"One problem is that everyone speaks a different language, so it's literally a house of Babel whenever you put progressives in the same room from those four worlds," [Jones] responded. "Labor has it's own way of doing things, the business world is entirely different, the environmental activists have their own language. When [environmentalists] say 'organizing' they mean totally something completely different from the civil rights people. When we talk about organizing, we talk about going door to door in our own neighborhoods. When environmentalists talk about organizing, they're talking about sending in 100 canvassers to cover the state. So, even that one word doesn't mean the same thing. And it takes you three meetings to even figure that out."

My hope, such as it is for this kind of bridge-building project, is invested entirely in new campaigns and organizations, ones that don't so much "bring together" two or more disparate issues as simply ignore the dividing lines between them. They'll have to be staffed with folks too young to have "chosen sides" among the many progressive interest groups.

If Reclaim the Future can post some early successes and demonstrate -- not proclaim, but demonstrate -- that justice, economic, and green problems are part of the same interconnected malaise, it will serve as a gravitational attractor. The big green groups, and big green funders, will follow.

But waiting for those big groups to get a clue about this stuff first first is a mug's game. Innovation is the key.