Recent Wade's Wire Posts

Following are links to recent posts to Wade's Wire. To receive these posts via email when they are posted (no more than one a day on average), click here.

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Right to Employment Moves Forward
By Wade Lee Hudson, February 6, 2014

A standing-room-only crowd of 75 at a Capitol Hill forum on “Employment: A Human Right” provided a step forward in what may become a full employment movement. As reflected in my transcript of the answers to the moderator’s question on human rights, the five economists on the forum’s panel largely supported the proposition that access to decent jobs can and should be a human right....

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Survey Report: The Personal, the Social, and the Political
By Wade Lee Hudson, February 10, 2014

After tabulating and reviewing the responses to “The Personal, the Social, and the Political: A Survey,” it seems we have an experienced, knowledgeable group of individuals who can learn from one another about how to describe and structure group activities that enable participants to deepen and improve their personal growth, community building, and political action....

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The Problem with Activists
By Wade Lee Hudson, February 12, 2014

Like the rest of our society, most activist organizations get wrapped up in facts and figures and policy prescriptions, and fail to affirm underlying moral values. They rely on tapping anger and fear, and neglect deeper feelings of love and faith. They aim to score victories by defeating opponents, rather than seeking win-win solutions. They focus on the outer world and ignore the inner world. They operate too much in the head, not enough in the heart. They become excessively task-oriented, and forget to evaluate their process and how their members relate to each other. They overlook the need to empower people. They primarily rely on mobilizing people to take some specific action, rather than collective problem solving. They often have hidden agendas. They spend too much time calculating what is “political,” rather than speaking honestly. They may “listen” to people when they first recruit them, but then stop really listening. They lecture, often with a shrill tone, and try to “educate,” rather than engaging in authentic dialog. They aim to persuade, and stop learning. They are too arrogant and judgmental, rather than humble and understanding. They function like an impersonal machine that uses people until they use them up. They manipulate people by stroking their egos. They are afflicted with self-centered power struggles. They tend to believe that some one person must always be in charge, that each person must either dominate or submit, rather than collaborate as equals. They have too many boring meetings. They don’t sing and dance enough. They don’t enjoy enough cultural experiences together. They don’t just hang out and socialize informally enough. They are too serious. They don’t have enough fun. They forget to love the universe and the life force that energizes and structures it.

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Reflections on the Battle of Baghdad
By Wade Lee Hudson, February 14, 2014

Following is the slightly edited commentary that I wrote on April 14,  2003 as I waited in Amman, Jordan to return to the States after serving with the Iraq Peace Team during the invasion and occupation of Baghdad....

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Building a Full Employment Movement: Options for Action (2/14/14 Draft)
By Wade Lee Hudson, February 15, 2014

NOTE: I recently sent the following to associates working on the full employment issue. It prompted the exchange with Joel Segal that is included in the Comments section below. Later, Joel circulated ”Building A National Multiracial and Multi-issue Progressive Congress,” which I will post separately....

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Building A Multiracial and Multi-issue Progressive Congress
By Joel Segal, February 15, 2014

...After working in Congress for 13 years, city government for 10 years, and state government for 3 years, I believe that the only realistic way to move forward in building a new America with shared prosperity, health care, jobs, and housing for all, guaranteed economic security and a sustainable environment, is through a united multiracial movement and coalition like the African National Congress, Solidarity in Poland, SNCC, SDS, and the SCLC in the 1960′s....

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Join the Club
By Wade Lee Hudson, February 15, 2014

On reflection, it strikes me that my use of the word “club” in “Building a Full Employment Movement: Options for Action (2/14/14 Draft)” was likely influenced unconsciously by my reading of Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World, by Tina Rosenberg (April 23, 2012). The book addresses personal, social, and political change.