving consumers on their flood insurance in Houston that was highjacked by the state of Texas and the Justice Department to deal with immigration without consumers receiving a dime. Drummond Pike connects the dots between the labor crises in agricultural labor, including vineyards, and the ICE deportation efforts and the lack of viable paths to deal constructively with the need for immigrant labor. John Anderson, similarly makes the case that climate change affects our base in multiple ways, including the way that costs are transferred to consumers in British Columbia for LNG exportation facilities, as the world burns. Gregory Squires breaks down the evisceration of HUD and fair housing protections by the current Trump administration. Finally, in Backstory, I argue that no one will be willing to take a bet on Trump's prediction that we will be in and out of his war in Iran in four or five weeks.

This is a solid issue, but, sadly, won't bring any more smiles to the readers than it did to the authors. We read and weep together, as we try to learn from our past in order to plot a better future and wring out hands about current events as we stand to oppose these policies.

It’s a long shot, but I can’t be the only one out there who is frustrated about the absence of grassroots organizing response among families that are being victimized by Trump and his administration’s policies.  The Big Bad Budget Bill is still the best example of Trump’s deliberate, though duplicitous, targeting of lower-income families in order to finance continued breaks that benefit the rich.  The draconian eligibility, certification, and work requirements attached to the food stamp and Medicaid programs are designed to deny eligible families their entitled rights to receive support by putting rocks in the road.  A fact sheet, accompanying my article, advocating for organizing benefit recipients to access volunteer programs and organize to maintain benefits for themselves and other recipients, details some of the changes.  This is a call to action and a plea for support.  We’ll see if it’s heard, and who is listening.  Similarly, Stephen Eisenman, emeritus professor from Northwestern University and co-founder of the grassroots environmental organization, the Anthropocene Alliance (A2), offers lessons learned in his time as strategic director of the organization, as well as a bracing critique of our current situation and what needs to be done.

As usual, we have reports from the Organizers Forum, our longtime partner, on their international dialogue with similar organizations in Romania and Bulgaria.  Richard Ziemianski evaluates the status of labor unions there.  Ty Riches and Vonica Flear found the rise of rightwing forces in these countries, as well as resource shortages, as obstacles to change, even as they were impressed with organizations and activists who had their shoulders to the wheel.  In 2026, the Organizers Forum heads to Spain, so act early, if interested.

This issue has two excerpts that might be hard to find anywhere else.  One is an interesting piece on guerrilla tactics in labor organizing from a recently issued training manual from the Global Labor Institute in France.  The other is an insightful piece that pulls together pre-Enlightenment philosophical strands from Rousseau, Locke, and Diderot that impacted the care and education of children – and their dress – in England and France.  We still live in the slipstream of these arguments today.

The book reviews are on fire this issue! The first, literally involves arson, as Manhattan University Professor Margaret Groake reviews Born in Flames, a look at fires in the Bronx and elsewhere that were encouraged by insurers and opposed by community organizations.  James Mumm, our regular reviewer looks at the critical contributions of ACT UP in New York in the AIDS crisis, as well as oral histories about Queercore.  Arif Ullah, the new head of the US-based Anthropocene Alliance or A2, does a thorough and insightful job in viewing former Louisville Professor Gilderbloom’s collection of various pieces in Climate Chaos.

Our columnists spare no punches.  Phil Mattera takes the gloves off at how badly Trump is missing in action on affordability.  Many of us may have zipped past discussions of various countries building Central Bank Digital Currencies, but Drummond Pike is clear the US is not just missing the boat here, but deliberating staying on the dock to benefit banks and others who are profiteering.  After spending time training for ACORN in Cleveland, John Anderson extols the virtues of positivity for people.  Gregory Squires notes some institutions are looking the administration’s “gifts” in the horse’s mouth and not interested in following these executive orders that may not last long.  In Backstory, I look at the how so many autocrats continue to target nonprofits with impunity.

Readers will open this last number from 2025 early in the new year.  Hopefully, you’ll find plenty here to give you strength and resolve in meeting the challenges and opportunities of 2026!

For some years, as I've become part of the "grower" community producing wine grapes in Sonoma County, I've supported a local contest pitting the best vine pruners against one another. It's really a minor thing in the seasonal cycle of a vineyard, but I liked the idea because it was one of the few events that focused on those who work the vines. This farmworker population is one of the least understood while at the same time among the most marginalized in the "ag sector." Like other sectors such as non-union construction and meat processing, vineyard work is not for the faint of heart. Few jobs are year-round, as most of the work depends on how the vines are faring through the arc of a 6 to 8 month growing season, and when the weather will permit certain tasks to be undertaken. If it rains when you might otherwise want to prune, "sucker," or harvest, you risk damage to the vines if you don't wait for a dry spell, so you need a workforce that can be there when you need them. On-demand, if you will, but with a skill set that is undervalued and solely gained by mentorship. Send any fool down the vine rows to prune and you'll suffer the results. 

So, some of us involved in our local grower association —mostly focused on promoting our AVA

(American Viticultural Area), Sonoma’s Alexander Valley— decided to create this contest for our pruners to vie for modest cash prizes, winery swag, and such, along with breakfast and lunch. In past years, dozens of folks showed up, Felco shears and sharpening stones in hand. Free food, swag, and a chance at some cash turns out to be a popular draw. Salty old vineyard owners judged the work, timers noted the times, and Spanish-speaking field managers kept the process going smoothly. People had a good time from start to finish, showing pride in their skills just as any artisan would. Separate contests for men and women expanded the reach, and lots of selfies resulted. Just one of those feel-good events. Until this year.

Eerily, beginning in December when vineyard owners and managers began reaching out to our best pruners, the normal response was slow and sketchy. Given that the wine business has been suffering a contraction that preceded any tariffs, we wondered what might be happening. January saw little change. and by mid-February, we counted only 7 registrants-a fraction of any prior year. The only explanation I have is fear of ICE. And it's not just the undocumented among our work force which is dominantly Latino and Spanish-speaking regardless of status. No one in California can avoid the stories of Latino citizens being detained-often violently-by ICE and the Border patrol. As much as one might want some free meals, small cash prizes, and swag, showing up at a publicly advertised event is a risky thing at best.

So, we cancelled the contest.

Now as we all hunker down as much needed rain falls, let's take a look at this workforce. It was created first during WWII and then further in the '50s to fill needed jobs as the draft called many to the war effort. The Bracero program lasted from 1942 to 1964 and was never a success. Cumbersome and expensive, it drew ire and criticism from most in the ag sector, so it was replaced by...nothing. It's not like the past 62 years saw no demand. Crops went into the ground every spring and were harvested every fall in every one of those years. Who did the grunt work all those years? Here's a hint: they weren't Canadian.

During the Bracero years, an infrastructure evolved supporting the movement of mostly Mexican workers north and then south when seasons ended. Loose enforcement at the border, and a complete lack of consequences for employers found to hire undocumented workers, shifted a mix of partly legal Bracero era workers to predominantly undocumented ag workers. In purely economic terms, ag employers had virtually no incentive to alter behavior, as the widespread hiring of undocumented workers kept wages low. DOL/USDA estimates over 40% of ag workers are undocumented. Among vineyard workers, this rises to half.

It is only in this century that enforcement of border crossing bans became political fodder, following efforts by Bush II and others to reform the system. Famously, of course, a bi-partisan effort spearheaded by Sen Lankford (R-OK) held promise until Trump derailed it in 2023, preferring to run for his second term on his factually challenged anti-immigrant argument. Since Lankford's attempt, the Senate has sat on its hands, but the House has a promising effort in the form of the bi-partisar Dignity Act of 2025 (DA25). This bi-partisan bill, introduced by Rep. Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), goes a good deal further than the Lankford proposal by blending border security with various programs to allow Dreamers and undocumented workers to achieve permanent residency and the ability to work. No "path to citizenship" seems to be a condition to secure conservative support and obviates the specious attack that progressives "are bringing in illegals to cheat in elections."

It also would implement a nationwide mandatory E-Verify program-something major ag employers are sure to oppose, but which seems inevitable in any comprehensive reform effort. DA25 seems to be the best proposal yet designed to garner support from across the spectrum. Progressives won't like some elements, but if there is going to be any future for reform efforts, it's going to look something like this.

So, maybe next year, if something like the DA25 were to pass, we might revive the Pruning Contest to celebrate these skilled folks without whom wineries cannot survive.

Drummond Pike, a frequent Organizers' Forum participant and contributor to these pages, was the founder and CEO of Tides in San Francisco, and continues to be involved in philanthropy and social change.

The climate crisis is accelerating. Canada -like most countries-is locking in fossil fuel dependence while subsidizing large LNG projects controlled by private conglomerates. Environmental campaigns have struggled to match the scale and speed of these decisions, facing some of the largest forces the world has ever seen and pushing the planet-and all life- "toward the edge."

Sea levels are projected to rise between 30 cm and 200 cm by 2100-with 30 cm only if the world acts immediately and effectively, which is not happening. A 2 °C temperature increase would mean roughly a 60 cm rise, accompanied by stronger storms, submerging low-lying regions like Florida and Bangladesh. Seven hundred million people live in coastal areas at risk-and while lower Manhattan or parts of Florida may be protected by levees and pumps, millions in low- and moderate-income communities will be displaced or worse by the time my 8-year-old son turns 80.

Despite the bleakness, there will always be opportunities for organizers to win, probably more so after storms, floods, fires, rising seas, water shortages, and the ramping up of fascism. It is time for all those willing or qualified to lace up, work hard, set aside individual concerns, and build power while the sun shines. Organizations need to share power by developing partnerships and coalitions. They should continue to push boundaries, take strategic risks, and be adaptable to scale up and build power sooner rather than later.

ACORN Canada has been called upon by environmental organizations to connect energy campaigns to the fight against carbon. Our decades of work-including climate adaptation campaigns calling for max-heat bylaws-places us on the cutting edge.

For years on housing, ACORN has played a large role in embedding in the public consciousness that rental prices being high, apartments being in substandard condition, and no-fault evictions are because of, broadly speaking, some form of corporate greed. Through organizing, ACORN has consistently won tenant-positive press attention, limiting landlord and developer ability to dominate the housing narrative.

The same approach can be applied to energy. Higher energy prices are not caused by government investment in renewables or by a lack of pipelines from Alberta's tar sands. Corporate greed plays a massive role, and ordinary people pay the price-through subsidies or by having costs passed to ratepayers to fund privately owned energy infrastructure. There is a growing need to drive the climate debate by taking ownership of the issue of energy affordability.

Environmentalists, much like the academic left and progressives, often operate in a bubble, talking mostly to themselves. Too often, they fail to communicate with regular people and, at times, focus on virtue signaling or scolding rather than winning public support. Either way, it is alienating and a gift to our opponents. Like someone who took out a predatory loan versus the banker who ripped them off, the environmental fight should be easy to understand-ACORN aims to bring new populist leadership to it.

On Canada's west coast, the Stop-LNG campaign is uniting dozens of organizations to oppose the federal Liberal government's plans to expand natural gas extraction and export through billions in LNG infrastructure.

With Trump's annexation threats, Prime Minister Carney and BC Premier David Eby have doubled down on LNG, framing new projects as nation-building efforts to secure Canadian energy independence. Three major facilities are proposed on BC's north coast to liquefy shale gas and export it to Asia. The projects require pipelines and new BC Hydro generation and transmission lines, backed by public subsidies and ratepayer funding, potentially costing tens of billions.

There is one LNG project closer to home. Fortis has applied for a 5% rate increase to pay for an expansion of the Tilbury Island LNG Facility near Delta, BC. The facility has been in Metro Vancouver on the south shore of the Fraser River for 50 years, serving as a storage facility for FortisBC, a private gas and electricity provider in B.C.

The expansion will enable liquefaction of natural gas inside Metro Vancouver. Along with a parallel Tilbury Pacific Marine Jetty project, it will allow the facility to become an export hub for overseas markets during off-peak seasons. In short, Fortis will be able to build LNG processing and increased storage capacity through a rate increase paid by local customers. This, in turn, allows the company to ship LNG to Asia from the mouth of the Fraser River, generating profits well beyond what the rate increase provides.

This is not their first rate increase. Over the last five years, rates for residential gas customers have risen approximately 40%, which is significant. The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) approves rate increases for improvements to infrastructure-pipelines, meters, and energy efficiency programs. The latter is problematic due to a split incentive, which calls into question why Fortis is in charge of efficiency programs at all. Nova Scotia's government eventually caved to pressure and carved out responsibility for efficiency from the privatized NS Power, with ratepayers contributing to the independent Efficiency Nova Scotia, which now runs all efficiency programs separately.

An affordability crisis, combined with a 5% rate increase application on top of many more in recent history, places this facility-essentially in our turf- at the center of local environmental concerns, including the potential for catastrophe in the waters of the Fraser River. Fortis is a private company with a monopoly on gas, whose CEO earns $15 million, and the rate increase will fund infrastructure used to ship gas overseas at a great profit. With rate increase hearings and public comment coming soon, this is an excellent opportunity to carve out ACORN's role in the Stop-LNG campaign-and to challenge the very national strategies that are locking in fossil fuel dependence and accelerating the climate crisis that threatens millions worldwide.

John Anderson is the Field Director for ACORN Canada and over two decades has played key roles in building ACORN across the country.

President Trump headlined the news as I write today saying that his war on Iran in partnership with Israel's Netanyahu might last another "four or five" weeks. If we're lucky, and I sincerely hope we all are, by the time this issue reaches our subscribers' mailboxes and is posted on our website, this war will be over. I'm pretty sure not even the much vaunted "prediction" markets would take that bet as any certainty. In an era of "forever wars," this seems one that more easily than most could stretch on.

I write in the first days of what the New York Times refers to as his "reckless" adventure. Trump has offered no coherent rhyme or reason for his unilateral action. At times he has touted his interest in "regime change," something that the United States has proven to be notoriously bad at achieving. At other times, he wistfully expresses hopes that he can pull off a Venezuelan maneuver, where he ordered the military to extract the country's leader, and then makes nice with a successor, who will pay tribute in oil and pretend to be a US vassal. He says he has three or four potential successors in mind that he could back. Behind the scenes, he and Secretary of State Rubio seem to be pushing for a new leader in an effort to create a hat trick in Cuba. The fact that Iran has a population of 90-million and is larger than the state of Texas with a revolutionary history that is as embedded in religion, as it is in government, doesn't seem to have registered, giving some credibility to the Iranian response to his comments as "delusional." Trump is hoping for a spontaneous response in a country that is deeply divided, but that means nothing to Trump, any more than divisions in the US concern him.

This war, like so many similar ill-gotten enterprises, has no end game in sight and seems the equivalent of throwing missiles at as many targets as possible and hoping that somehow the breaks fall our way. There seems to be little advance planning or consideration of collateral impacts or fallout in America. The biggest concerns may be that we have been lured into a wider war in the Middle East, and many observers with better seats nearer to the action and information, believe that we've already crossed the Rubicon and the region will be changed forever, though not necessarily in a positive or progressive way. Oil prices have risen and are likely to trigger more inflation, the stock market is apoplectic in trying to absorb this unexpected conflict, our European and other allies are aghast at not been consulted or considered, and the United Nations Security Council wasn't even an afterthought. Congress, who are they? The only real explanation for the action by the US and Israel is that they could and that they wanted to strike while they perceived Iran as weak. That's not war planning. That's something more akin to scratching an itch.

We may be numb, as we read the papers and listen to the news, but we can't really pretend to be surprised. Sure, Trump has said we need to mind our own knitting and stop intervening in foreign affairs and wars. That was while he was running, so ancient history. In Trump II, he has militarized ICE as a domestic army, threatened to attack US cities, unilaterally hit boats in the Caribbean and Pacific claiming they were drug runners without offering proof, bombed sites in Nigeria claiming there was anti-Christian discrimination, hit Iran claiming again to have destroyed their nuclear capacity, and of course gone rogue and wild in Venezuela. Lies mean nothing to him, so why would anyone have ever believed he was serious about peace? Peace is hard. Negotiations take time. Shooting missiles is simply a matter of giving an order and exulting in being at the very top of the chain of command.

I hope this is over soon, but there's no reason to believe it will be, or that there won't be more of the same over the coming three years. These times are now darker with bombs bursting and blood flowing. The fact that we don't see this war in our front yards and the administration claims no authorization is necessary, because they want to pretend no American lives will be lost, doesn't make it any less real and terrible. Despite the distance from the conflict, the shame is ours, and any claim to our collective innocence is gone.

Wade Rathke is the Chief Organizer of ACORN International, Founder and Chief Organizer of ACORN (1970-2008), and Founder and Chief Organizer of Local 100, United Labor Unions(ULU).

Apparently shaken by the Democratic gains in November’s elections, Donald Trump has changed his tune on the economy. He still tries to get us to believe everything is marvelous, but at the same time he has rolled out a series of proposals designed to give the impression he is addressing the affordability crisis.

Read more: EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS - Trump and the Affordability Crisis

Central Bank Digital Currency & the GOP

One of the surprising elements of Zohran Mamdani’s political rise has been the rapid reaction to his self-identification as a “democratic socialist,” the same moniker adopted by another New York City progressive, AOC as she is called. Our dearly unbeloved President has gone even further, terming the mayor-elect a “communist”, yet again giving evidence of his limited intellectual acumen. Communists believe the state (deep or otherwise) should own the means of production and mete out its benefits to all in some yet-to-be-achieved perfect society. Democratic socialists, according to conventional definitions have a far narrower view that we should democratize the workplace, empower workers, and insist that enterprises benefit their communities. My new favorite AI search tool, Perplexity, says this about democratic socialism:

Read more: MONEY MATTERS - Does sticking one’s head in the sand help solve problems?

Negativity is a destructive force that needs to be weeded out like chickweed in a garden. It’s best to be on top of it, doing the continual maintenance to keep it in check — if you don’t, what you don’t want, will flourish.

Read more: NORTHERN LIGHTS - Staying Positive and Building Power is the Organizers Job